Earlier this evening I was exchanging emails with a longtime Republican reader. And in the course of that exchange I mentioned that while I understood the pushback against John Murtha and the announcement he made last week I didn’t understand quite the ferocity of it. After all, how many non-political junkies outside of his district have ever even heard of John Murtha? As I said, I don’t quite understand the full measure of ferocity behind the response.
Here’s how this reader responded …
I do, Josh.
Instant response is what you do in a modern election campaign (unless you are way, way ahead). Discrediting a critic’s argument isn’t enough, because it takes too much time in an environment when time is everything. Campaign politics are the primary frame of reference for politicians in Washington today. Republicans of late have practiced this trade more aggressively, though I doubt that most of them are any more insensitive to non-campaign considerations than their Democratic colleagues.
Another factor, I think you’d agree, is that a lot of politicians tend to take cues from Presidents of their party. Reagan led a generation of GOP politicians to speak with sunny optimism; Clinton influenced Democratic politicians to project empathy in a somewhat ostentatious way. Bush, being more than a little insecure, tends to want to lash out at critics even when this is not politically necessary or productive, and this tendency has radiated downwards through his administration and outward to some Republicans, particularly in the House. Karl Rove’s influence on GOP political operatives may be even more profound, and GOP political operatives have vast influence in Republican politics.
Finally and very frankly, Democratic politicians tend to be wimps. Anyone can see how easily they get pushed around by interest groups in their own party; when criticized aggressively, they tend to seek sympathy rather than hitting back. This encourages Republican political operatives to use rough tactics.
I don’t think this is a matter of ideology. In fact I don’t know what it is. I just know if I were a Republican politician there wouldn’t be many Democratic politicians I would be afraid of. Maybe it’s a reflection on my own personality that I take for granted the importance in politics of generating concern that one might be a very bad enemy to have. But of course I’m not actually in politics, something I don’t expect to change.
Food for thought.
