Thoughts on Rove
By Centerfire Posted in User Blogs — Comments (2) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
The problem with Rove's statement is that it was inaccurate. But not in the way folks like John Cole are complaining.
Read on.
A sample of the remarks that have caused such fulminations:
"Liberals saw the savagery of the 9/11 attacks and wanted to prepare indictments and offer therapy and understanding for our attackers," Rove said. "Conservatives saw the savagery of 9/11 and the attacks and prepared for war."
The inaccuracy is one of categorization; it is with the word "liberals". It wasn't liberals -- even the Teddy Chappaquiddicks of the world --who were signing onto MoveOn.org petitions and rallying for "restraint" in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. The movers and shakers there were a rather motley collection of Greens, socialists, and anarchists, and to the extent that they shared a common ideological taxonomy they were simply "leftists", not "liberals".
Perhaps that's a fine-toothed distinction. But I think it's an important one. To draw a parallel: the odious Fred Phelps is nominally right-of-center, but by no stretch of the imagination is he a "conservative".
Now, I think there's a reasonable argument to be made that the leftists arguing for peace, love, and understanding were not merely the lunatic fringe: at least a one Democrat congresscritter is on record in that manner, and it's clear that the MoveOn.org and DU constituencies are more and more (and more and more disturbingly) the Democrat mainstream. But "liberal", I think, is a misaimed spear -- it hits guys like Michael Totten and Christopher Hitchens, rather than Michael Moore and Cynthia McKinney. The former are people I'd want in my foxhole regardless of our ideological differences; the latter are, er, not.
motley collection of Greens, socialists, and anarchists, and to the extent that they shared a common ideological taxonomy they were simply "leftists", not "liberals".
That's a distinction that will be lost once you leave the world of political junkies like us. Karl Rove doesn't worry about us; we're all set in our ways, and besides there aren't enough of us to matter.
Karl Rove thinks in terms of the guy who saw the peace demonstrations on the TV and thought, "liberals." There are tens of millions of people like him.