Some of you may have noticed that my leftism is a little odd in comparison to the rightwing's version of lefty. You may also have noticed that I have a great deal of respect for the old time "C" Conservatives. Not that I want to kill government or some such, but their respect for keeping the government out of our homes and private lives was in tune with American values and they had the undoubted value of a principled adversary in improving an argument. John Cole, http://www.balloon-juice.com/ is now a "turncoat" conservative, in that most Bushisms are an anathema to him. One of his commenters wanted to know what had gotten into him.
I couldn't restrain myself and tried, in my lefty way, to touch on what might have gotten into a Conservative in regards to BushCo. Since I usually try not to write an essay in comments I thought I'd touch on it here as an expansion, and since the hit meter shows Balloon Juice readers showing up, as a hat tip. I share with Conservatives a basic tenet, that the Constitution and The Bill of Rights are the law of the land and they are not to be disregarded or infringed upon. From that simple beginning most of my past posts in that regard cover that ground left or right. John takes it a bit farther castigating the Republicans for their shams regarding gay marriage and religion. Here we're running into that Conservative extension of the Constitution & BOR into areas it does not specifically address but does in a spirit of understanding. All Americans are equal under the law, they have equal rights and responsibilities - yup - gays, too. BushCo in the name of security and unitary executive powers have run rough shod over already damaged rights and John doesn't like it. At all.
He supported the invasion of Iraq, like many he could not engage the idea that a Republican President wouldn't tell the truth about such an issue. Over time the disclosure of the lies, double dealings, character assassinations, sloganeering, and general Bushisms wore him out and he became a dedicated critic. As hard edged a critic as the disillusioned become and he now has an audience of "gasp" liberals.
This clueless commenter, a Bush-apologist, can't seem to figure out why someone who'd backed and been enthused by a Republican Congress and Presidency would turn so mean. This person cannot seem to get it, despite post after post by John detailing his problems with that bunch. John Cole is good at this stuff, much better than I am, so I have no idea where a person's head would have to be to miss this. I think it may be a measure of our opposition that we'd better have a real handle on because if the John Coles can take back the Republican Party it's going to be awhile coming. Don't think those Conservatives will make things easy, they'll come with ideas and philosophy and reasoning, not the religious claptrap and fear mongering that's actually easy to counter.
I put up a link to Balloon Juice some time back, I like the writing and I respect the reasoning. The commenters are mostly a smart witty bunch and don't disappoint. If you get some amusement out of Blog warfare, it erupts from time to time, John is, after all, a turncoat to the wingnuts.
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