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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: unclewest who wrote (15911)	11/12/2003 2:50:00 AM
From: LindyBill	Respond to of 793670

"the Starbucks Metrosexual elite." Now there's a good epithet! I can use that one. Here is the conclusion of Andrew Sullivan's Sunday column. _______________________________________________ Bi-Polar Nation America, Divided Some of this can be attributed to the psychological strains of a difficult war. Some is a replay of the acrid tensions of Vietnam, through which prism the baby-boomer generation tends to see everything. Some may also be due to the fracturing of the media in which cable and the Internet and talk radio have given every constituency its own echo chamber. When that happens, the ability to frame arguments in order to persuade, rather than simply to rally the troops, becomes atrophied. Some is also generational, with the under-30s showing the highest levels of support for president Bush and the over 60s expressing the most severe discontent. But after a while, the rancour becomes self-reinforcing, with both sides using the other side's bitterness as new fuel for their own. When you add the profit motive - and the extremist books have been selling phenomenally well - the combustible mix is complete. Politically, however, it strikes me that much of this curdling of discourse might actually help president Bush. He is a deeply polarizing figure in some quarters but he is the president. And as the president, his rhetoric has been studiedly non-inflammatory. He has rewarded his far right flank not with fiery language but with constant contact, judicial appointments and kinder, gentler Christian boilerplate. This low-key style ensures that although he will never win over that third of the electorate that despises him, he seems more appealing to the middle than the angry left that is now galvanizing the Democratic primary season. He is not a uniter of all; but he is a uniter of what is almost certainly a plurality. Through the fog of a polarized, divided country, he has somehow managed to cobble together a majority. It hovers around 55 percent. And the more the Democrats assail him personally, the shriller and less electable they seem. Perhaps even Bush will come acropper in this difficult terrain - especially if he nominates a real extremist to the Supreme Court or backs a Constitutional Amendment against gay marriage. But so far, he is still the relatively calm voice in the middle of the increasingly raucous and uncompromising crowd. The warring words fly over his head. And if Bill Clinton survived the hatred, why on earth should this president not? REST AT andrewsullivan.com