Originally posted by: DealMonkey
Originally posted by: CADkindaGUY
Originally posted by: DealMonkey
I almost hate to bring it up, but didn't Republicans hate Clinton too? IIRC, the Republican attitude was pretty vitriolic from about '94 - '00. The only thing bipartisan in Washington is the hatred.
Did you read the article?
CkG
Yes, but frankly I'm getting tired of hearing about the "hatred" concept being pushed by the media. IMO, the media, in particular the cable news networks, are fostering a divisive, vitriolic agenda bent on polarizing Americans. Yes, there are people that do not like Bush. Yes, there are people angry with his agenda, policies, or whatever, but frankly the "hate" angle is overplayed.
Well, if you read it, you'd have seen some supposed percentages where the author tries to show that the "hate" is somewhat worse now than before. Now again - the wording is different from previous surveys or polls or where ever he got his stats from, but I feel his overall premise rings true. One of the biggest reasons for that is because the democrats have lost all their "power"(except the courts
) and are pretty pissed about it, but what they fail to realize is that becoming "angry" about it isn't going to help them move forward. It's the similar reasoning as to why the Republicans could never regain Congress - they bitched and moaned too much without offering ideas. Once they became the positive party they turned the tide. Now that tide has put the dems on the defensive, and the natural reaction is to lash out and whine. What really got their goat, was the Bush win in 2000 coupled with regaining control of the Congress even after the Jumpin Jim episode.
They(dems) have to figure out a way to regain their power through inclusiveness and ideas that match the will of the masses. They have for too long been the party of little groups of causes - which creates a cohesiveness problem and image problem for them. The "mainstream" american doesn't support and in some cases detest some of the groups that the dems seemingly pander to. Now the same could be said about Republicans but they don't seem to have the same quantity of "cause" groups in their corner - although they have the corporate and Religious "causes" on their side. But again - those two seem to be more "mainstream" to most americans because we ARE a religious(in some form or another) country and the great majority of Americans believe in Capitalism.
/me steps off soapbox because I'm winded
Anyway IMO - the "hate" is quite apparent, not only here, but in Hollyweird and the entertainment industry -which makes for "news" I guess
Also - I think it's becoming an issue because the candidates are continually using language which is close to, if not actually, "anger". They repeatedly have flung those types of barbs at not only Bush and the Republicans, but also Conservative personalities and the avenues which they "air"
their views. Take for example Dean. Ever notice that he has a pension for invoking Rush Limbaugh's name in the Debates? Something like "we are going to take back America from the likes of Rush Limbaugh...". Now that isn't a direct quote but it very much resembles what he has repeatedly said. Now why does he say such things? Is the intent not to rile people up and invoke a sense of "anger" or whatever sugar coated label you want to give it?
Just my take on the current state of "hateful" politics.
CkG