Wednesday, August 20, 2003

Dangerous Types: A fair point, Razor, particularly applied to Savage. As for Human Events, I don't think I'd ever call them "neoconservative" in the sense we discussed earlier. (Note the prominent picture of Bob Novak, the personification of the old guard, on the site. And Ann Coulter?) That said, the rhetoric from the loony right is quite the same as it is on the loony left -- with a single, rather large exception: the political far right is considered non-mainstream. (This obviously doesn't excuse the rhetoric, but it is worth noting.) The political left-wing is decidedly mainstream. To illustrate the point, yes, right-wing pundits call liberals "dangerous." On the left, though, the candidates themselves call George Bush "dangerous." It's not the crazy old aunt at the family picnic anymore; it's Bill Clinton and Gray Davis and their "GOP power grabs" and attempts to "steal elections [they] cannot win"; Hillary Clinton and her VRWC; John Kerry, who said to George Stephanopolous:
You know, George, the nine of us are here to audition for the important job of challenging a reckless, dangerous, untrustworthy president who never should have taken office.
It's a distinction worth noting.

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