Happy Labor Day from National Review
September 06, 2010 1:27 pm ET by Jamison Foser
Remember just last week, when right-wingers were running around whining that President Obama hadn’t properly praised George W. Bush’s Iraq war strategy? Here’s a piece from the editors of the National Review to refresh your memory:
In its failure to credit explicitly Bush’s surge for turning around the war, the speech was graceless; in its cursory treatment of Iraq, it lacked strategic vision; and in its attempt to hijack the troops for Obama’s domestic priorities (“we must tackle . . . challenges at home with as much energy and grit, and sense of common purpose, as our men and women in uniform”), it was shameless. Altogether a poor performance.
The theory behind this insistence that Bush be praised for his eventual approach to a war he started on false pretenses against a nation that didn’t attack us is, I suppose, that regardless of your disagreements with someone, or with some aspects of their leadership, there are times when the right thing to do is to praise some of their actions.
So, for example, even if you’re a far-right opinion magazine and you hate organized labor and disagree with much of what they’ve done and the way they’ve done it, it would be graceless to fail to recognize the labor movement's positive accomplishments on Labor Day.
With that in mind, here’s a look at the pieces leading National Review’s web page today:
“Hypocrisy Problem,” indeed.
What are they scared of?
Do they feel guilty about something?
The unhealthy desire of many conservatives to suppress organised labour seems to betray an underlying, very nasty, undemocratic streak in their ideology. Someone should point out to them that if we brought back the feudal system they probably wouldn't get a look in at the Big House.
Close to half a million people "like" a page that relies on discredited sources like Andrew Breitbart, and the poor suckers probably believe it's a grass roots group..
Sadly, so many people vote against their interest in the deluded belief that they will someday be rich. Time after time socially and economically responsible policies are vilified because they might pull the plutocracy back into line. All of this by people who have everything to gain and nothing to lose - simply because a few people who can afford to pay a bit more start whingeing. A sad, foolish and unnecessary sacrifice.