The Politics of Hate

Day before yesterday, William F. Buckley Jr died at the age of 82. He’s been eulogized many times since then by countless commentators, including many liberals who easily toss around terms like “intellectual,” “respectful” and “gentleman” when describing Buckley’s legacy. Peggy Noonan had an interesting analysis for why he earned the respect of liberals: she said that he didn’t hate people who disagreed with him. She added that it’s the same reason Obama has so much Republican support — that people don’t generally like someone who they know believes that they’re evil.

I never particularly cared for Buckley. His intellectualism came across as (and let’s face it, was) intellectual elitism — he even advocated for the vote to be restricted to educated Americans. Even as Republicans go, he never was “my kind.” But I didn’t hate him, and I think Peggy Noonan has a point.

There is an undertone of hate that runs through some brands of conservatism. In fairness, I know it exists on the Left as well, but I really don’t see it as much, at least not in the mainstream (there were some creepy lefties on some liberal blogs celebrating Buckley’s death – but they were thankfully renounced by others on the same blogs). Regardless of the spectrum pundits like to create, Michael Moore is not the liberal version of Ann Coulter, because Moore is not a hater. Coulter is a hater, and in keeping with Noonan’s Theory, the hate flows both ways. But she’s an easy one to target… so easily caricatured, so obviously venomous. What about Bill Cunninham, the radio guy in Cincinnati the other day speaking at the McCain rally who kept repeating “Barack Hussein Obama.” That guy’s a hater too. Limbaugh mocking Michael J. Fox? Yup, kind of a hater. Pat Robertson calling for assassinations and praying for the deaths of Supreme Court justices? Bill O’Reilly blaming the victims of Hurricane Katrina for being poor?

Many Republican politicians feed off the hate too — fanning the flames of hate for immigrants, Muslims, poor people, gays, and liberals (they also fan the flames of hate for the sort of coastal, over-educated, latte-drinking elite, but on that count, they’re actually right). They gleefully try to out-torture-talk each other in debates while audiences of Republicans cheer.

And it’s all so weird. It’s so out of sync with every value that I have. And yeah, it’s hard for me not to think of conservatives as evil… hard for the hate not to flow both ways. It’s made even harder because I really don’t even know many Republicans, so to me they barely exist outside the caricature. Maybe that’s a result of the whole red state/blue state divide in this country, or maybe it’s more simply because I’ve spent the last seven years working in Democratic politics, but whatever the reason, most people I know share at least a similar perspective with me.

In fairness, it isn’t all Republicans who either practice some kind of hate, or at least seek to gain political leverage by courting the haters.  And, in keeping with Noonan’s Theory, I  can tell the difference, and I don’t hate the non-haters.

The interesting thing about the parallel between Buckley and Obama is that neither one of them gave up any of their ideological principles to gain the respect of the opposite party. Buckley was certainly, by any measure, a Right-winger. Obama, according to this year’s ratings, has the most liberal voting record in the entire Senate.  So maybe the current coarseness of American politics has less to do with ideology than many believe.  Politicians don’t have to move to the middle to reach out to the other side.  They just have to try not to hate them.