Why do people think the GOP has moved to the right, when, more likely, the opposite is true? Tone. The opinion-makers know that Bush believes in God, and they know that he’s from Texas. They know that he has little respect for the New York Times and his alma maters: Andover, Yale, and Harvard. And then there’s the war—the broad War on Terror, and the particular war in Iraq. They are not very high on those.
And they give President Bush no credit for failing to move against Iran!
For some reason, I'm reminded of a lovely scene in Keeping the Faith. The rabbi, marvelously played by Ben Stiller, tries to assure a poor kid that everything's going to be okay, that he will do fine at his bar mitzvah.
"They're gonna take away my yarmulke," the kid says. "I suck."
Instead of trying dissuade him, the rabbi says
Okay. Yes, you do. You suck. But that's okay. You're supposed to suck. This isn't a talent contest, this is a rite of passage. I mean, this happens in all cultures. It's about you being thirteen years old. God knew that your voice was gonna change when you were. There's a reason why you gotta do your haftorah at this age. It's a challenge. God is challenging you. He's calling you a chump. So you gotta come back at him. So you gotta say, "Hey, hashem, you think You can scare me with a little, uh, biblical Hebrew... just 'cause my balls haven't dropped yet?' I'm serious. I'm serious. You gotta show Him what Alan Klein's made of.
How? asks the kid.
"By sucking with style," says the rabbi. "Embrace the suckiness. Just say, "I love that I suck.""
I wish Nordinger et al would embrace the crazy and spare us the nonsense about how they're actually moderates.
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