Who's the Tool?

He or his audience?

Was Al Gore always crazy? Or did the 2000 presidential election drive him around the bend? Or is he “crazy like a fox,” waging a calculated campaign as a rabble-rouser, in order to motivate a certain demographic to defeat George W. Bush in the upcoming election? It’s hard to know, but I hope it’s the latter. Otherwise, the thought that he missed becoming president by inches is too frightening to contemplate.

Oppose the war in Iraq? Fine. Believe that there was no connection between Osama bin Laden’s al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein’s Iraq? Fine. Argue it, take action (legal), protest peacefully. (Many will make fun of you but should not hinder you. It’s your right to protest, just as it is my right to ridicule you.)

Make reasonable statements that support your belief and, hopefully those of us on the other side will politely take issue or even come around in the face of irrefutable fact. Say ridiculous things to support your assertion, however, and more fun will be made of you.

And, when a man who almost became POTUS says things that are not only ridiculous, but reprehensible, get down on your knees and thank God that this man is not president right now. Even if you don’t believe in Him, it’s good to be on the safe side.

In an hour-long address punctuated by polite laughter and applause, Gore also accused the Bush administration of working closely "with a network of 'rapid response' digital Brown Shirts who work to pressure reporters and their editors for 'undermining support for our troops."'

I realize that Former Vice President Al Gore went to an Ivy League school and I went to an LA area community college, so, perhaps someone who has more formal education than I do can help me out here. How are people who write letters to the editors of newspapers on the same moral plane as the Sturmabteilung (SA)—the strong arm wing of the Gestapo--of the Third Reich? Perhaps I need to crack open my copy of The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich again.

Implicit in Vice President Gore’s statement is the assertion that no one could possible make a reasoned moral choice to be for the Iraq War unless he/she has some vested (read: monetary) interest in doing so. It goes like this: the Bush Administration and/or the RNC sends out its faxes and emails to give conservatives their talking points. We little automatons then regurgitate these talking points to the “professionals” or on our own blogs; all for tangible gain, of course.

Well, I haven’t received my check yet. Dean? Commissar? How about you? And if you have received yours, tell the VRWC comptroller that I am owed back pay.

And the only faxed talking points I’ve seen were issued by Leftists, received by one of my Leftist, Bush-hating friends.

One of the most astonishing facts of life in America is this: few have a concept of what a “brown-shirt” really is. One of my relatives actually called my conservative ideas “Gestapo-like.” After mastering my temper, I asked her if she knew anything about the actions of Nazi Germany’s Gestapo. She didn’t. So I gave her a quick rundown of the function of Die Geheime Staatspolizei and to her credit, she apologized. But, from the rampant way in which Godwin’s Law is violated, I’d say that my relative isn’t the only one with this conspicuous gap in her knowledge.

(After reading Wikipedia’s record of the Gestapo, one might argue that our detainment of prisoners in Guantanamo Bay has many similarities to some of its actions. But that’s a dust-up for another post.)

Most assuredly, Albert Gore, Jr. knows the difference between exercising free speech and burning books. He knows the difference between ridiculing someone like Maureen Dowd (registration required) and advocating that she be exterminated for her public views contrary to “the state’s interests.” But he also knows that hurling insulting epithets at one’s opposition appeals to the red-meat set and to the ignorant. Never mind that calling one’s ideological adversary a “Nazi,” devalues the suffering of real victims of real Nazis. Can’t be helped. It is collateral damage in the service of the greater good, doncha know.

Okay, I’ve come to a conclusion: Al Gore knows exactly what he’s doing.

(Thanks to LGF)

Comments

[David Foster]

What Gore has done in this statement is truly obscene. It is destructive of historical understanding. It is offensive to the memory of those few Germans who did have the courage to resist Hitler, and who risked (and usually suffered) something a lot worse than mocking letters to the editor.

A man who would do this for ephemeral political gain is a man who would burn masterpieces of art to heat his house.

[Asher Abrams]

Absolutely unbelievable.

But really, is it so surprising that the leftists are playing the "Bush=Hitler" line for all it's worth?

Because if "Bush is Hitler", then we don't have to look around to see where the REAL nazis are - in Tehran, in Damascus, in Tikrit, and (though much less so now) in Baghdad.

If "Bush is Hitler" then the leftists don't have to stop and think about their role, their complicity, their ACTIVE COLLABORATION in genocide.

[Steve Michaels]

I watched excerpts from his first speech at NYU and was dumbfounded. During the 2000 campaign he was Mr. Roboto but that speech at NYU sounded like a 1938 Nuremburg rally.

I really think Al has gone off the deep end. I honestly believe that his losing the election has affected his mental state. It is one thing to oppose the war, but it's harder to follow Gore's logic considering it was the Clinton administration that signed the Iraq Liberation Act (read: regime change!)in the first place!

