Brain Fertilizer

Dean asks (gist is my interpretation), With as much as right-wingers hated and spun/spread conspiracy-theories about President Clinton, and the attendent increase of vitriol from the left-wingers over President Bush, if John Kerry wins the Presidency, do conservatives/right-wingers/Bush-supporters vow to act with dignity, decorum, and honor? Will we promise to provide a principled, civil opposition?

Well, now...I think I have a good sense of honor in the first place. I would hesitate to make any sort of pledge, however, because I anticipate that were John Kerry to be elected President, Democrats will instantly jump on any criticism by a conservative as a violation of that pledge, and proof that their unconscionable treatment of President Bush was justified.

I will do what I feel is the correct action at the time, and you'll just have to trust me.

Part of the problem with the whole situation is that all the anger and yelling and vitriol is not a fight over/for the Presidency, it is a war being waged to win access/control of the tools of national discourse. It wasn't Clinton that created the GOP anger, it was that the mainstream news media refused to follow scandals with the same persistence they pursued when a Republican was President. It really isn't George W. Bush that has created the Democrat anger, it is that they must convince America that the mainstream media was right about President Bush all along. The more success that Fox News Channel and bloggers have in reaching and affecting the mind of the average citizen, the more shrill Democrats get, because they must destroy the credibility of Fox News Channel and right-wing bloggers as the first step to regaining power in all three branches of the federal government. Sure, they bash Bush, but only to prove that Fox News and warbloggers were so easily duped by such a charlatan as W, so we can all go back to trusting the NY Times and CNN. It ain't gonna work, because you can't stuff the genie back in the bottle...but they have no other choice. This is all they can do.

People grow the most crazy when they feel they have lost the ability to be heard, rather than just not being in power.

So I have to conclude that since conservatives have mroe voice and influence these days than just the AM talk radio we had during the Clinton days, things will automatically calm down if Kerry were to take office.