The president got re-elected by dividing the country along fault lines of fear, intolerance, ignorance and religious rule. He doesn't want to heal rifts; he wants to bring any riffraff who disagree to heel.
W. ran a jihad in America (emphasis mine) so he can fight one in Iraq - drawing a devoted flock of evangelicals, or "values voters," as they call themselves, to the polls by opposing abortion, suffocating stem cell research and supporting a constitutional amendment against gay marriage.
Before I comment on what specifically I find so offensive in that writing, let me offer some advice to my friends on the left of the political spectrum: (And, believe it or not, I have some friends on the left.) I've been where you are. I understand the feelings that come after a defeat in a presidential election that you care about. I understand the anger, despair, confusion, and general disbelief that so many of your fellow countrymen could be so foolish or deceived. Welcome to my world during two elections of Bubba Clinton.
My advice, free of charge and hard won by experience, is to do three things:
First, take a deep breath and realize that you will survive. I survived eight years of Clinton and you will survive eight years of Bush. You might not like it. It may grate on you. But you will survive. America as a whole survives even our worst Presidents. (Jimmy Carter, pick up the red phone). I was confident of a Bush win and was deeply opposed to John Kerry, but I had already resolved to myself that I would survive a Kerry Presidency if that unimaginable scenario had materialized.
Second, seriously re-evaluate your thinking. You can go through the next four years believing that an evil administration conspired to steal another election by duping a huge majority of "sheep" in the heartland that are ignorant, religious fanatic, bigots who are bent on oppressing minorities and turning back progress and science due to inbreeding. Or you can allow yourself to consider that there is a sizable portion of America, at least 59 million strong, who have rational, informed, deeply held core principle beliefs that are in opposition to yours. You can read my posts on this blog about topics that Ms. Dowd mentions like stem cell research or gay marriage and agree that they are thoughtful and resonable contrary positions, or you can continue to believe that everyone who disagrees with you is a porch-sitting banjo-picker straight out of "Deliverance". I gaurantee you that you'll live a healthier life if you give up the sterotypes.
And finally, you can ratchet back the over-the-top Michael Moore-ish hyperbole that passed for campaign rhetoric for the last two years. Think back over the positions your side took in the heat of battle. "Bush lied, kids died". Cheney is Hitler. Ashcroft is a facist. The Patriot Act set up a police state. Tax cuts for the rich. It was too much. It was all inaccurate, it didn't help you win, and it was harmful to the political discourse in America.
Back in the Clinton days we were called Clinton-Haters. The irony is that we didn't really hate Clinton. We despised him for his personal corruption. And we strongly felt that he should be removed from office for perjury, tampering with witnesses, obstruction of justice and the like. But we didn't hate him. The difference is that the left really hates Bush. I have no doubt that Moore and Garofolo and Franken really deeply hate George Bush. And it comes out in the rhetoric.
Which brings me back to Ms. Dowd. I find her observation that "W. ran a jihad in America" to be deeply offensive and the overwrought rhetoric of hate.
Jihad? Is she insane? Jihad? Talk about de-valuing a word.
After 9/11 don't we recognize what a jihad is?
Flying planes loaded with fuel and people as bombs to kill thousands more to the glory of Allah is jihad. Do you see anything in the Bush campaign that resembles that?
Slaughtering hostages with a long knife in grisly and barbaric beheadings is jihad. Is Ms. Dowd confused between those events and a Bush campaign rally?
Slaughtering 50 Iraqi police officers on their way to an R&R simply for cooperating with America is jihad. Slaughtering moms and kids in a school in Beslan is jihad. Sending armed warriors to blow up airliners in Moscow is Jihad. Suicide bombers in grocery stores in Jerusalem is jihad.
Are you really that confused, Ms. Dowd, that you relate a gay marriage referendum in Ohio to these atrocities? Do you compare 250 honorable decorated Swift Boat veterans signing an affadavit to the unfitness of Sen. Kerry to the insane ravings of Osama bin Laden who echoed the Democratic talking points in his last video.
And how was Ms. Dowd's ridiculous screed treated by the MSM. Was she rebuked? Reigned in? Did anyone object to her equating the Bush campaign with jihad - an intentional murderous plan by our nation's enemy to destroy us by violent and barbaric means? No. On the contrary, she was feted this morning with a fawning segment on "Meet the Press".
Let me just say the obvious to Ms. Dowd, Sen Kerry, and the partisans on the left: not being able to distinguish between the President of the United States and our mortal enemy with whom we are at war in a substantive and rational way is what lead 59 million of your countrymen to conclude that your candidate could not be trusted with our national defense. Period.
This over-the-top rhetoric needs to stop. It is inaccurate and completely unhealthy for us as a nation. And it has consequences.
Fox News carried a tragic story today of a 25 year old man who committed suicide at Ground Zero in New York this week. He was "upset about the result of the presidential election". He was a student and was due to be married, but he ended it all in despair. I don't know anything about this young man or his mental state, but this story made me very sad. What a tragic and senseless waste. I won't lay his death specifically at anyone's feet, although I'm tempted to. (Michael Moore, call on line one) But I will urge my friends on the left to spend the time until the inauguration re-examining the rhetoric. Ratchet it back, please.
I'm trying to help you. Really.
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