Getting Personal

I used to think that the tendency of liberals to vilify their enemies with such ferocity, was due to the threat that person posed to them. So for instance, Sarah Pailin represented a threat because she was a conservative woman. Worse, was that she was on the Republican running against an all male ticket of Democrats. They had to take her down HARD. Ted Cruz is Hispanic with better academic credentials than Obama. He graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law, clerked at the Supreme Court and was an international debate champion. So naturally he is a crazy radical.

But now, I'm starting to think that it's all because they need to personalize it. They have a hard time defeating ideas. They are not very good at fighting an idea. You have explain yourself, you have to use facts. They are much better at provoking emotions. And it is much easier to manipulate one's feeling about another person, than it is to manipulate their feelings about a concept.

The Liberal Arsenal

• pkbormes
• Brookline, MA

Time for Dems to remind people who caused the shutdown, wasted 24 billion taxpayer dollars, and risked the full faith and credit of the United States. That should overpower Republican lies about an effort which, after all, is intended to HELP the average American.

This is just a typical post from a NYT article about the Koch brothers efforts to hang the ACA around the necks of Democrats. But it contains everything in their pathetic arsenal. First is the shutdown. Some liberal think tank conjured up that $24 billion number as the "cost" of the shutdown (not taxpayer cost.) It was one of those studies extrapolating economic ripple effects where a family is not driving to Yellowstone, not buying gas, and not staying in a hotel. Then they look at the hotel and gas station not buying supplies and not paying staff and the staff not going grocery shopping. You get the picture. they can come up with any number they want. Then there is the threat of default, conveniently ignoring that only the executive branch could cause default to happen. And finally, the last refuge of liberal scoundrels: He had good intentions.