You have often accused me of being a "true believer" and a sheep. But you are off base. When people on the Right fringe used to try to persuade me that Clinton was planning to use Y2K to stage a coup, I laughed at them. When they kept asserting that the Clintons were responsible for Vince Foster's death, despite repeated official exoneration, I told them to drop it. When both Left and Right railed against the Kosovo operation, because it was not sanctioned by the UN, I defended it. And I did not care for Clinton.
In this case, guys like you are trying to sell me on the idea that the Administration is basically evil. Hell, Watkins was trying to sell me on the idea that neocons were basically evil, and had a hard time believing me when I expressed goodwill towards the Chinese or a preference for diplomacy over military intervention generally. Since I know that he and others are way off base about me and those I know as neoconservatives, and I would apply common sense to conspiracy theories about the present Administration at least as much as I did Clinton's, what you call "being a true believer" I call skeptical about extremist claims about American politics.
As for michael's point specifically, there is something wrong with a consistent tendency to think the worst about one's own country, and to practically root for it to land in worse trouble. This is not a matter of "my country right or wrong", this is a case of normal partiality, such as one has for friends or family: being inclined to give them the benefit off the doubt, and requiring a strong preponderance of evidence against them before coming down hard on them. |
