Democracy for the Middle East
October 21, 2004Spurned, Hysterical And Dull
Sadly, over the last couple of months, Andrew Sullivan has gradually, indeed almost imperceptably, gone from being one of the blogosphere's most interesting reads to something much less.
Sullivan's disappointment with Bush over gay rights (Sullivan is gay and the president's support for the proposed Marriage Protection Ammendment was apparently the last straw) has led someone who could once be counted upon for, if nothing else, clear-sightedness, to become - sorry Andrew - hysterical.
Just to be clear ourselves, we have no issue with Sullivan's actual support for Kerry, at least as it relates to journalistic integrity. It is Mr. Sullivan's specious (almost comic) rationale for this decision that disconcerts us, for his reasoning comes from so far out in left field that given the timing of Sullivan's departure from the Bush loyalist camp (literally on the heels of the president's marriage protection proposal) it cannot help but diminish this remarkable writer's credibility.
Sullivan, quite correctly, started his move away from Bush, by asking the most important question of the election - can Kerry be trusted to prosecute the War on Terror. That should not have been a difficult question to answer (otherwise how to account for all the Bush liberals?) but after much sturm and drang, punditry's most celebrated young turk came to the stunning conclusion (not supported by anything he wrote previously) that the foreign policy approach of the two candidates were virtually indistinguishable. That's right. Sullivan, echoing Nader, now says that when it comes to the respective geostrategic worldviews of Bush and Kerry, the difference between the two is mostly fungible. This is, of course, unsupportable malarkey but it is the malarkey that Sullivan is now propounding every day from his increasingly tedious website and it is why he has declined substantially in our esteem.
Come on, Andrew. Out with it. Bush hurt your feelings and now you're having a go. Look, this nation needs your common sense and your pen right now, not your solipsistic rage. Come down from the tree and tell the folks the truth, before we're all stuck with the wrong guy.
Home . Posted by Editor at October 21, 2004 06:00 PM . DFME's new internet address is www.dfme.org