Hehehehe - Wolcott on Andrew Sullivan's recent appearance on Real Time with Bill Maher.
I recommend regular reading of Wolcott. He's got just the right level of snarkiness.
"Like an infant banging his spoon on the high-chair tray, Sullivan threw quite a tantrum last night after Maher had the GALL to interview Noam Chomsky. Sullivan sputtered that Chomsky made "millions" going around the world telling audiences America was "evil." Now I don't pretend to have read or heard all of the millions of words Chomsky has written and spoken, but "evil" doesn't seem to be a prominent word in his vocabulary, being so theological; he tends to talk in terms of brutal realpolitick and self-interest. And it's highly unlikely he's raking in "millions"--if he is, he isn't splurging on wardrobe and pimpmobiles."Sullivan gets on my nerves. I happen to get Time magazine, in which he occasionally has an article. (I swear, I only get the magazine for the pictures). He is one of two reasons the magazine is relegated to my bathroom (the second being Joe Klein).
Here's a gem from a recent Time article: "The polarization, aided and abetted by Michael Moore, Mel Gibson, MoveOn.org, and the Swift Boat Vets, among many others, has deepened into a variety of embitterments." As if these things were somehow equal in sewing dissent and anger.
Sullivan's point is that we must come together to fight the terrorists, to win the war. But he, and so many others, have missed the point. The left, the "other half" of the country, are not rabid haters. They are not "free love" hippies, communists or socialists.
The reasons we were against George Bush were both ideological and concrete. One of those reasons involved the fact that Bush has made us less safe. Many of us believe that Bush is hurting this country. We believe it passionately and many of us can provide statistics, numbers, facts to prove our point. How can we come together with people who, we feel, have made us less safe? How can we support a course of action that at best ignores the true problem, and at worst exacerbates it?
"[Bush] surely understands now how divided the country has become under his presidency and how deeply flawed his war management has been." If he does know, Sullivan, I don't think he cares.
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