Grand Old Party of hate

The GOP and their supporters love to accuse liberals of being hateful, but if you look past the rhetoric at the actual evidence, it's the Bushies who spread hate like it was fertilizer on the garden. Paul Krugman has a great article out on this phenomenon and the Republican campaign to smear George Soros.

For many months we've been warned by tut-tutting commentators about the evils of irrational "Bush hatred." Pundits eagerly scanned the Democratic convention for the disease; some invented examples when they failed to find it. Then they waited eagerly for outrageous behavior by demonstrators in New York, only to be disappointed again.

There was plenty of hatred in Manhattan, but it was inside, not outside, Madison Square Garden.

Krugman tells us why.

Why are the Republicans so angry? One reason is that they have nothing positive to run on ( during the first three days, Mr. Bush was mentioned far less often than John Kerry )...Nothing makes you hate people as much as knowing in your heart that you are in the wrong and they are in the right.

... But the vitriol also reflects the fact that many of the people at that convention, for all their flag-waving, hate America. They want a controlled, monolithic society; they fear and loathe our nation's freedom, diversity and complexity.

He also exposes the GOP's fraudulent PR.

The party made sure to put social moderates like Rudy Giuliani in front of the cameras. But in private events, the story was different. For example, Senator Sam Brownback of Kansas told Republicans that we are in a "culture war" and urged a reduction in the separation of church and state.

And he sums up the Bush campaign perfectly.

Mr. Bush, it's now clear, intends to run a campaign based on fear. And for me, at least, it's working: thinking about what these people will do if they solidify their grip on power makes me very, very afraid.

We should all be afraid of four more years of this.