Quote of the Day
By Bronwyn's Harbor on September 19, 2009 at 6:01 PM in Current Affairs
“Obama doesn’t lie. He merely eludes, gliding from one dubious assertion to another. This has been the story throughout his whole health-care crusade. Its original premise was that our current financial crisis was rooted in neglect of three things — energy, education and health care. That transparent attempt to exploit Emanuel’s Law — a crisis is a terrible thing to waste — failed for health care because no one is stupid enough to believe that the 2008 financial collapse was caused by a lack of universal health care.
“So on to the next gambit: selling health-care reform as a cure for the deficit. When that was exploded by the Congressional Budget Office’s demonstration of staggering Obamacare deficits, Obama tried a new tack: selling his plan as revenue-neutral insurance reform — until the revenue neutrality is exposed as phony future cuts and chimerical waste and fraud.
“Obama doesn’t lie. He implies, he misdirects, he misleads — so fluidly and incessantly that he risks transmuting eloquence into mere slickness. …”
Who wrote those three brilliant paragraphs? Can you guess who? Are you like me, able to appreciate perfectly described analyses even if they’re written by someone with whom you’ve historically disagreed? Well, just who might that be?
Dr. Charles Krauthammer. A psychiatrist who’s also the top conservative columnist in the United States. In his column titled “Does He Lie?” published in Friday’s Washington Post.
Back in my liberal, Democratic-party days — before the jarring and stunningly cruel attacks on Hillary Clinton and on me as well as many people I love — I used to disagree with almost everything that Dr. Krauthammer wrote. But those cruel attacks stripped away any illusions I had about liberals and diehard Democrats.
And here’s another great quote from Dr. Krauthammer (h/t to NQ reader, Anthony):
His quote about Maureen Dowd had me in stitches.
I remembered something about human beings that I’d somehow forgotten: That professed viewpoints and party ties in no way equate with the morality and decency of that human being in his/her treatment of others.
There was a time when I knew that. When I’d use the following as an example: “Just because someone demonstrably loves and treats dogs wonderfully does NOT mean that that person is a decent human being.”
And then I’d add the best example I could bring to nail my point: “After all, Hitler cherished and treated his dogs as much, if not more so, than almost any other dog owner on the planet.”
But, during my Daily Kos days, I’d somehow let slip that knowledge about human behavior. I overlooked imperfections in my fellow Daily Kossacks and in the politicians and pundits that they admired, and I joined the Kossacks in condemning every conservative and Republican for the slightest reason.
It’s better where I am these days. Even as I’m finding myself drawn more and more to conservative and Republican thinkers and doers, I’m not so besotted from imbibing their brand of KoolAid that I can’t also see their faults.
My reborn multiplicity vantage permits me to admire, and discuss, the pluck of Sarah Palin and to be deeply offended by the sexist attacks that she endured while, at the same time, not regarding her as an appropriate candidate for the presidency or as a serious conservative thinker. And be able to say so to friends and in my writings.
My reborn multiplicity vantage permits me to watch some of Glenn Beck’s shows, gleaning some invaluable information, while also cringing at his over-the-top, nutty mannerisms and often illogical reasoning. For example, when I first heard Beck use his newly-created phrase “the fringe media” to replace “the mainstream media,” I scratched my head but, in a day or so, I realized that “the fringe media” was the perfect description because those in this media group, while they dominate media, do not live in, fit in or desire to belong to any group of mainstream Americans. Beck nailed it, I realized, because that media not only exists on the fringe of mainstream American society, that media views itself as above the rest of Americans.
My reborn multiplicity vantage permits me to read Dr. Krauthammer’s writing with the utmost admiration for his rare talent in logically, precisely describing the attitudes and behaviors of other human beings, while also disagreeing on occasion with his conclusions. (I’ll be damned if I think of an example right now, but take my word that I do disagree with him often.)
And, on this blog, my reborn multiplicity vantage permits me to admire — tremendously — Larry Johnson’s occasional praise for President Obama, as Larry did in a post earlier this week, because Larry is being HONEST with not only himself but also with all of you. Larry has that essential courage required to avoid the curse of every true believer: He not only thinks for himself but he also never has any apprehensions about what you and I may think of his opinions. Larry is completely aware that praising Obama will bring him heaps of criticism from most of you, but he has the guts to write what he thinks anyway. Sadly, Larry’s is a rare quality. And it’s one that I often fail to express because most of the time I’m too much of a people-pleaser and I don’t want the criticisms that come with daring to step outside the line that most of our readers expect to see in all of our writings.
Now, it’s up to me to take a big step and, next time, to post a “quote of the day” from a diehard liberal or Democrat. If I can find one! Ha!
Until then, I will leave you with this quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson:
A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.
P.S. TGIF to all of you! Let your hair down this weekend. Get outdoors if you can and enjoy the last sunny, warm days that we’ll have for many months.
by Ronald Scott
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