Not Just Wrong, But Utterly Wrong...

I read a post in some blog yesterday that was so utterly wrong that I'm not going to dignify the blog by linking to it. The post said something to the effect of, "But, of course, lefties are so busy hating President Bush instead of the terrorists who want to kill us, just because Bush hasn't been a great leader..."

The stupid! It burns!

All right, all you neocons out there, let me explain something about reality to you: The terrorists are going to keep hating me and wanting to kill me whether I hate them back or not. The fact is, nothing I feel about them is going to change how they feel and what they want one way or the other. So, whether I hate the terrorists or not really doesn't matter a damned bit in the real world.

Secondly, hate isn't a limited resource in this world. Trust me. There's more than enough to go around. And the production of hate isn't on the decline. The Bush regime is creating gobs and gobs of it in Iraq even as I write this. Even if hating the terrorists were important, which it isn't, I'm perfectly capable of hating them and Bush at the same time. It's not like walking and chewing gum, for the love of...

But the reason many of us on the left, including me, focus most of our ire on Bush rather than the terrorists is because Bush's job is to make me safer from the terrorists, but instead, he's made things worse, created more terrorists, and put the US -- and Americans like me -- at greater risk. And, at least in theory, since the President of the United States represents the people of the US, people like me, and is acting in my interests, I have a definite stake in what he does, how he does it, and in making sure he knows when I think he's fucking up. I am not the terrorists' boss and I know they aren't going to listen to me. But I am one of Bush's bosses, and even though it is clear he isn't going to listen, I have a duty to make my voice heard when he is acting against the nation's interests. And I'm not responsible for what the terrorists do, but I am, as a citizen of this republic, responsible for what Bush does in my name.

The terrorists were never responsible for acting in the best interests of the people of the US. Bush was, and he failed utterly. I can't hold the terrorists responsible myself; I don't have that power. I can only hold them responsible and act through the government, through President Bush, and as my representative he has done more to help the terrorists than they could have dreamed with his disastrous policies. For failing to do what needed to be done to protect the US from the terrorists, for failing to hold them accountable, for getting us into a war that had nothing to do with terrorism and has created a failed state which is now a breeding ground for more terrorists, Bush has failed the country and failed me. In my name, he let the terrorists win. And that's why I focus my ire on him: The terrorists were never going to give up and stop hating and wanting to kill me, but Bush could have made me and the US safer. And he didn't.

Hating the terrorists is just something bullshit neocon pseudo-patriots do to make themselves feel better about how badly they have fucked up this country and the world. But it's meaningless, useless, pointless, and it is nothing more than mental masturbation. Only speaking out against the failed policies of our government is it possible to change course and hope for things to eventually get better, and if the left "hates" Bush, it is only because he was the one who carried the responsibility to use our collective power to make things better and he didn't. He acted in his own self-interest instead and fucked the rest of us over. And he's still in charge, still fucking things up right fucking now, and I hate him because he won't change course, won't do what is right, won't do anything to make things better, and worst of all, won't admit his failures and incompetence and step down (along with Cheney) and get the hell out of the way.

But maybe, just maybe, if I complain enough, speak out enough, voice my ire enough, something will change. Not likely, but it's way more likely than my hating the terrorists will change anything. The chances of that are exactly zero.

There is no logical reason to care about whether the left hates the terrorists or not. As long as the left doesn't want to be killed by the terrorists -- we don't -- that's all that matters. Not to see that is willful stupidity and logically incoherent.