quote

It is a wise man who plants a tree in the shade of which he knows he will never sit. -- Greek proverb --

Judge each day not by the harvest you reap but by the seeds you plant. -- Robert Louis Stevenson --

From On High - Coming to you from a secured redoubt on Big Walker Mountain in the heart of Virginia's Blue Ridge.

Thursday, December 09, 2010

Such Hatred

I may have mentioned this before, I don't know.  But of all the op/ed columns that I wrote for the Roanoke Times back in 2006, the one that brought me the most email responses, the overwhelming majority of which could be described as being hate-directed, it was this one:

Eat The Rich.

In it, I wrote:
It has been said, and I believe it to be true, that the key difference between conservatives and liberals is in their attitudes toward the rich. Conservatives work to make everyone someday wealthy. Liberals work to destroy wealth.

I called a meeting of my sales team not long ago and in the course of my laying out the coming year's plan, I told each of them: I intend, if you do your part, to make every one of you rich. In so doing, of course, I intend to enrich myself. For having succeeded, the corporation to which we all answer will prosper. As will its shareholders. And the families of each shareholder.

As someone once said, "A rising tide raises all boats." This will only happen, though, if there isn't a tidal wave of class hatred sweeping over and capsizing us all.
The response from the class warfarists was pure vitriol.

I was, and still am, amazed by it.

A truism for those who hate the rich:

You could stand every "rich" person in this country up against a wall and execute them and you'd have done nothing to help the poorer people in this country. Nothing.

So what is it about those Americans - like Keith Olbermann - that makes them so hate the wealthy?

What is it about those who say "We cannot support the deal to extend the Bush tax cuts for millionaires" when it means Bush's tax cuts for everyone else are axed as well?

Can it be a simple matter of class envy that would prompt someone to launch a petition drive intended to block an effort to have the wealthiest among us keep some of that which they've earned?

Such hatred. 

It's so unbecoming.  And so un-American.

As Robert Stacy McCain makes clear: "As I remarked last night on Twitter, if Glenn Beck had ever gone after Obama this hard, he would have been denounced for committing a hate-crime."

Indeed.

Key word being hate.

And it's worse now than when I wrote that column back in November of 2006.

I don't understand it.  I just don't understand it.

10 comments:

Salt Lick said...

I just don't understand it.

My theory is that something inside these people -- personal disposition or tragedy -- makes them just plain haters. The hater club includes racists, KKKers, tribalists, haters of the rich, haters of Germans, French, of Ford Motor Company -- whatever. They are united by their hate.

The only acceptable object of hatred on the Left is The Rich, because you get to pretend that by hating The Rich, you care about the poor, and that means you are a good person.

It's like being a Gold Card member in another way.

Jerry Fuhrman said...

I agree.

Cargosquid said...

And the worst part....many of them are rich.....must do it from self-loathing. And, of course, none of them would DREAM of giving it all away to the poor....or even paying more taxes VOLUNTARILY....

Cargosquid said...

Speaking of haters....where's Droobie?

Salt Lick said...

Cargo -- Speaking of Drew, I've been visiting Daily Kos lately (remember when Drew lied that he never went there, and then in a fit of passion linked us to a Kos article?). They are going nuts at Kos, calling Obama every name except the "n" word, and I think that may be coming.

Politics hasn't been this much fun since Ken Starr announced Monica Lewinsky had given him a certain blue dress.

Jerry Fuhrman said...

I was on Kos this morning too. I'm enjoying the fact that the freaks who contribute to the site are going spastic.

wicked dickie said...

You're on to something about these folks, Salt Lick. They just don't process information or think like normal people. The ones I've known don't even realize they're eating themselves up with their hatred. How did we ever let them take charge of our country?

Cargosquid said...

Um, because certain voters are stupid? And racist? And stupid?

needed to be said twice. They're that dumb.

wd said...

And, uninformed or misinformed, squid. If all one does is read the Roanoke Pravda-Democrat, the New Yawk T.P. and watch the local TV, one is misinformed.

Anonymous said...

The Rich...the only minority that it is OK to still hate.
...Al...