I read a lot of far-right blogs for one of my other gigs, and it occurs to me once in a while that most readers of progressive blogs probably don’t have a good sense of how the “other side” thinks. How do they perceive the same events that we see? How do they endorse ideas and policies that seem obviously misguided by our values? What’s wrong with them?
To help promote a broader understanding of competing ideas, I thought I’d pass along a post from AJ Strata, who was quite impressed with the president’s State of the Union address last night.
America is blessed – very blessed. We have had an amazing leader who believes in the wisdom of ‘we the people’. Through 7 years of attack from within and without. [sic] from across the aisle and from those too obsessed with purity in his party, President Bush has been a stalwart gentleman who has maintained dignity and honor for his office as those around him have collapsed into angry rants. The nation is going to miss George W Bush.
His SOTU speech tonight was probably his best. And it rested upon 7 years of accomplishments only his enemies, in hopes of diminishing him, will never recognize…. He has set the standard and no one in a Congress with half the approval rating he has is going to succeed in fighting Bush on this issue. He is using his political capitol [sic] as he should – fearlessly and with force of conviction. […]
Bush is a maestro…. The hyper-partisans left and right were thrust into bold relief tonight by a man who spent 7 years finding progress and making things happen. To the crowd which equated compromise as [sic] being a traitor (so were dems traitors to support our war efforts after 9-11?) he is their bane. He is the man who makes great things happen with out [sic] belittling others. We will miss you George W Bush. You brought honor and dignity to us, even though too many left and right were unable to (a) recognize this and (b) build upon it. While some refuse to see your gift and in fact work to destroy it many, many more do see it and will work to build upon it. We are the RINOs and DINOs and independents – and we are not beholding [sic] to party, we give our pledge of allegiance to America. We will keep the State Of The Union strong.
Now, I don’t want to pick on AJ. I’ve come to read his site every day; he writes rather well; and he is absolutely sincere in everything he says. It’s a quality sometimes lacking in conservative blogs, and it’s one of the reasons I link to him all the time over at the Blog Report.
I mention this, instead, because I suspect a lot of people wonder, when they see public-opinion polls showing Bush with an approval rating around 30%, what those remaining fans of the president must be thinking. Well, this is what they’re thinking.
No, I don’t understand it, either.