Gore Again!
by Capt Fogg
What is it about Mr. Gore that drives right-wingers insane? asks Paul Krugman. Probably the same Pavlovian thing that makes them bark like dogs at the sound of "Clinton" or "Moore" or any of the suite of scapegoats in the inventory but perhaps one has to be one of them to understand their rationalizations for the irrationality. Of course Krugman is right that Gore's habit of being right makes the Right's habit of being wrong too apparent for comfort, but that doesn't help me to understand the kind of contempt that requires them only to mention the name to cause pandemonium in the ape house.
Perhaps some of the barking and hooting and cage rattling simply serves to drown out the quieter and more dignified voices of those who know what they're talking about; witness Tucker Carleson's success in stifling conversation with an emotional outpouring of high speed, hyperbolic non-sequitur on Bill Maher's Friday night show. Poor Krugman didn't have a chance and even Joy Behar could hardly get in a word. It's what Ann Coulter does, it's what Rush Limbaugh does, it's what O'Reilly does but it's a technique and not an explanation or an answer to the question.
Perhaps the best we can do is to emulate the medical profession and pretend we understand it by giving it a name like GDS or Gore Derangement Syndrome as Krugman calls it. At any rate, there's no profit in understanding the irrational if we want to further the interests of the sane and is there anyone more likely to be able to do that than Mr. Gore himself? Isn't it time we remember that Al Gore was the one to tell us that if we invaded Iraq, the results would be more dangerous than anything Saddam could do? Isn't it time we remember who laughed and ignored him and isn't it time we remembered who lied by calling him a liar and isn't it time we stopped being the kind of voters who dismissed him because he sighed in frustration during a "debate" with a moron?
Al Gore got more votes than George Bush in 2000 and since then, many of his controversial statements have proved to be right and his detractors have lead us into the biggest disaster in 50 years. Isn't it time?
Cross posted from Human Voices
What is it about Mr. Gore that drives right-wingers insane? asks Paul Krugman. Probably the same Pavlovian thing that makes them bark like dogs at the sound of "Clinton" or "Moore" or any of the suite of scapegoats in the inventory but perhaps one has to be one of them to understand their rationalizations for the irrationality. Of course Krugman is right that Gore's habit of being right makes the Right's habit of being wrong too apparent for comfort, but that doesn't help me to understand the kind of contempt that requires them only to mention the name to cause pandemonium in the ape house.
Perhaps some of the barking and hooting and cage rattling simply serves to drown out the quieter and more dignified voices of those who know what they're talking about; witness Tucker Carleson's success in stifling conversation with an emotional outpouring of high speed, hyperbolic non-sequitur on Bill Maher's Friday night show. Poor Krugman didn't have a chance and even Joy Behar could hardly get in a word. It's what Ann Coulter does, it's what Rush Limbaugh does, it's what O'Reilly does but it's a technique and not an explanation or an answer to the question.
Perhaps the best we can do is to emulate the medical profession and pretend we understand it by giving it a name like GDS or Gore Derangement Syndrome as Krugman calls it. At any rate, there's no profit in understanding the irrational if we want to further the interests of the sane and is there anyone more likely to be able to do that than Mr. Gore himself? Isn't it time we remember that Al Gore was the one to tell us that if we invaded Iraq, the results would be more dangerous than anything Saddam could do? Isn't it time we remember who laughed and ignored him and isn't it time we remembered who lied by calling him a liar and isn't it time we stopped being the kind of voters who dismissed him because he sighed in frustration during a "debate" with a moron?
Al Gore got more votes than George Bush in 2000 and since then, many of his controversial statements have proved to be right and his detractors have lead us into the biggest disaster in 50 years. Isn't it time?
Cross posted from Human Voices
Labels: Democrats, Republicans
posted by Libby Spencer at 10:24 AM
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