Conservatives Like to "Feel Good." Liberals Like to "Do Good."

When Reagan was challenging Carter in 1980, a friend said, “Ronald Reagan makes me feel good.” I’ve never forgotten this because I hear it so much now among Bush supporters who say their candidate makes them feel good. That, I believe, is the difference between the left and the right. The right seeks out images and platitudes that make them “feel good.” The left seeks out ideas and dialogue that inspire them to “do good.” For instance, the self-congratulatory “No Child Left Behind” was begun -- but underfunded by $27 billion (according to the Ohio Department of Education) -- by the conservative Bush Administration. The Democratic challenger, Senator Kerry, proposes a Medicaid plan that will give more children eligible for health care. The policies proposed and established by Democrats over the years actually put into practice the adage “love they neighbor.” If the recent Republican convention is any indication, then the political right is more interested in the puffery of turning George W. Bush into a demi-god just because he hollered into a bullhorn and threw out a baseball at Yankee stadium, which is the political equivalent of ribbon-cutting at a new building. It is self-congratulatory imagery that feeds the egotism of the insecure.