Ian Tuttle of National Review Online explores Democrats’ misuse of the word “love” in their political discourse.
Democrats love love. They’re like Ewan McGregor’s character in Moulin Rouge: “All you need is love” (and a single-payer health-care system)!
It would be more accurate, though, to say that Democrats love “love.” They love the rhetorical power of “love.” After all, everyone loves love. No one is anti-“love.” Well, except the “haters,” that is. Conveniently, hatred seems to be in ample supply this election season.
Hatred — the Left’s all-encompassing pejorative — is a way of dismissing the need for reasoned debate. Hatred is irrational; you can’t debate someone who “hates.” Declaring that political opponents are ruled by wicked and unfathomable impulses is a way of avoiding having to engage opposing arguments. President Obama used this tactic in his DNC speech on Tuesday, when he dismissed as doomed to failure “fascists or communists or jihadists or homegrown demagogues.” Nudge nudge.
“Love” is the positive complement to “hate.” It’s instantly legitimizing. Where someone who “hates” is Bad People, someone who “loves” is Good People. That was the message implied by the “Love is Love” campaign for same-sex marriage: There are no arguments against same-sex marriage; just bigots. Just as debate is impossible with haters, there’s no need to debate someone who “loves.” They’re with you.
Or, more precisely, With Her. After all, Hillary Clinton is the Lover-in-Chief this cycle (yet another devastating blow to Bill). She “loves” people of every creed and color and shape and size. She “loves” Hatfields and McCoys. She “loves” the Yankees and the Red Sox. She “loves” waffles and pancakes. If the DNC is to be believed, there are Care Bears less big-hearted than Hillary Clinton.
