California Knows How to Party Wednesday, June 30, 2004

Moore mail! I got an exceptional note that I'd like to excerpt. Lots of interesting points, but I'll zero in on these:

Throughout the movie, whenever someone on screen would say something
like "Bush is a bad man," the whole crowd would burst into applause.
Over and over again. At one point in the movie, though, Moore shows an
Iraqi woman whose family has all been killed in bombings screaming at
the camera. And she says, pretty clearly of Americans, "I hope bombs
destroy their houses. Then they'll learn!" and people in the house
started applauding. ... We're in real trouble when we start siding with people who want our own houses blown up -- an occasional trope I've encountered since 9/11 and have found terrifying and repugnant. Yes, there is a left fringe of people so consumed with anger and guilt at the actions of their country that they believe the U.S. deserves to be blown up. They are an extreme fringe, and they are fools. They are not the American left.

Nicely said. I would add here that I've found the response by many paleocons to 9/11 just as terrifying and repugnant. i.e., we deserved it for our adventuring throughout the world; or for our moral insouciance. Then there's the nativist wing, which would rather bomb Mexico City than Baghdad. I would note that "mainstream" conservatives (WSJ, National Review, Weekly Standard, Commentary, New Criterion) have rushed to attack those twats loudly and publicly, and write them out of the movement. I wish the mainstream left would do the same for their fringe.

Anyway, if the face of American conservatism were David Brooks, I think we'd all be in a much better position, and there'd be a lot less hate shooting between both sides. I disagree with him on nearly everything, but I really respect him, trust that he's truthful, and enjoy his opinions. Sadly, the faces of American conservatism are Tom DeLay,
George Bush and the like -- dangerous ideologues who seem just as
willing to blow off democracy to get what they want as the liberals you
complained about. You wonder why people assume everything they say is a
lie? Because we believe they've stolen our government, we believe
they're trying to line their pockets, and we believe they would rather
lie, cheat and steal than do things the old fashioned way: through
debate and persuasion and democracy. I can give you a host of reasons
for that, starting with disenfranchising black voters in Florida, going
to strong-arming representatives on the Medicare bill, and ending most
recently with the Abu Ghraib cover-up.

Just to address a couple points at the end:

--What cover-up at Abu Ghraib? The military announced the abuse, and its investigation, with a press release earlier this year. Nobody chose to follow up on it. Then the pictures came out, which had kinky sex appeal, and the media decided it had another My Lai on its hands. Should the army have said off the bat, "You're not going to believe how fucking repellent we are, look at this"?

--"We believe they would rather lie, cheat and steal than do things the old fashioned way: through debate and persuasion and democracy." What about judicial activism on the left, which is a huge sticking point for the right?

To use the latest example: I will stipulate that I am in favor of gay marriage. Pace Andrew Sullivan, I think it's a great idea, for good conservative reasons. Where was the debate, persuasion and democracy in Massachusetts, where courts essentially imposed gay marriage by fiat? Again, I agree with the goal here, and I'm glad that couples now have the right to marry--but judges clearly sidestepped that whole how-a-bill-becomes-a-law thing (and, if anything, opened the door for a backlash against gay marriage). Say what you will about the Federal Marriage Amendment (and, again, I'm not for it) but at least it's being put to a vote.

More broadly, I'd much rather if the debate were about policies rather than the essentialist moral character of one party or another. Personally, I'm a Bull Moose man, but look where they ended up.

@ 9:00:00 AM,

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