Talking in generalities and stereotypes is a dangerous thing. Especially in politics. But every now and then, it’s good to be reminded that most such stereotypes have, at their core, some thread of reality.
For example, the belief that liberals are governed more by emotion than reason. We now have a new example of that, from those morons at MoveOn.org:
I’m no judge of things, but I’d say Alex is about a year old. And his mommy is so terrified of John McCain, she can’t seem to remember certain things:
1) Alex won’t be 18 until 2027. At that point, for John McCain to still be president, he’d be almost 90 years old, have repealed the Constitutional amendment that limits him to two terms, and won re-election in 2012, 2016, 2020, and 2024 — well surpassing FDR’s accomplishments.
2) Also, McCain would have had to get rid of the all-volunteer military and institute a draft to take little Alex away from mommy.
3) Finally, at the age of 18, Alex will be an adult, and will have the right to make his own decisions about whether or not to serve in the military (presuming that McCain will not have abolished the draft.)
This is the “it’s for the children” carried to ludicrous extremes. It requires so much suspension of reality, they must have brought in psychological engineers to sustain it for the 31 seconds of the video.
Next up, the old story that “no matter what the liberals do, they’ll find a way to blame it on the right-wingers.” This one is playing out in the aftermath of the end of Hillary Clinton’s campaign and the coronation of Barack Obama. For months, conservatives have been relishing the delicious internecine warfare between Clinton and Obama, taking careful notes on all that they said and did for recycling (after all, aren’t we all in favor of recycling) in the general campaign.
Well, that might not happen. Now we see how things will be played out. All of a sudden, all those nasty things are being recast as the fault of “conservatives” and “Republicans” and “right-wing bloggers” and “crackers.” Bob Beckel was one of the biggest pushers of the “Michelle Obama-whitey” fraud, but now he’s desperately trying to shift the blame on to Rush Limbaugh and us crazy right-wing bloggers.
And now, we have a former Hillary supporter who thought it worth mentioning that he thought he heard Barack Obama has ties to terrorists. Technically, I’d say that’s true — he’s a longtime buddy and associate of former (and unrepentant) Weather Underground members Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn. But it’s impolitic to say such things these days, so Tennessee Democratic Party Executive Committee member Fred Hobbs is trying to bull a Beckel and pass the buck for his misdeeds, saying he heard the connection on Fox News.
Of course, this raises the question of what a good Democrat was doing watching Fox News in the first place. But that will be quickly brushed under the carpet in the rush to make sure that the blame is laid on those right-wingers.
Here is the real lesson, folks: whatever happens, no matter what the left says or does, they aren’t responsible. If they get something hopelessly wrong, if their logic is completely lacking, then it’s because their feelings are so important. And if they do say something heinously wrong, then it’s because they listen to those evil right-wingers.
It’s not their fault, dammit, and you’re racist/sexist/bigoted/hateful/selfish/mean-spirited if you even think of holding them responsible for their words and deeds.
