Them's Fighting Words
Kos takes on Andrew Sullivan (directly) and the rest of the Right Wing Conspiracy:
I understand that it was easier for right-wing hacks to ply their trash when liberals unilaterally disarmed and took it with nary a peep. I understand they pine for those days when the best we could offer in rebuttal was Alan Colmes.
But they created the environment we now play in. They wanted a "culture war", an ideological fight, a partisan rumble in which only one side brought guns to the game. Those days are over.
Read the rest, but it's an argument I largely agree with and have been making myself for a long time. It's unfortunate (in life as in politics) when you have to really start getting after people to make any progress, but I don't think anyone on the left (or in my house) asked to be here. It's what the right created and now they don't like it when we fight back.
Be nice to W and he'll smile as he jams it down your throat and laughs all the way to the White House. If Andrew Sullivan somehow thinks an aggressive opposition party plays to Bush and his merry gang of thugs, he should take a look at the polling for the last few months. Further, if he thinks the absence of Daily Kos and the like would somehow temper Bush's right wing bombastics, he's just in fantasyland.
When Michael Moore's "Stupid White Men" came out and I realized there was someone as disgusted as me (and who actually had a platform to speak out about it), I was so excited I sent copies to all kinds of people. One of my friends - a smart, informed, dedicated liberal - wrote me to say that Michael Moore-like tactics don't help anything. He particularly didn't like his Oscar speech. I started to agree with him (as was my way so long ago), but as I thought about it I got angry. My answer became, as I recall, "Fuck subtlety. It hasn't gotten us anything but minority status and George W. Bush as President."
There's a place for subtlety, but you have to be dealing with intelligent, evolved, nuanced people for it to have any effect. For this gang, you need a sledgehammer.
I understand that it was easier for right-wing hacks to ply their trash when liberals unilaterally disarmed and took it with nary a peep. I understand they pine for those days when the best we could offer in rebuttal was Alan Colmes.
But they created the environment we now play in. They wanted a "culture war", an ideological fight, a partisan rumble in which only one side brought guns to the game. Those days are over.
Read the rest, but it's an argument I largely agree with and have been making myself for a long time. It's unfortunate (in life as in politics) when you have to really start getting after people to make any progress, but I don't think anyone on the left (or in my house) asked to be here. It's what the right created and now they don't like it when we fight back.
Be nice to W and he'll smile as he jams it down your throat and laughs all the way to the White House. If Andrew Sullivan somehow thinks an aggressive opposition party plays to Bush and his merry gang of thugs, he should take a look at the polling for the last few months. Further, if he thinks the absence of Daily Kos and the like would somehow temper Bush's right wing bombastics, he's just in fantasyland.
When Michael Moore's "Stupid White Men" came out and I realized there was someone as disgusted as me (and who actually had a platform to speak out about it), I was so excited I sent copies to all kinds of people. One of my friends - a smart, informed, dedicated liberal - wrote me to say that Michael Moore-like tactics don't help anything. He particularly didn't like his Oscar speech. I started to agree with him (as was my way so long ago), but as I thought about it I got angry. My answer became, as I recall, "Fuck subtlety. It hasn't gotten us anything but minority status and George W. Bush as President."
There's a place for subtlety, but you have to be dealing with intelligent, evolved, nuanced people for it to have any effect. For this gang, you need a sledgehammer.
posted by John at 9:29 PM
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