archy

Not always nice
I'm a nice guy, sometimes painfully so. Painful for me, not for you. That's why when I wrote my post the other day about being clear who we are in political discussions, I made sure to include "people of good will" as an important category. At one time or another I'm a part of all four of the categories I discussed.

One part of me really wants to end the fratricidal level of confrontation in out political culture. That's more than me being nice; that's also me being practical. We have reached the point where things that should not be partisan become partisan out of spite. If they are for something, then we are against it. How often do wingnut writiers say their readers should do something just to bug the Liberals? How often do we say that about them? Is there anyone on our side that hasn't chuckled at the thought of Hillary '08 just to watch Rush's head explode, even if most of us think Hillary would make a disastrous candidate? Okay, that John wants to heal the body politic because it's what's best for America in the long run.

But there is another John that wants to squash the New Republicans like the bugs they are. I tell myself that getting them out of the game and letting the old-style conservatives take back the GOP is a necessary prerequisite for the healing -- and that's true -- but a peaceful transfer of power isn't enough. I want them humiliated. Ezra over at Pandagon speaks for that John.

[I want to make] sure that every infuriating policy proposal and absurd pork project gets stuffed so far down the GOP's throat that it bursts out, Alien-like, onto the floor in a mass of goo and gore, leaving the wrecked husk of conservatism to topple over, a grotesque mass of corporate cronyism and sickening power-lust.

Let me restate, I thinks getting the public to see the New Republicans for what they really are is an important part of our national healing. A solid national rejection of them is certainly necessary to get the rest of the world to even think of trusting us again. But deep down inside, there is a side of me that just wants to make Karl Rove cry.

Deep inside every nice guy is a vindictive bastard trying to break free. Fear us.