I have argued against Libertarians (yes, there is such a thing as "the common good", yes, we do owe some kind of support to government through taxes); Right wing conspiracy theorists (like the Y2Kers who thought Clinton would use problems as a pretext to proclaim martial law); kooks like the fellows who think that the Federal government cannot legally print paper money; guys who slander FDR over Pearl Harbor; and assorted other right- wingers. This is not a liberal vs. conservative thing. In fact, there are intimations that one of the guys I am sick of on Bush may be a Militia type. It just so happens that the particular guys I have to deal with along these lines the most, especially in the last year, are on the Left. These are not normal liberals. I did not say they were. As far as equating it with anti- semitism, I think it is pretty exact: ill- founded hatred or contempt of a group causes one to make up things, weaving in facts if possible, making it up out of whole cloth on occasion. Take a small example: Bush got 1200 on his SATs. At the time, one could not use a calculator, and the 50th percentiles were below 500 on each test. In other words, he did better than about 85 or 90 percent of college bound seniors. Sorry, that means the man is bright, if not a whiz kid. So how come a bunch of people who probably got 1000 on THEIR SATs persist in making out that he is a dummy? Or again, Bush grew up in Texas, going to public schools. His dad was a small businessman or Congressman for most of that time, and they lived in a ranch house. It was not until he was a teen that he was sent to boarding school. (The disruption may account for mediocre grades, by the way). The family was not wealthy. At the time that his father became vice- president, he was worth about $2 million, most of it the appraised value of the house in Kennebunkport, which was an ancestral property. On the other hand, Gore's father was a Senator, they lived in a nice residential hotel on Wisconsin Avenue, and Gore went to St. Alban's, at the National Cathedral. (He got mediocre grades, too). So how is it that Bush is the upper class twit, and Gore is the man of the people?
I think I will wait to go on........ |
