Piñatas and kendo sticks

A few years ago I received an alumni reunion directory for my alma mater, Beloit College. The directory contained one page updates on alums who bothered to complete the form. This being Beloit College, the number of entries was small. But one the alums who responded had a great line that I’ve been waiting to use. When asked what he was doing with his life, ol’ Paschal Sciarra (Class of 1986) said:

“Lately I’ve been serving as a conservative piñata for kendo stick-armed liberals. Oh, and loving the WWF.”

Paschal has a lot in common with George W. Bush, it seems, although I don’t know about Bush’s WWF patronage. Every public utterance from Mr. Bush gets excoriation, ridicule and a fine coating of spittle. It’s really something, the level of vitriol directed at the Leader of the Free World. Back in the day, I used to stick my nose in at the temple of Clinton bashing, Freerepublic.com; the Freepers are world-class invective-hurlers but they are pikers compared to some of the stuff you see said about George W. Bush these days.

Put it this way – when it comes to liberal anger about W, we get it. You could bring the average computer to a halt simply by trying to capture even a tiny portion of the invective Bush faces every day, especially concerning the war. Bush tried a major speech last night that was dismissed before he even gave it. No one is listening, apparently.

But I think that may yet change. Here’s why.

We’ve been waiting, waiting, waiting for something that we just don’t see, which is an actual plan for dealing with the Middle East situation offered by anyone on the left. You’d like to think that someone would put something forward, but there has been nothing. Barack Obama writes about “audacity,” but hasn’t been audacious enough to propose anything. Hillary is still waiting to hear from the focus group. Joe Biden is too busy preening. Meanwhile, the war continues.

Eventually, unless someone on the Left comes up with a plan, people are going to begin to realize that all the Left has to offer on the subject is carping. It is human nature to listen to complaining for a time, but those who spend their days complaining about things eventually lose favor and get tuned out. The Democrats need a positive idea or they will lose their audience.