The Brat Right

Not long ago I saw headlines that made big news about President Bush answering "unscripted" questions. It became big news that Bush took questions from citizens and reporters, something that public officials do every day, all the time, since time began and forevermore.

So now we heap praise upon the president for this?

Why stop there?

Why not splash on the front page the following headlines:

"Garbage man lifts lid from trash can and tosses rubbish into truck!"

"Barber snips hair!"

"Waiter brings water to table!"

The genius of Karl Rove in shaping George W. Bush as the face of neoconservative policy is this: Shamelessness. That crew is without shame in lowering the public's expectation of the candidate (and now, the president) so that when he makes a complete subject-verb agreement, we throw a parade.

They are also shameless in sliming their opponents (if only to change the subject and deflect responsbility.)

The Left can fight fire with fire, but they'll lose, since they aren't anywhere near that unscrupulous. The Left can't wait for the public to cry out and be disgusted by the shamelessness either. If that hasn't happened by now (or during the Swift Boat ads,) then it never will. And if that great chunk of the ill-read public can be that easily swayed...well, that's an entire other problem that the Left cannot tackle, at least not as a campaign tactic.

The Left must stop taking the bait of the Brat Right. The Brat Right is the bullying, poking-you-under-the-chin, incessant, taunting element. Those pious hypocrites who, like Eichman, have a list of who-to-hate-next, should NOT be IGNORED because their taunts won't go away. The Left must parry and thrust the Brat Right by being aggressive and not taking the bait.

Only then will voters recognize that it's NOT okay for a U.S. President to make headlines for daring to taking unscripted questions from an audience. For as long as our leadership is permitted to be so doltish, so too will the rest of our national discourse, and so too will our civic progress.