Further Evidence

Saturday 11 February 2012 - Filed under Uncategorized

Yet further evidence that the supposed anti-war left condones war without issue as long as it’s The Right People™ waging it.

Pity poor Glenn Greenwald, who thought the left’s opposition to Bush’s counterterror policies was based on something more profound than crude partisan tribalism. Why he thought that, I don’t know: The writing was on the wall when the anti-war movement started dying even as Obama geared up for a surge of tens of thousands of troops in Afghanistan. In fact, I’ll bet O now regrets banning enhanced interrogation so soon after his inauguration. At the rate we’re going, we might be seeing 60+ percent support among liberals for waterboarding too.

[. . .]

The most generous spin you can put on [new polls which show liberals and those on the alleged anti-war left strongly supporting both Obama’s expansion of drone attacks as well as now favoring Guantanamo Bay remaining open] is that it’s not so much that they’re gung ho for these policies as that they trust Obama won’t abuse them. Some, for instance, might have opposed them initially simply because they feared that the programs would be expanded in terrifying ways under the dreaded neocon imperialist warmonger Bush. I remember in the last few months of his presidency reading comments online wondering if he’d declare martial law and cancel the election; when you’re that paranoid about a president, you might be inclined to oppose his every move on everything simply to tie his hands as much as possible. One he’s gone, replaced by the smiling Unicorn Prince, the anxiety eases and opposition sags. That’s partisanship 101: Our guy’s one of us and therefore his intentions are good, so if he thought it was important to drop a bomb on Awlaki, eh, I guess he had his reasons. It’s not that they’re endorsing Gitmo, in other words, it’s that they’re endorsing O’s good faith and responsible stewardship. Again, this is the charitable spin.

Less charitable spin is someone different than simple gullibility.

2012-02-11  »  madlibertarianguy