I thought of the following article after the Elizabeth Edwards/Ann Coulter dust up today. Ann is filled with hate, Elizabeth is not. How stark that contrast was/is.
There is a great, short article about journalist Johann Hari going on a National Review cruise. I'm sure you've seen it quoted as it is hysterical in a terrifying way. This part got me. The author went to interview Bill Buckley after Buckley stood up to Podhoretz here's the quote:
"President Bush described today's American conservatives as "Bill's children." I ask him if he feels like a parent whose kids grew up to be serial killers. He smiles slightly, and his blue eyes appear to twinkle. Then he sighs, "The answer is no. Because
what animated the conservative core for forty years was the Soviet menace, plus the rise of dogmatic socialism. That's pretty well gone."
What is it about the right, about conservatives, about Ann Coulter that they must HATE something? I'm pretty pissed about Bush et al but what really motivates me is to try to build a better world, to help the poor, heal the sick (or help anyway) NOT my hatred of conservatives.
Is that why we are so different? Is that why they can be ruthless? It's not just being better than someone, its actually hating someone that motivates them.
Is it always the right that hates? Because trying to sell someone on keeping things as they are (true conservative thought it seems) just doesn't work? How can we expose this?
Here's the Hari piece....not long...read it, its good stuff. Mostly about the split among conservatives, the old guard vs neocons. The neocons are scary (Bork, Dinesh D'Souza, Podhoretz, Bernard Lewis and Kate O'Beirne. Why did you know O'Beirne's husband was Rumsfeld's personnel director? Don't you think we should have been told that when she was brought on TV to spout her defense of the admin? They all believe we are winning in Iraq, he did have WMD and the only reason we will fail is because of the evil liberals...just like Vietnam.)
http://www.tnr.com/doc.mhtml?i=20070702&s=hari070207