Serious Question

11 Comments

1. 

   Ed J on August 23, 2009 at 5:23 pm

   with the sentiments quoted in his penultimate paragraph, quoted below – my answer is “yes”.

   The Angry White Liberal directs his fury not only at conservatives. Another target is the Obama administration itself. After all, the White House has been unable to convince a majority of Americans that liberals are right and their health care reform is necessary. Comedian Jon Stewart opened a recent Daily Show by saying, “Mr. President, I can’t tell if you’re a Jedi–10 steps ahead of everything–or if this whole health care thing is kickin’ your ass.” In the Washington Post, Robert Kuttner blamed Obama’s economic team, which is “far too cozy with Wall Street.” For columnist Richard Cohen, Obama’s “klutziness” has hampered reform. MSNBC host Ed Schultz said the White House was “dazed and confused.” His colleague Rachel Maddow thinks the Democrats are “too scared of their own shadow.”

2. 

   esquimaux on August 23, 2009 at 6:00 pm

   what a load of shit. You’ve reminded me why I don’t read the weekly standard.

   but I can’t resist a couple of comments.

   When things aren’t going his way, the Angry White Liberal wails and gnashes his teeth, rends his garments, and hurls invective at the opposition. His rhetoric and prose is so heated, it’s gotten to the point where you need to put on oven mitts before opening the paper. He is so convinced of the righteousness of his positions that he lashes out uncontrollably at anybody who disagrees with him. For the Angry White Liberal, dissent is anathema. Antagonism is illegitimate. Only conformity to prevailing liberal opinion is enough to still his rage.

   I know you are, but what am I?

   I’ve never seen such a complete example of projection.

   It also gets my attention that the writer doesn’t ever use the pronoun “she”.

   • 

     dada on August 23, 2009 at 6:23 pm

     textbook worthy. l couldn’t make myself go to the second page.

     • 

       Errol on August 23, 2009 at 10:16 pm

       I pity the historians of the 22nd century who try to figure out “what really happened” from tradmed (maybe weekly standard isn’t tradmed)

   • 

     DaveW on August 23, 2009 at 6:53 pm

     “Only conformity to prevailing liberal opinion is enough to still his rage.”

     Would that it were so.

3. 

   The Farmer on August 23, 2009 at 6:13 pm

   Oh, good grief.

4. 

   keepinon on August 23, 2009 at 8:15 pm

   I’m a continually disappointed white liberal. At 64, I still have a hard time understanding how the GOP can convince so many folks to vote against their own self interest. What bit of hope I had in November is melting away as the screamers make a mockery of Obama’s obsession for consensus. I’m fresh out of decades to throw away waiting till next time. Faux news and Company are a heavy burden to overcome in attempts to enlighten the masses. Ten years from now, the health care scene will be exponentially worse if we don’t act soon to provide for our own citizens. Why is that such a hard concept to convey?

   • 

     AustinSax on August 24, 2009 at 2:45 am

     I have also had a hard time trying to understand how the GOP can get so many folks to vote against their own interest. The answer is a confusion about freedom. When we think of freedom we think of personal freedom where the government does not tell us what to do. Who’s not for freedom? The problem is that the corporation became a person. This corporate person wants to do what he wants, when he wants with no regulation or interference in the ‘free market.’ This started in the 1950s when Milton Friedman wanted everything in the world in private (corporate)  hands. We now have an Enron style world economy, all in the name of freedom.

     The health care reform has hit a raw nerve because both Democrats and Republicans don’t know what to do with it because it takes freedom away from the corporate person. Some things belong is the public sector and not in the private (corporate) sector. Paying for health care for all our citizens is one of those things. Milton and his Chicago Boys will would not like this idea.

     We can win this and we will win this. When we break the back of the insurance company profits and out of control costs for health care we will be the public’s new hero. People  will finally stop voting against their own interest. Next we break up the too big to fail financial institutions, regulate the banks and the oil futures markets.
        

   • 

     colinski on August 24, 2009 at 5:25 am

     It’s a complex question, and I have a different answer.

     Self interest is taken as axiomatic but people don’t always vote their rational self-interest. Attitudes are often ‘expressive,’ they reflect how we’d like to see the world rather than as it is. Rationality comes in some curious flavors, too.

     There’s a lot of sources on this subject but John Dean’s Conservatives Without Conscience does a pretty good job at analyzing the conservative psyche.

     Wawg Blog has an ongoing treatment of the subject.

     http://the-wawg-blog.org/?tag=john-dean

     http://the-wawg-blog.org/?p=97

     As I said in Failed Single Party Nations of the Past – Where Are We Going Now?, “Nations run by a single party (political, army or dictatorship) tend to become intensely nationalistic, racist, militaristic and imperialistic. They are supported by the `masses’ but not necessarily the majority of the national population. Support for this system is enhanced by identifying an `enemy’ and its ‘supporters’, labeling them with prejudicial adjectives and urging the masses to support violence against them.”

     Andy Hailey sums it up pretty well, and he’s talking about health care reform as it relates to the authoritarian psyche (or conservative). The ideology makes more ‘sense’ (so to speak) once you better understand it’s core ideas, although it doesn’t necessarily become less crazy.

     BTW — there’s a monumental irony to the fact that authoritarians are comparing Obama to a Nazi. Chip Berlet explains the strange origin of this belief.

     http://www.democracynow.org/2009/8/13/right_wing_hysteria_misinformation_fuels_anger

5. 

   Oscar In Dallas on August 23, 2009 at 10:43 pm

   Um, no…

6. 

   rikyrah on August 24, 2009 at 12:28 am

   nope..

   ANGRY BLACK WOMAN….