Here’s some fun. I tend to read left-wing sites (though not exclusively). One of the impressions I come away with from both sites is the idea that the right looks at people with a “you’re either with us, or against us” mindset, which means that most of those one the left are essentially terrorists or terrorist supporters.
Now I know that most people on the right don’t think like that, even while they believe very reasonably that those on the left are wrong. Yet that’s the undercurrent on the right, just as the one on the left is that the right wants to sell your babies to give tax cuts to millionaires, or some such. That’s why the following analysis, which I made up on my own but which I’m sure has occurred to others, would undoubtedly appear if we had a Democratic president…
President Bush called on Americans yesterday to conserve gasoline by driving less. He also issued a directive for all federal agencies to cut their own energy use and to encourage employees to use public transportation.
Ari Fleischer, then Mr. Bush’s press secretary, responded to a question about reducing American energy consumption by saying “that’s a big no.”
“The president believes that it’s an American way of life,” Mr. Fleischer said.
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So what you’re implying is that if Bush were a Democrat, there would be a lot of incoherence coming out of the whitehouse?
That’s not a good summary, because I think if Bush were the janitor there would be a lot of incoherence coming out of the White House.
Okay, I’m an idiot, then. Explain. Your italicized text you describe as “analysis” yet it’s not at all. It’s an iteration of a few (hypothetically speaking) facts. He said / They said, etc. How is this analysis? I’m just not getting it.
When asked about conserving energy, Fleischer was clear that the freedom to use energy as you please is a defining attribute of being an American. And now the President says that we should conserve energy. Well yes, perhaps we should, if we were all godless commies.
Note, I believe that the above is nonsense. But it’s exactly the sort of crap that people on the left get caught on all the time. “Ooh, you voted against some grossly bloated defense bill one time, that means you must hate America”.
The “Your candidate voted for that?!?!” chestnut. I see what you mean. But truthfully, you can catch as many on the other side of the isle on that one, too. Bills in the American legislature have these broad headings where all these tiny non-sequiteur addendums that are sometimes the result of political horse-trading, sometimes from pork barreling and sometimes even negating the bill itself. I think it’s easier to catch lefties on it because they don’t watch legislation as closely as they watch policy. As a result they suck at accountability. They do better at complaining about how Chief Justice Roberts had tons of documented legal opinion sealed before the congressional hearings started, an unprecidental _policy_ manoever. But we don’t actually pay attention to the fact that Cheeny porkbarrels his political cronies, etc, etc. I think it’s because the neocons are sleddogs of big business who are quick to jump on specific legislation.