Congeries of cross connected concepts
I think my biggest pet peeve with US political discussion today is a variant of Bush Derangement Syndrome in which one’s opinion of President Bush must follow the law of the excluded middle. In this view, if one doesn’t consider Bush to be (at best) “the WORST POTUS EVER” then it must be that one thinks Bush is a genius, perfect, or some other superlative. While I’ve defended Bush and FEMA with regard to the response to hurricane Katrina, I certainly wouldn’t label it as “superb” or Bush as the outstanding national leader of our time based on it. I’d rate it average to poor, but hardly a disaster or a stellar performance. Yet if you try to make that point at any of the Democratic / Leftist weblogs it seems that one is immediately tarred as a fanatical Bush supporter. I was tarred as a delusional liar for quoting the Red Cross on the subject of who blocked supplies for the refugees in the Superdome. I think it is this symptom, more than any other, that gives off the aura of hysteria on the Modern American Left.
