*Emailed by me to Medved: * **
Regarding Bush Hatred vs. Clinton Hatred…
If Bush is the object of more intense loathing than Clinton ever was (something I think it is extremely difficult to measure, but sure, I’ll accept it as fact), the reason is self-evident: he garnered all that hatred the old fashioned way: he EARNED it.
If anyone can manage to feel the enmity towards Clinton, (whose administration is known primarily for two things: peace & prosperity and illicit oral sex) that so many of us feel for Bush, (who has managed, in three short years, to leave utter devastation in his wake) then they need to do some serious reassessment of their value system
Clinton Crimes: adultery, lying about adultery, a stinky pardon or two. We know for certain that his crimes couldn’t possibly be much more than this because he couldn’t use the bathroom without someone getting subpeonad to testify as to the composition and quality of his output.
Note also that the Clinton Haters Brigade was alert and on the job from the very beginning of his campaign, digging and rooting for whatever they could find to Get Him with. The hatred towards him was pretty much instantaneous, and, at least initially, based on nothing more than a visceral reaction to his (widely acknowledged) political gifts from his ideological opponents, who would have liked nothing better than a man of his talents on their team. Then, as the rooting and digging (and bribing and lying) continued, at enormous costs to our nation as a whole, the “reasons” trotted out for the hatred were as thin as tissue and remain so to this day. (Ditto his wife, by the way.)
Bush, on the other hand, has gotten an astonishing pass all along the way, again dating back to his campaign. This was confirmed by the press who followed him…gee, the man was so damn likable! Golly…that’s damned important for the leader of the free world! Affability!
But forget how extraordinarily easy the press has been on him (although that has everything to do with it…if Clinton had tried a minuscule sampling of the crap GW has pulled, he would have been publicly eviscerated!) and let me tell you why I personally cannot abide him. (Although, in my own case, I dislike the word hate, and I dislike focusing on Bush exclusively. He is merely the head of the beast…chop it off and another grows in its place.)
The economy. The tax cuts, which are horseshit piled on horseshit. The horrifying disregard for the environment, the ruthless determination to spit in the eye of the concerns of the average person in the relentless pursuit of profit and power for big business. The lies, the manipulations, the craven use of 9/11 to advance his disgusting agenda. (Tiny example…Farm Bill becomes Farmland Security Act…my god, they have no shame at all.) The assault on our constitutional freedoms. The covert characterizations of opponents as traitors. (And please stop denying that… look up some of Ashy’s remarks…)
Worst…the willingness to lie to America and her troops, and watch them die, to advance a war for yes, political ends. Ted Kennedy spoke the absolute truth. (And the very fact that Kennedy, a man you identified as a moderate democrat in the middle of things [vs.your characterization of the Clinton Haters Brigade as “the fringe” and “out of power”], did so should tell you something. The something it should tell you is not that Bush hatred is just wacky crazy outta control compared to Clinton hatred. It shows you that reasonable people of good conscience, in the middle of things, could not speak out so forcefully against Clinton because there was nothing there to speak out so forcefully against. The same is not true of Bush.)
The topping on it all is this: Clinton’s most shameful act was a private one, the act of a man, not a president. I have no attachment or concern about the sex lives of my leaders, so that act of Clinton’s, and everything around it, reflects on my or my country not a bit. (Just ask the rest of the world, who pretty much all thought we’d lost our collective minds in even caring about it.)
Bush’s most shameful act (so far) is an act he undertook in MY name, and brought dishonor upon my country, which I truly love: he turned my country into an aggressor nation. He cobbled together some flimsy lies and half-truths, and made war on a nation that was no threat to us. And anyone who can look at that and not see it as an act far more shameful than everything Clinton ever did taken together, really needs to look hard at their value system.
And for those of us who see this George “God Picked Me” Bush for the ruthless bastard that he is, yeah, our hate is bigger than your hate for Bill “I Feel Your Pain” Clinton.
Oh…and one more thing: you asked during the broadcast what Bush has done to hurt you personally? My answer is that it is irrelevant: My politics are not all about me personally, they are about all of us in this country and in this world. And as far as I’m concerned, that’s the fundamental difference between your average liberal and your average conservative.
PS: Your characterization of the protests in Hollywood and speculation of what they might of meant was a perfect example of the truly shameful attempt to paint dissent as support for the murderous regime of Saddam Hussein. You destroy your credibility with crap like that, and you insult the intelligence of your audience.
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