Conservative pundits and political operatives often rally against the mythical "angry left."
"The angry left should not drive the Democrat Party," Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman said last month, responding to some Democrats calling for deputy chief of staff Karl Rove to be dumped, or stripped of security clearance, following speculation that he leaked the name or identity of CIA operative Valerie Plame.
Before the Iowa caucus last year, Des Moines' conservative radio host, Jan Mickelson, termed Democratic caucus voters the "angry left." At about the same time, Andrew Roth of the conservative Club for Growth wrote a short piece referencing the "angry left." Washington Times columnist Greg Pierce wrote about Newsweek's Eleanor Clift and PBS' Bill Moyers under the heading "angry liberals." Earlier this year, Fox News Channel described Howard Dean as "a champion of the angry left." Michelle Malkin wrote an April column titled "When Angry Liberals Attack." MSNBC host Tucker Carlson referred to those defending a woman appealing a court case she lost as a "bunch of angry liberals" — although he never makes clear which liberals he means. Wall Street Journal columnist James Taranto frequently refers to the "angry left," such as earlier this month, when he cited the "Angry Left Daily Kos site."
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Are there angry liberals? Sure. But conservatives give this anger mythic proportions. It's a game they have been playing for more than three decades — since former vice president Spiro Agnew, working from a 1970 speech prepared by William Safire, told the California Republican state convention about "nattering nabobs of negativism" — a reference to what conservatives now call "liberal media bias."
Conservatives need to promote concepts such as "angry liberals" and "liberal media bias" to justify the concept of "fair and balanced." If conservatives didn't suggest the "angry left" had mythic strength (able to overtake the Democratic Party, Mehlman and others argue), there would be no need for a conservative response. If conservatives didn't suggest liberal media bias was a problem of mythic proportions, there would be no justification for conservative talk radio, Fox News, Regnery Publishing or the seemingly endless number of conservative pundits and columnists nationwide.
Article comments
1 - Anonymous
Clearly there is something to the idea of an angry left. They are angry at the US and Israel, in particular see jewsonthebrain.com for the overcoverage of Israel from angry left organizations. The question I have is - why is the angry left so angry? What is it that needs them to take out their aggression on others?
2 - gonzo marx
for comment #1...
ummm... not too much of a delusional Opinion there? (yep, that was sarcasm)
i don't know any real people who are angry at Israel and the US...
wicked serious pissed at the fucking ADMINISTRATION which governs in the name of the Citizens...
well yes...
but NOT the nation
perhaps if the GOP types would stop strangling themselves wrapping up in the FLAG, they woudl learn the logical fallacy of such statements...
i'll Teach once again...
there is a BIG fucking difference between protest/dissent against an Administration and any kind of emotion for our Nation
as for the bullshit canard...
*What is it that needs them to take out their aggression on others?*
again, the commenter is factually incorrect...
the REAL question would be why is the Administration so angry that they pre-emtively attack sovereign nations which had nothing to do with 9/11?
why so angry that they stop the actual War on Terror ( you know, fighting al Qaeda in Afghanistan, and mebbe even catching bin Laden?) in order to take out a regime that was controlled and contained for 10 years?
but none want to Answer that
instead we get the Rovian "distract, distort, deny and destroy"
welcome to the age of the intellectually bankrupt in american politics...
woe is U.S.
Excelsior?
3 - Anonymous
When Clinton was president there was clearly an angry Right - people were way too angry about him. Now that Bush is president there is clearly an angry Left - people are way too angry with him. And the angry Left has lots of organizations that are way too angry with Israel.
So I still wonder, what is the cause of the frustration of the angry Left? That communism and socialism did not work out? Was that idea ever mourned properly? Or is it something else?