Keeping the blogosphere posted on the goings on of the world of submarines since late 2004... and mocking and belittling general foolishness wherever it may be found. Idaho's first and foremost submarine blog. (If you don't like something on this blog, please E-mail me; don't call me at home.)

Tuesday, November 01, 2005

Questioning One's Patriotism

A while ago, I expressed my frustration with the meme that Republicans were constantly "questioning the patriotism" of Democrats; here's what I said:

"Whenever a Democrat is questioned on his stands on national security, liberals will scream, quite shrilly, that people are "questioning their patriotism". Interestingly, it's hard to find any actual quotes where mainstream Republicans actually say words to the effect of "he's not patriotic"; in fact, it mostly seems to be Democrats who "question people's patriotism". (More quotes here; I didn't bother to look up source references for all of them, but they sound reasonable.)"

Yesterday, we saw New York Times columnist Paul Krugman doing it again -- if you're a TimesSelect subscriber you can read it here, otherwise you'll have to go here. Here's part of what he says:

"The administration has, instead, built its power on myths: the myth of presidential leadership, the ugly myth that the administration is patriotic while its critics are not...
"Apologists can shout all they like that no laws were broken, that hardball politics is nothing new, or whatever. The fact remains that officials close to both Mr. Cheney and Mr. Bush leaked the identity of an undercover operative for political reasons. Whether or not that act was illegal, it was clearly unpatriotic." [emphasis mine]

He seems to have no inkling of how completely ridiculous this sounds...

3 Comments:

Blogger Skippy-san said...

I know I'm going to get beaten up for this, but I actually agree with Krugman. His key point is not about patriotism, its that Bush tries to consistently present himself as something that he is not. He's been doing that since he screwed McCain in 2000 in S.C. and onward.

Here is the key quote:" The point is that this administration's political triumphs have never been based on its real-world achievements, which are few and far between. The administration has, instead, built its power on myths: the myth of presidential leadership, the ugly myth that the administration is patriotic while its critics are not. Take away those myths, and the administration has nothing left. "

QED.......

11/01/2005 9:47 PM

 
Blogger Bubblehead said...

Skippy -- I'm not sure which successful politicians don't present themselves as something they're not. Sure, Bush's operatives played hardball with McCain in South Carolina, which wasn't very nice... it was what they needed to do to win.

My point is that Democrats have taken any Republican attack on their national security positions and declared it "questioning their patriotism". It's a dumb strategy -- the Republicans aren't saying anything (directly) about someone's patriotism, but the Democrats bring the word up, leaving the casual voter to remember only that "I remember someone saying this guy isn't patriotic".

11/02/2005 2:14 AM

 
Blogger Skippy-san said...

Perhaps, but he is light years better than Bush.

11/02/2005 2:44 PM

 

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