Bashing the Bashers...

But the habitual use of name-calling as an expression of the user’s personal identity and power is a tad more worrisome when its practitioners surpass pre-school age. There’s a word for these practitioners -- bullies.

P.M. Carpenter, BuzzFlash

Many Republicans seemed to have reacted with a kind of giddy leering to the ascendancy of Howard Dean to the chair of the DNC.  Dean is seasoned and experienced politician who brings with him a vast network of grassroots support and a demonstrated ability to rally that support into fundraising and campaigning.  By any objective measure he's someone the GOP should take seriously, and yet they posture and prance as if he's a liability for the Democratic Party.  None of this makes any sense until you realize that Republican strength comes, at it's core, from derision and ridicule.

This is a party of bullies.  The normal rules of discourse do not apply to such people.  They don't debate, they mock; they don't rebut, they scoff; they are not working on a strong argument, they are trying out new put downs.  Their strength has come from being willing to heap contempt and abuse on those who would oppose them, while carefully avoiding substantive discussion and dismissing awkward "facts."

To their eyes, Dean is already compromised.  The full force of the conservative spanking machine pummeled him during his campaign about the so-called "Dean Scream" speech, and they believe that their pundit-wielded wedgie cost him the primaries.  They think they have found his sore spot like the cowed kid in the school yard, and if he ever gets to be a problem all they have to do is call him "unstable" or say "it's a scream!" and all the other kids will laugh and poor Howie will be rendered impotent.  It's like having the bed-wetter as hall monitor -- a bully's dream!  They have their best weapon ready without even having to invent any new material.

But this is not a sign of a deeply antisocial psychology in the conservative character, nor does it say that Americans are sycophants who only follow bullies.  Or it doesn't merely indicate those things.  No, these are tactics in a long-term strategy which attacks the very concept of rational discourse itself.  The goal, in broad terms, is to identify as many liberal ideas as possible with things that Americans reject.  The tactic is to push and defend any statement  in concert with this goal as free speech, freedom of expression, personal opinion, constructive criticism.  At the same time any idea that would challenge or refute this goal is attacked as unfounded, biased, unprofessional, improper, insulting.  The conservative pundits spew vicious lies and nonsense all the time, but they are the fastest to cry foul when anyone tries to argue back.  Listen to liberal talk radio some time and count the number of times conservatives call in to complain about the "shrill tone."

I think the thing that conservatives don't realize as they revel in Howard Dean's new office ("the gift that keeps on giving" I heard one say) is that Dean got to where he is precisely because he stood up to the bullying tactics.  When all the main Democratic candidates were echoing GOP talking points about the necessity of the Iraq War, Dean was the one who was willing to stand up and say no -- this was not a good thing to do and we should not be there.  After Dean was out of the race (and I don't think it was the scream that did it) Kerry stuck with his principled and reasoned stance and got ridiculed for that anyway.  The smears are disgusting and sickening, and the continuing jabs and taunts from the right -- without anything substantive to respond to -- hurt at a deep emotional level.  We want someone who can hit back, and Dean's one of our best shots.  If he can't do it we'll find someone else.

- jack*

Comments

[Dr. C.]

Another thing about the bully boy is that he is frequently stupid. This is, I suppose, a running theme in American politics. The fear on the Right that the pointy headed intellectuals will take over. (It is probably more like envy). There are many instances of this but one in particular comes to mind: Adlai Stevenson in 1952 and 1956 at the same time as Joe McCarthy was destroying discourse. if politics is the last refuge of scoundrels, then bullying is their ultimate weapon. Bullies often wind up attached to lampposts as Mussolini found out to his regret.

[The Liberal Avenger]

I think that despite the "gift that keeps on giving" smears, GOP strategists saw Dean as the most threatening out of DNC chair candidates Fowler/Rosenberg/Dean. Your average talking-point troll, however, has convinced himself that Dean is merely an "unhinged" screaming fool. I can't imagine how it must feel for guys like Howard Dean and Dennis Kucinich on a personal level to have so much scorn heaped upon them so undeservedly.

[The Liberal Avenger]

What should we do about Loyopp?

Should we hack his Typepad password and sell it to the Maryland casino lobby?