OpinionJournal.com editor James Taranto has this shtick. He talks about the "angry left." Rarely is there a Taranto column, or a Taranto radio or television appearance, in which he doesn't slip in that phrase several times.
In Taranto's world, the "angry left" is not just Michael Moore, Daily Kos or Randi Rhodes. It's anyone who criticizes President Bush or his policies. No matter how legitimate the claim, if someone on the left side of the aisle dares dissent, they're "angry."
It's a variation of an empty conservative spin line, offered over and over, that liberals and Democrats "hate Bush." When you start at that point, a conservative pundit doesn't have to go far before making the claim that liberals and Democrats are rooting for Bush to fail, which in turn implies that liberals and Democrats hate America.
You might remember during the presidential election campaign that some right-wing pundits were saying that liberals and Democrats were rooting for the insurgents to keep pushing up the U.S. death toll in Iraq. Some right-wing pundits tossed red meat to conservatives, saying that liberals and Democrats cheered when former President Reagan died.
It's insulting when right-wing pundits lie like this, making gross stereotypical myths solely for the purpose of connecting with — for lack of a better term — the "angry right." But let's not kid ourselves — this empty conservative spin resonates with voters. Go take a look around the right-wing blogosphere, and you'll find a seemingly endless number of posts repeating these vulgarities about the "angry left."
It also gets these pundits more radio and television gigs. It increases the number of newspapers reading their columns. Screw the truth.
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Taranto was at it again on the Sept. 16 edition of Fox News Channel's Hannity & Colmes. (Rich Lowry was sitting in for Sean Hannity):
LOWRY: What's been amazing about this debate over the last couple of weeks is conservatives used to joke, you know, Bush haters are going to blame Bush for the weather, and the next thing, you know, and they've actually been doing it the last couple of weeks. And it's not as though conservatives, you know, jumped all over Bill Clinton and blamed him for the deaths in the heat wave in Chicago [in 1995]. It just seems as though this president is in a uniquely poisonous, partisan environment.
Article comments
1 - Les Slater
It’s not just the right. There's hysteria on the left too. I’ve even heard George Bush called a fascist.
2 - Dave Nalle
Are you seriously trying to deny the existence of the 'angry left'. That's a remarkably powerful willful denial of repeatedly demonstrated reality.
Dave
3 - David R. Mark
I'm not suggesting there isn't an angry left. I'm suggesting it's ridiculous to stereotype all dissenteres as being part of the angry left. I think it's also ridiculous for Taranto to single out the left for something that many on the right agree with -- that the federal response to Katrina was poor.
I think Taranto is trying to score points as a pundit, but to do so he has to manipulate reality.