Fantasyland

Last month Victor Davis Hanson published a brilliant essay, which he titled Fantasyland, on the course of the Left/Right divide that I have so far failed to link, an omission which I will here correct by excerpting its pithy summary of Michael Moore's barely hidden politics:

But who is the real new Democratic guru that best reflects the new Know-Nothingness? We should judge a Michael Moore not just by what he says, but what he does every time he freelances without his publicists and handlers. At a time of war, he scoffs at 9-11 as if the wrong Americans were dying (If someone did this [9/11] to get back at Bush, then they did so by killing thousands of people who DID NOT VOTE for him!).

He praises our enemies who are beheading innocents in Iraq. (The Iraqis who have risen up against the occupation are not "insurgents" or "terrorists" or "The Enemy." They are the REVOLUTION, the Minutemen, and their numbers will grow -- and they will win. Get it, Mr. Bush?)

He shows contempt for our dead who fought and died for the right of Iraqis to vote. ("I'm sorry, but the majority of Americans supported this war once it began and, sadly, that majority must now sacrifice their children until enough blood has been let that maybe - just maybe - God and the Iraqi people will forgive us in the end.") .

He slurs civilian workers like Nick Berg and Paul Johnson who were trying to help rebuild Iraq. ("Those are not contractors in Iraq. They are not there to fix a roof or to pour concrete in a driveway. They are MERCENARIES and SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE").

He has contempt for Americans outside his circle of sycophants: "They are possibly the dumbest people on the planet . . . "We Americans suffer from an enforced ignorance. We don't know about anything that's happening outside our country. Our stupidity is embarrassing."

That surely captures the essence of this self-hating leftie looney. How can the JFK campaign ask the Bush campaign to repudiate the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth when JFK himself will not repudiate Moore? I'll take Moore's lies on if only the Swifties can get a hearing on the network news!

But Hanson's essay is about much more than Michael Moore. It is about how the Left has abandoned its own soul in its quest to get rid of the hated G.W.Bush, which is itself merely a cover for their bid for the reacquisition of raw power. He takes apart their arguments, and reminds us of their most dearly held beliefs, in the way that only he can. I can not understand how any Christian, any Jew, or any member of the top two quintiles can vote against Bush. After reading this essay, I don't see how any liberal can vote against him either. As Hanson says:

Iraq now is what the Left all throughout the 1960s and 1970s said America should be doing—and nothing is more saddening than to see earnest and courageous reformers of the new Iraqi government being grilled and pilloried on TV by smug American pundits and reporters.

It is all about power, yet the voters will see no power filtering down to them from a Kerry presidency. Maybe it is a matter of style, since Bush has a talent for making himself look and sound like an idiot; but then Kerry is no slouch in the looking like an idiot department. Maybe it's just a matter of successful propaganda brainwashing the public, since we have never had the mainstream media try so hard to elect a President before.

I still do not think that this election will be close. I am just not sure who the winner will be. The so-called "swing" voters are susceptible to an "October surprise." I wonder if truth will carry the day in November. Or will we end up in Fantasyland?