Saturday, February 9, 2013

Liberals Are Partisans Too


File:AGM-114 Hellfire hung on a Predator drone.JPEG
A Hellfire missile hangs from a Predator Drone
 A lot of folks on the left - myself included - like to mock Republicans, and particularly the Fox News brand of Republicans, for their uncritical and knee-jerk responses to things.  "Good" in their eyes is defined as anything the Republican leadership says or does and "Bad" is a synonym for "Obama."

But Republicans aren't the only ones who do this.













A recent (and highly unscientific) survey of Ed Schultz' viewership on MSNBC showed t hat 78% of them support President Obama's targeted killing of American civilians with drone strikes.  (You can find the video at the bottom of this article)

Let's be clear.  If George W. Bush's name had been attached to this program rather than Barack Obama's, Schultz's viewership would be standing with pitchforks and torches outside of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.  Liberals were furious when they found out that President Bush had wiretapped Americans without a court order; surely sending the US military's army of flying terminators after people without trial or any other form of due process is at least as bad.

Right?  Guys?

Republicans right now are struggling with the consequences of becoming the party of "stupid."  There's more to that identity than blind partisanship -- anti-science views and opposition to education certainly play a part -- but the perception of the GOP faithful as a pack of bleating sheep underpins the caricature 

Opposition to executive over-reach is and should be a liberal value.  That does not change when the person doing the over-reaching has a (D) after his name rather than an (R).

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