I hesitate1 to dip a toe into this cesspool again, or, to maybe somewhat mix metaphors, to continue this ridiculous pissing match, but I have to mention having laughed ruefully at my poor brother’s feeble attempt to enumerate examples of the level of vitriol directed at our President, in contrast to the bile directed at his, the President’s, predecessor.
Rob lists as his first example a quote from a columnist in another country. And then an actual American, thankfully, a politician even. Oh, but wait. Only a candidate, actually. A candidate for city council in California somewhere. Oh, and the last example, even better, a college student.
Oh, please.
I’ll simply counter with the very American, actual office holder, in the United States House of Representatives, sitting chairman of the Government Reform and Oversight Committee, calling President Clinton a scumbag, a used condom, in an interview, and then obstinately refusing even to apologize.
Then I’ll go with Francisco Martin Duran, convicted of attempting to assassinate President Clinton after firing dozens of rounds from a semi-automatic carbine into the White House2
There’s also our friend Frank Eugene Corder, crashing a plane into the White House.3
Comparing all of this to the ramblings of a college student? Bah. That’s what I call bullshit.
1No, really. It’s true. It’s depressing, but then also is very distracting. I get really behind on blog entries, worrying and chewing over and getting angry and then depressed and more worry and chewing over ad infinitum, when I’m working on these.
2Although in true pissing match style, Rob can possibly counter Mr. Duran with Vladimir Arutinian, although the nature of Mr. Arutinian’s failure, indicative of rather a lack of purpose, as well as his very foreign location, might greatly diminish his value in this equation.
3But I think I’ll have to trade Mr. Corder for Robert Pickett. Both suicides or would-be suicides, to be certain, but Mr. Corder’s much more in the vein of trying to take someone, say President Clinton, with him, rather than Mr. Pickett’s more classic suicide-by-cop attempt.
I saw an interesting video clip the other day, taken from some ABC News program. The segment was hosted by George Stephanopolis. He was exploring how the country has gotten more and more polarized; not only since the 2000 election, but since 1980. They compared Franklin, TN with a town in New Jersey. Both locations have developed a wider, more lopsided margin in favor of one party over the other in each of the past seven elections. In the latest NJ election the NJ town favored the Democrat by 66 percent. Franklin, TN favored the Republican by 66 percent.
They interviewed some of the locals in each town. Those in Franklin were wondering how we ever got to the point where radicals were trying to take religion out of the classrooms. Those in NJ said that they didn’t want to go down south, since that’s where the rednecks are.
The point of the story seemed to be that America is more transient than it has ever been, and more and more folks are moving to areas where they can live near people who think as they do.
This explains much of my feeling of being a “fish out of water” here in TN. I live in a blue dot in a red state — Davidson County — just as I did when I lived in Arlington, VA. But man, I’m so tired of it. You go to the furniture store here, and they ask you where you go to church. I’m not kidding.
When I was a kid in school I made many life-long friends, some of whom were Republican. They are still my friends, since they are grandfathered in, but I don’t make a point of seeking out conservative friends any more. I wonder if adult conservatives feel the same way about hanging out with those who share their views. I thought Kerry would win because noone I knew would even think of making the other choice. It was impossible. And we all watched our TVs on election night in disbelief, struck dumb by depression.
It seems to me that these trends are only going to continue, and that each presidential election will seem like another “Thrilla in Manilla.”
But then again maybe a candidate will come along who can unify much of the country. It’s happened before. It could be that Bush is polarizing the country because he is so extreme; the next winner can’t be as extreme as he is. It doesn’t seem possible.
I thought of all of this because the brick brats tossed back and forth between Ed and his brother seem to stand for the arguments going on around the country. We blues certainly cannot fathom why the reds think the way they do — it seems insane — and the reds probably feel the same way about us.
I don’t think that such polarization and hatred is good for the country as a whole. I’m not sure what drives it. Maybe it’s a lousy by-product of the 24 hour news cycle.
But having said that, I’m not going to change my opinions. I think that this is the worst govt of my lifetime, and I’m counting the hours until they are gone, and we can start digging out from the mess they’ve gotten us into.