Knee-Jerks

Having been accused of being a knee-jerk Bush hater (as well as a knee-jerk Hillary apologist, knee-jerk Democratic justifier, and knee-jerk just about everything else), I found this quote from one of Andrew Sullivan's readers apt:

One of the more frustrating aspects of dealing with Bush apologists is highlighted by the reader accusing you of "Bush Derangement Syndrome", which is just one of their more desperate methods of avoiding debate on substance. These people are afraid to acknowledge that it is possible, even most likely, that citizens develop animosity towards political figures because of things they actually say and do, not because of who they 'are' or which tribe they're from.

There is quite a good dissection of the tribal mentality in American politics right now in this missive. Of course, it goes a long way toward explaining the 20-something percent of the voters who still approve of Bush, knowing that he's lied to them, damaged the country, and has absolutely no remorse whatsoever for doing it -- he's theirs. It's an instant replay of the "My country right or wrong" syndrome from the Vietnam era.

I do have some issues that generate instant and very strong reactions -- abuse of children and animals, abuse of the Constitution, lies from anti-gay bigots, and the like, but I think I can honestly say that I don't display a lot of knee-jerk behavior. I'm more likely to be sitting here saying "But what about. . . ?"

In the case of Bush, I was never a supporter, but I wasn't an enemy. And, as his presidency progressed, he managed to fuck up everything that crossed his desk. I didn't agree with most of h is policies, and the few I agreed with turned out to be sound bites. Given that he's lied to us on just about everything, why should I listen to anything coming from the White House?

I guess I'm just not a true believer. That sort of bothers me, in the inverse -- what kind of capacity for denial must you have to still put any faith in this administration? How crazy do you have to be?

And these are the people that Hillary Clinton and all of the GOP candidates are trying to please.