Bush is being villifed for implementing a Clinton/Gore policy yet none of the major media seem to want to pick up on that.

It's what some might call...ironic

[Francis W. Porretto]

Many influences can make a man say unfortunate things. Losing the election was undoubtedly painful for Gore, but unless we're going to postulate some sort of "deferred post-electoral shock syndrome," I'd have to reject that as the explanation for his recent looniness.

It's more likely that Gore is reacting to more recent developments. Those developments have been dramatic enough to unhinge, not just a failed Presidential candidate, but an entire political party.

The Democratic Party has shattered under the pressure from the Clinton and Kennedy wings. Gore, you may recall, signed on with Howard Dean. Thus, he renounced his earlier affiliation with the Clintons, and put himself "on the outs" with the Kennedys, who adopted John Kerry as their stooge when they found that they couldn't control or co-opt Dean. That torpedoed any future he might have had within the Democratic Party. Add to this Gore's proclivity for taking extreme positions in the first place, and the gyrations within the fringes of left-wing politics. Flirting with the hairy-eyed probably looks to Gore like his last chance for influence -- a final relevance before he slips off into the limbo reserved for also-rans.

I could be wrong; I often am. But until late 2002, Gore had the pole position for the 2004 Democratic Presidential nomination. I can't see him coming apart this way because of Election 2000, as long as he still had a prospect for a rematch. He's too much the political animal for that. Remember, his father literally raised him to be President.

[Laughing Wolf]

Well said! I've already expressed my views, but I will add one more here. Forgive the spelling, as I am not Jewish or Israeli, but to Gore: Kish mir im Tuches! Goyim. He has just spit on the graves of all who died in the Holocaust, Jew, Gentile, and other.

My second thought is: We get paid for this? Commissar said it was for the good of the Reagan Revolution, get bolshoi women and vodka. Now money? Commissar, come here, we need to have "little talk" about back pay of all types...

[teal marie]

Gore is resorting to tantrums because nothing else worked. Think how it must feel to him to be the Kiss of Death personified. He has nothing left to lose but his temper.
And I do, I do, I do thank God I didn't get who I voted for that time!

[Steve H.]

He's a CRAZY bitch.

Been saying so for four years.

[Warthog]

Speaking of thanking God. I heard today that at the WWII Memorial there is engraved the famous speech by FDR "A date that will live in infamy etc." except for the final line that reads "So help us God". Is thatto offensive these days? The PC police are rewriting history now.

[wesley J.]

The Left use hateful invective as a primary weapon. From Johnson claiming his rival was a right wing nut bound to start throwing nukes, to
the present comparison of Bush and Hitler. Those on the Left have no respect for anyone or anything, save regaining power.
I've known this for quite a while, but their words and actions that betray and endanger our fighting men and women have taken any last shred of respect I had.
First Gore endorsed Dean The Red Faced Screamer, now he has become the shade of Dean The Inarticulate Spit Fountain.
When I consider the result of the Bush/Gore presidential race, I KNOW God exists, and He is paying attention.

[Helen]

Gore is so filled wth hatred -- that is the one emotion that comes through clearly when he speaks, pure burning hatred of GWB -- and that emotion is magnified by what the polls must be telling him. Gore could keep the lid on it as long as the country did not seem inclined to re-elect GWB. With election a few months away and the signs pointing to a massive Bush landslide, it is galling to Gore that the nation which gave him the popular vote could re-elect the man who beat him at the electoral college. That rubs salt and congo pepper into Gore's wounds. The idea of a re-elected GWB is pushing Gore over the edge like nothing else can. Hatred. Envy. Jealousy. Rage. GWB ought to watch his back.

[Kat-Missouri]

I am a reformed Democrat. Like laughing wolf, I voted for Gore last election based on what I conwsidered to be "social" issues in the USA. On 9/12/2001, I was damn glad that my vote did not result in his election. Today, I am even happier that he lost. I am ashamed to have been party to such a vote.

I am not sure the GWB is the BEST president we ever had, but I'm damn sure he's the best we've got right now and I plan to stick with him.

PS...this morning I woke up and put extra starch in my brown shirt. It looked very nice with my "proud to be a republican" forage cap. LOL

[Ben]

I think this is a symptom of a particular mindset or world veiw. It goes something like this and you see evidence of it throughout the middle east as well as most other dictatorial regimes.

In such regimes, the only way to get anything done is to whisper into the right ears, and get whoever is the head cheese to decide in your favor. Democracies are different, the whole pack not a herd thingy that Glenn has been on about since 9-11.

Therefore, if someone is attacking you, it is not them per se. But they are acting as agents of someother power, in this case Bush and company.

To them, nothing can happen that supports Republican withOUT Bush's direct involvement. Someone has to whisper in his ear, and that is really the basis of comspiracies.

