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The Gullible Mr. Kerry
An interesting article by Christopher Hitchens on Senator Kerry’s complaint that he was “deceived” by President Bush on the WMDs issue. Aside from Hitchens’s apologetics for Ho Chi Minh (showing that he is still the leftist he’s always been), he makes a shrewd psychological observation here. Kerry, he says, has repeatedly taken the passive posture of “waiting to be persuaded” by Bush and other war advocates, as though he had no thinking ability and no responsible role of his own. As Hitchens puts it: “The eerie thing about this position was its indifference. All right, it seemed to say, if the president wants it so very badly. But if it was left to us, we’d have let the sleeping dog of Saddam Hussein lie.” And then, if things turn out to be not the exactly way Kerry was told, he takes on the air of deceived, wounded innocence.
This analysis fits right in with the way Kerry has come across through his 18 years in the Senate: as an aggrieved, self-important adolescent, perpetually contemptuous of and displeased with his unworthy “father,” America. Kerry’s passive-aggressive politics—like his personality—is based in that poisonous emotion the French call ressentiment. Comments
I think I made the point before that those who unequivocally supported the war based exclusively on WMD claims and are now feeling betrayed are remarkably silent. You would think that some smart Democrats would have set some of their own up to take advantage of the current scenario, but maybe that is overly cynical. Posted by: Matt on June 25, 2003 3:37 PMI hereby nominate Senator Kerry for the office of Grand Vizier of Frogistan (formerly known as France). Posted by: Carl on June 25, 2003 5:04 PMIt all began when he threw away someone else’s medals at an anti war rally and kept his own in a closet because he knew that they would be of great value to his future political career. Posted by: Charles Rostkowski on June 26, 2003 9:58 AM |