Politics And Hate: The Democrats’ Not-So-Subtle Message
By John David Powell (08/02/04)
Those who pull the political strings within the Democratic Party put out the word in the days leading up to their national convention that Bush bashing, divisive rhetoric, and other forms of hate-filled language were not welcomed. The memo read something like: “Anyone caught violating the tenets of our newly found political compassion toward those we hate will be thrashed wickedly like a colorfully headed child from another marriage (because ‘beating you like a rented mule’ doesn’t sound good given that our party’s symbol is a donkey).”
There is wisdom to this kinder, gentler form of politics, but it may be too foreign and too late for a large segment of Democrats who cannot utter the words Bush or Republican without adding the word hate somewhere. While Democratic delegates engaged in their orchestrated love fest on the convention floor, the scene outside was somewhat more hate filled, probably because the memo wasn’t passed around among the general population. The Associated Press reported on the day before the convention that some peace demonstrators scuffled with an anti-abortion activist on the Commons. Witnesses said some of the peace demonstrators pushed the man to the ground and ripped his shirt in the process.
Just so I have this right: advocates for peace beat up an advocate for life?
I witnessed this deep hatred a few months ago at a non-political gala attended by corporate swells and elected officials from the Houston area. House majority leader Tom DeLay from nearby Sugar Land was the draw for the ugly crowd that gathered outside the doors to waive signs, chant, and block the sidewalk.
Among the aggressive assemblage stood a young boy, not yet in his teens, shoving at passing vehicles a hand-drawn sign that read: “Honk if you HATE Republicans”. Other signs let everyone know the demonstrators carried various levels of hatred for Republicans in general and DeLay in specific.
Convention planners saw this coming and realized they had to keep from offending and losing undecided voters. All of this intrigued me enough that I ran some online searches to see which party had a lock on hate. The answer depends on the search engine used.
I looked on Google (www.google.com) for hate and Bush, hate and Clinton, hate Republicans, and hate Democrats. I threw in Clinton because Republicans have had nearly a dozen years to hate the guy, so I figured those numbers would be up pretty high.
Hate and Bush returned 1.63 million hits including the site Why we hate Bush (www.whywehatebush.com). Members of this group reportedly include Republicans, Conservatives, and Independents along with Democrats, Liberals and all living creatures that hate Bush.
Hate Clinton on Google returned 757,000 hits.
Democrats and Republicans ran pretty close in their hatred for each other. Hate and Republicans returned 397,000 hits, while hate and Democrats came back with 387,000.
Among other search engines:
Yahoo! (www.yahoo.com)
Hate and Bush: 4.28 million
Hate and Clinton: 1.7 million
Hate Republicans: 992,000
Hate Democrats: 1.16 million
Alta Vista (www.altavista.com)
Hate and Bush: 4.17 million
Hate and Clinton: 1.67 million
Hate Republicans: 1.01 million
Hate Democrats: 1.15 million
All the Web (www.alltheweb.com)
Hate and Bush: 3.09 million
Hate and Clinton: 1.23 million
Hate Republicans: 747,000
Hate Democrats: 885,000
Keep in mind that not all of these sites are real-for-sure political hate sites. They just happen to have somewhere on their sites the words hate and one of the other words.
Of course, some are out-and-out hate sites, such as the “I hate Bush fan club” (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ihatebushfanclub) on Yahoo groups. The group started in April 2002, with nearly 80,000 postings to its message board since then.
The Drudge Report (www.drudgereport.com/matthb.htm) story on a Hollywood party was another hit for the hate/Bush search. The Nov. 30, 2003, “exclusive” told of top Hollywood activists and intellectuals planning a “Hate Bush” event for Dec. 12.
Fellow Texan Molly Ivins found herself on the hate/Bush list, and for good reason. She really hates Bush as she explains in her November 2003 article in The Progressive (www.progressive.org/nov03/ivin1103.html), titled “Call Me a Bush-Hater.”
An editorial in The Pantagraph (www.pantagraph.com) from Bloomington, Ill., gives an indication of what may be happening in America’s heartland, or at least in central Illinois. The March 21 editorial reads, in part: “Just a casual view of the Opinion Page of the Pantagraph is convincing evidence that the Bush-hating Democrats are hard at work vilifying President Bush! Most of the ‘hate’ letters are not on the issues but merely ugly ‘I hate Bush.’ Many don’t even make any sense, like comparing our president to Hitler . . .”
Democrats at their national convention may have toned down their hate rhetoric, but their message was clear. Fear generates hate, and fear – not hope – was their basic message. We must fear the rich (except for those named Kerry, Edwards, and Kennedy) because they are responsible for terror, hunger, and canker sores. Women must fear men who have kept them from attaining equality. Hyphenated Americans must fear Anglos because that’s what hyphenated Americans are supposed to do. All Americans must fear Republicans because they are responsible for long-standing evils and hardships and the success of terrorism. And when we face our fears, we will turn to the Democrats for protection and unity.
This is political rhetoric at its best and should not be taken too seriously, just as one should not take seriously the apparent rants of professional wrestlers. But pro-wrestling is very popular and lots of folks believe in their hearts that it’s all real.
And that’s the hope of the Democratic leadership. In return for our fear (and hate), the Democrats will unite the nation under one flag and one set of gods, they will make us strong militarily, and they will ensure that the nations of the world respect or fear us.
Mundus vult decipi
(and as Democratic leaders subtly added this week: ergo decipiatur)
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