The very idea that the sheeple, who are too stupid to take care of themselves in the first place, (which is why we need men like Al Gore to run our lives for us) would take it upon themselves and refute the lies the Dems are telling without consulting with the White House is unthinkable. Literally, they don't believe in such things, it is against the laws of physics in their universe.

And so, we have the "digital brownshirts"

[Ben]

One other point. I support the war in Iraq for a number of reasons. Some of them coincide with Bush's, some of them are my own. I feel we owed it to the Shia to remove Saddam after they got slaughtered in their uprising in 1992. But I also think that removing Saddam will make America safer, as well as the Iraqi people safer and more free. I ain't getting a check either.

I believe in civil rights and the most important one for me is the right not to get blowed up by some nut job on a religious crusade. I don't need a check to support the war, or Bush. I see how my support benefits me, and my family and the nation, without having to be paid to do so.

[David Foster]

Read this, from an Italian blogger, about the rage, hate, and death-worship that she has encountered from some on the left.

http://thejoyofknitting.blogspot.com/2004_06_01_thejoyofknitting_archive.html#108806384206219708

More than a little of this shows in the recent speeches by Mr Gore.

[TL]

Gore's speech and much of Kerry's campaign nonsense (demanding an apology from the Bush campaign because it calls out the Moveon.org ad morphing Bush into Hitler) is the predictable result of the Democrats not having much to talk about and not having developed the skills of how to really debate ideas. They had been in the majority position for so long, and their ideas and positions were completely unchallenged by the media until very recently, and they were able to get by on simply demonizing the opposition. They've been so used to being able to just throw out "fascist", "racist","chauvinist", "greedy" etc. that they don't know how to do much else. It's a shame, really, because the country is not well served by having only a two-party system where one of the parties acts like a bunch of hysterical retards.

[Mike O]

Though some of my liberal friends have gone back to complaining of the "stolen" election, I asked them all right after 9/11 if they would really rather have Gore at that moment and not one could say yes.

[Louis Spielman]

What's really amazing, is that the same folks who,like AL Bore, accuse Bush supporters of being "Digital Brownshirts", also accuse Bush of being the front for a "Cabal of Jewish pro-Israel Neo-conservatives"

Can't they get their story straight?

[Serenity]

I was just saying something to that effect the other day, Louis.

Course, you know, we're all white trash trailer park dwellers...even though we are all rich and are keeping them down with our greed and wealth...

We support Israel...unlike many on the Left who support Palestinians...yet we're the digital brownshirts? Mmmkay.

And I haven't received my check either. What's up with that? I could use the money after paying off all these medical bills. Did someone forget to whisper in George Bush's ear again about our monetary reimbursment for time spent writing to editors and blogging? Guess I'll have to go visit George Bush myself and get those checks rolling.

[Laughing Wolf]

Kat, one minor thing: I did NOT vote for Gore last time. Didn't meant to imply it, state it, or anything else. Knew he was a loon from living for a time in TN.

Serenity, let's go have a talk with The Commissar. Think he might find it entertaining to be a part of a conversation between us. *EG*

[Peter]

There's another factor here with Gore and the Dems. The rage of the criminal that's been caught.
With the massive vote fraud and then the Florida shennanigans, it's pretty clear that Gore tried, and almost succeeded, in stealing the election.
I hope that none of the folks reading this will ever experience the absolute rage that one encounters in a prison. I spent my working life in a county cruiser, I locked up a few bad guys. In them I saw the exact same rage. They weren't mad at themselves, they were mad at me. They were mad at the citizen who made the phone call. They were mad at the citizen who's locks were a little too good or that storekeeper with a gun under the counter.
The closer a criminal was to getting away with it, the madder he was.
That's Al Gore. He got away with so many illegal acts during the '90s that he began to believe he'd never get busted, then he was.
I've seen hundreds just like him. Locked up.

[David Blue]

Peter: ah. Thanks, I was wondering, and I think that might be an answer.

To those who aren't getting the brownshirts/Joos thing: remember that "Israel" is spelled with a swastika instead of an S.

[Jim C.]

Louis, Serenity: the connection between "digital brownshirts" and the Jewish "cabal" is obviously "Zionazis"!

What the f*ck is up with psycho Gore and those who follow him? Where is this frothing rage coming from? I am seriously afraid of these people.

I was thinking maybe here's the reason Gore was stiff: he was working hard to keep his hate from showing.

[Alan Sullivan]

With his comment on stiffness, Jim C. is getting close to how I see Gore. I've watched him since his abortive presidential run in 1988, and I'm convinced the man hated his control-freak father. In 2000 he transferred that hate to GWB. Yes, I know Freud is unfashionable nowadays, but just this once...

Despite the war, I don't think the present political climate would be so overheated if Gore had accepted the Florida outcome gracefully and immediately.

[Christopher Taylor]

What should concern you more is the fact that a political party thought this man should be the President, the leader of the free world, and their personal representative. That's something to consider in the coming election: the price one party is willing to pay for power, the path they are willing to walk.