AH YES, I REMEMBER IT WELL - AT 9:18 A.M. ET:  Superlative historian Victor Davis Hanson reminds us of a bit of history, as Democrats express anguish, pain and horror at the thought of anyone criticizing The One:

Maureen Dowd wrote another unfortunate, poorly argued, and thinly researched column yesterday. She alleges that racism is behind the growing suspicion of the Obama administration and its initiatives. But almost everything we've seen so far has a parallel with liberal attacks on George W. Bush. By 2005, Democrats were booing him openly during his State of the Union address. Rep. Pete Stark called him a liar on the House floor. In fact, the response so far to Obama is mild in comparison to what Bush endured. That does not excuse the boorishness of Joe Wilson, but his tirade is symbolic of our loss of decorum since 2002/2003.

As we all remember, novels were published outlining dreams of killing Bush; a film on that theme won an award. Al Gore, John Glenn (of all people!), and Robert Byrd compared Bush to a brownshirt or Nazi, and they were echoed in the popular culture by the likes of Linda Rondstadt and Garrison Keiler ("brownshirts in pinstripes"). There was no liberal outcry in response.

No, and there never will be.  Today's liberal (not really) mindset is illiberal and bigoted.  It begins with the premise that liberals are 1) superior, and 2) aggrieved, and therefore must be given some leeway in expressing themselves.  Opponents, in the liberal view, are bigoted, narrow, and dangerous, and therefore must be kept on a leash.

...so far, we have seen in the opposition to Obama none of the hatred and sickness that characterized a wide swath of opinion on the left during the Bush years — hatred and sickness that were mainstreamed by the likes of Alfred Knopf, the Guardian, and the Democratic party.

And please remember that the mainstream media usually will not report the most extreme vulgarity in leftist rallies, including the obscenity, while playing up the fringes at conservative gatherings. 

The present poisoned atmosphere began in the 1980s and 1990s with virulent partisan attacks on Reagan and Clinton. But it was between 2004 and 2008 that the Left introduced a particularly sick sort of hatred to the political give-and-take, reminiscent of the lunatic right during the mid-1950s.

I personally believe that the decline in our popular culture - songs, movies, TV - contributed enormously to that poison.  When young people get the feeling that anyone goes, anything starts to go.

One of the most surreal developments of the last nine months has been to see Times columnists who were particularly unfair and vicious in their 24/7 attacks on the prior administration now call for more civil discourse and impugn the motives of Obama critics, apparently in bewilderment that anyone would question the president's competence or sincerity. This is all quite amazing, really.

And Times readership continues to sink.  It isn't all because of the internet.

September 15, 2009