The divisive politics which was a hallmark of Bush, in an age where unity was needed to combat the clear menace of terrorism, is reflected in this forum. Bush has gone, but his legacy of demonisation of your opponents is still in full swing.
i think its more of a hallmark of the era, and not so much a responsibility of any one side or any one person.
i
do think the definitive dawn of the era was the 2000 election, where gore and dubya split the title for weeks on end. that created an endless, sports-like debate between "fans" of who would, or should, make the right move.
then, after a long playoff series, and a championship series, one team had a winner, one team had a loser, and the media hyped the shit out of the bitter rivalry. from that point on, everything was a hate war. moreso about who was the better message board poster than any form of political warfare.
the news became polarized, the country became polarized, everyone was against the other person for the sake of the fact that they were the other person. and all of this could have very well been coming into play, anyway. but the election really tipped everything into immediate action.
at this point, there's no longer even a point to much of it. its very "middle east" in nature, in that the sides are split and fighting because they're supposed to, or because "they did it first", and no longer because they have personal reasoning. political debate has become the grown up equivalent of "i know you are, but what am i".
my personal belief is this has intensified, and will continue to intensify, because of the media. not the standard "you're the bias media" claim, but simply because the news is no longer a factual retelling of events, but rather a journalistic viewpoint skew to address an audience. the news is hype. its telling you "this is the best movie evar!!1!" but in a suit and tie.
but, to directly address the specific point you raised, why you don't see any praise for obama/dems/libs, you can look at the previous 8 years when there was no praise for bush/repubs/conserv...s. and, to a greater extent, this "look in the mirror" mentality can be said of pretty much any political debate now a days.
for example, bush specifies a date to withdraw troops from iraq. this receives a public outcry. obama specifies a date to withdraw troops from iraq ...notably, the same exact date bush already specified. this receives praise.
but the "outcry" is only from one side. and the "praise" is only from one side. and those two factors are immediately interchangeable, depending upon the source and/or target. it's not just about bush, it's not even just about the presidency, its all of politics now. but the easiest way to see the idiocy of most of the discussions is to flip it, comparatively.
obama flubs the inaugural speech. cracks a joke about the special olympics. goes on the tonight show as president. intervenes in company decisions for hiring / firing. can decide tax amounts on a per-person basis. increased troops in afghanistan. refuses secret service suggestion to ditch cellphone. etc.
now, i'm not saying i'm against any of these things, or hate any of these things, or that i even give a fuck about any of these things (it's a mix; joke, no; tonight show, yes, etc). but just imagine for a second if bush (or to a lesser extent, palin / mccain / cheney ) was responsible for any of the above. can you imagine different newspaper headlines? an entirely different reaction set from message board posters? again, not even making a judgement of whether or not its right or wrong, just the reaction to which side took the stance.
there have been cases where a governor or mayor from one side will go to jail for a crime, and then like 5 hours later, a governor or mayor from the other side will go to jail for a similar crime. without failure, fans of one side defend theirs and attack the other. "you're unamerican!" "no,
you're unamerican!" silly.
however, make no mistake about it, you can not make a "it was bush" type statement. there is no problem with just him, just his presidency, just people that supported him and do not support obama. the notion of thinking "it's just them" is more or less what encompasses the entire above stream o'silly.
