September 9, 2004
ALL WE NEED IS HATE:
Hate in America (Robert Novak, September 9, 2004, Townhall)
The magnificent work of the New York Police Department last week under the masterful leadership of Commissioner Ray Kelly obscured an ugly fact of life today in America. The protesters, while unable to disrupt the Republican National Convention as intended, represented a disturbing new development in the nation's politics: hatred in the streets.
The organized demonstrations were purely negative, attacking George W. Bush with scant expression of support for John Kerry. Individual marchers singled out any person they thought might be a convention delegate, firing off angry, often obscene, denunciations. The streets of Manhattan were not pleasant for anyone foolish enough to wander around wearing a convention badge.I have covered every national political convention beginning with 1960 and never before encountered so unpleasant an atmosphere. Not even the infamous 1968 Democratic convention in Chicago approached last week's level of animosity. The irrational loathing expressed daily on the Internet by passionate, though poorly informed, bloggers was transferred into the streets. While Sen. Zell Miller's old-fashioned stemwinder inside Madison Square Garden was upbraided by news media critics for being too harsh, they largely ignored the real hatred in the streets.
Organizers of last week's protests in New York threatened to repeat the havoc of 1968, when blood was spilled in pitched battles with the Chicago police. But there really is no comparison. The Chicago protesters were trying to force a change in Vietnam policy by a Democratic Party where close to half its party and half the delegates supported anti-war demonstrators. The attempted disruption in New York had nothing to do with changing the position of a political party. This was an attack on "The System."
Wasn't even an attack on the generic "system" but on the president and his party. And--judging from the hysterical reaction to one of the folks who tried attacking Mr. Bush during his acceptance speech getting stomped a bit--the Left generally approves of such tactics. Maybe they do want to replay the 60's/70's. Posted by Orrin Judd at September 9, 2004 8:55 AM
I'm not sure I've ever heard Robert Novak say anything nice about anyone. He is, as Agnew would have put it, "a nattering nabob of negativism."
Posted by: Joel Thomas at September 9, 2004 11:57 AMThe infantile disorder on the left is displayed in the streets and in the NY Times.
Posted by: luciferous at September 9, 2004 12:11 PMNovak, a marrano's marrano, saves all his praise for the terrorists who murder Jews, and those who finance them like Saudi Arabia.
The protestors were an undifferentiated mob of ratbags whose extermination would have improved the nation and the gene pool. Most people who saw them chanting 'Anyone But Bush' were convinced to become in favor of anything these vermin were against.
As for me, I was thinking 'Where's the PLA when you need them?'
Posted by: Bart at September 9, 2004 1:06 PM"The irrational loathing expressed daily on the Internet by passionate, though poorly informed, bloggers ..."
I certainly hope Mr. Novak is not directing this invective towards our noble host, Orrin.