Reply #34: Same here ... [View All]

[RoyGBiv]

Last week, I made a rather loud post that criticized the bashing of Dems as preface to criticizing certain criticisms of Cindy Sheehan. (How's that for critical. :-))

As I implied in the original rant and explained more fully in a subsequent follow-up, "criticizing Dems" is not the the problem. The problem is that no distinctions are made between "Democrats" like Zell Miller and those Democrats who are fighting very hard for our interests yet are essentially ignored by the media. We get posts in this forum on a daily basis that proclaim "Dems are cowards" because they don't say or do this or that, but when one looks closer, we find that numerous Democrats are doing or saying precisely what we want them to do or say, yet the initial criticism makes no distinction between Democrats generally and individuals who call themselves Democrats.

The problem reaches deeper. As an example, a couple months ago, on a particular night, Jon Stewart was the target of some rather venomous rhetoric because certain individuals felt he had "betrayed" us by even allowing a certain Republican a voice on his show. The previous day and the day following, Jon was again a hero for his incisive, witty criticism of all things involving the current administration.

And even deeper. Harry Reid, Barbara Boxer, Ted Kennedy, etc. are heroes one day and villains the next, often in the view of the same people. The point is not that we shouldn't criticize individual actions on a particular day, rather that we should actually take a moment and try to see what they are attempting to accomplish. Politics is an art with few absolutes, and if we demand them, we will always be disappointed.

It gives anyone with a clue a case of mental whiplash to see this kind of nonsense.