Were you fooled by Lanny Davis’ piece in Opinion Journal today? On first glance it looked like Lanny was serving up a big ‘ol juicy smack down on his fellow Democrats. Wrong. This ‘liar for liars’ who’s now trying to represents himself as some sort of centrist conscience is doing nothing more than faining shock and disbelief that intolerance exists within the Left.
I came to believe that we liberals couldn’t possibly be so intolerant and hateful, because our ideology was famous for ACLU-type commitments to free speech, dissent and, especially, tolerance for those who differed with us. And in recent years–with the deadly combination of sanctimony and vitriol displayed by the likes of Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter and Michael Savage–I held on to the view that the left was inherently more tolerant and less hateful than the right.
Uh, excuse me Lanny, but have you listened to Al Franken? Or how Keith ‘Mr. Tolerance’ Olbermann? Have you heard the shrieking and the shrillness of any number of speeches delivered by Hillary Clinton in the last 12 months? And what about Al “They Played On Our Fears” Gore?
And of course, there are the character assisination tactics employed by the Clintonistas (of which you claim membership) in the 90’s against a few folks like…
— Kathleen Willey
— Monica Lewinsky
— Paula Jones
— Gennifer Flowers
Pretending that the Left has been “inherently more tolerant and less hateful than the right” proves one thing Mr. Davis. It proves you live in a protected bubble amongst like minded leftists who spend an inordinant amount of time switching between a gaze at their reflection in the mirror and a long hard intent focus on their own navels.
Wake up Lanny. Your ilk has been playing the hate game long before the dope smokin’ sixties, an era you seem happily stuck in.