When AC (Adorable Child) was in kindergarten, she met children who would throw themselves to the ground, kick and scream, and demonstrate an infantile version of “going postal”. Chairs would be thrown, food would spatter… and absolutely nothing rational could be said. (Luckily, AC didn’t do this…)
The reaction from the hard right “conservative base” to Bush’s speech last night reminds me of those days; it’s just not as cute. (I kid you not, there is some astounding hysteria out there.)
Polimom originally planned to do a round-up of the foaming and frothing, but since I’ve decided that two broken parties are actually worse than the one we’ve had for a while, I think it’s more productive to take some time to notice the conservatives who were able to turn off the noise machines and give Bush’s speech the attention it deserved last night.
For instance, along with a great round-up of some of the hysteria, I found this at Flopping Aces:
Bush is offering a common sense approach to this problem but some on the right are going to stamp their feet until they get what they want, damn the consequences.
Have I agreed with his take on this issue, no. But I will not jump in with both feet and help destroy everything he has done and will do in the next few years because I don’t get my way. There is no such thing as a President who pleases all sides on every issue.
And from Decision ’08 comes this:
I missed the live coverage, but I’ve read the content, and I must say I the President’s immigration speech hit just about every note I wanted to hear. He talked about concrete steps to stop the flow of illegal immigration, but stopped short of being draconian; he talked of needed steps to end ‘catch and release’; he talked of the welcoming spirit we must have for immigrants who play by the rules; and he resisted calls to round up 11 million people and drag ‘em away in front of the whole world (and for those who support the mass deportation of all existing illegals, I don’t think you’ve seriously considered the images – it would be brutal).
Of course, Polimom finds these folks rational because I agree with most of what Bush said last night; my biggest sticking point comes with this “English only” oddness. (A prior post on that here.) Yes, many folks have at least one point of departure from what Bush said last night, but attacks and dropping ethnic slurs are… well… a bit juvenile.
There’s a lot written this morning about how “the base” is “upset”, but Polimom couldn’t find anyone who said it better than The Anchoress does here [her emphasis]:
Here is a Newsflash, Mr. Base: The President of the United States is not merely President of the Base, but of the whole country. When a president is elected, his job is not then to “do the bidding of the base” or face their wrath. I daresay you would be horrified to see a Democrat president listening only to “the base.” I respectfully suggest that when a president is elected, it does not translate into “the base gets to decide policy for the nation.” I further suggest that a president who has managed to give you 70% or so of what you, “the base” wanted has earned both his say and a calm, rational, NOT-hysterical perusal of what he is proposing before the lynching party goes off half-cocked.
What Bush laid out last night was a plan for cooperation and reason, and he finally spoke directly to that thinking, rational, and (usually) calm majority of Americans who have retained their compassion while recognizing that there are problems.
The folks who simply cannot let go of their bizarre irrationality — the “I want my way and I WANT IT NOW” — are marginalizing themselves, and just as those from the far left who cannot hear the word “Bush” without falling into fits and twitches have harmed the Democrats, the foaming ravers are creating a laughing-stock of the GOP.
Time to pull some weeds.