Ugly

I was watching some of the footage from the President's visit on Monday.

It shows some of what's at stake in this election.

The biggest impression I got? Channel 11 showed some footage of the anti-Bush demonstrations outside the Convention Center.

In and among the usual detritus of these protests - the big Bush and Cheney puppets, the misspelled placards, the relentless "I was a hippie" mien of most of the fifty-something protesters - I saw what I think is a key barometer.

The anti-Bush crowd is angry. Oh, yes they are. But it's not the purposeful sort of anger - the kind you saw at Ground Zero, or at Concealed Carry Reform meetings in, say, 2000. It was the blind, frothing hatred that springs from impotence.

I saw some footage of an otherwise-gorgeous, twenty-something brunette in a paroxysm of rage - a probably-pretty face twisted into a hate-rent caricature, spittle flying, all but convulsing and falling over from the intensity of her tantrum.

I saw an interview with a fiftysomething woman whose entire presentation screamed "retro-hippie"; unkempt hair, saggy face on a potato-shaped head, the same homemade-looking hemp clothing (at least I hope it was homemade - it looked like it had been stitched together from brightly-colored potato sacks) ranting "BUSH STOLE THE ELECTION! HE WAS APPOINTED BY THE SUPREME COURT! HE'S KILLING THE POOR!"

Hatred doesn't sell. Oh, it might win Minnesota, although I'm going to do my bit to try to prevent that. But nationwide? No way.

PS: Let's take stock:

• Uninformed opinions
• Rampant illogic
• Frothing-at-the-mouth hatred

...isn't this what conservative talk radio is supposed to foment?

Posted by Mitch at April 28, 2004 07:22 AM