Crazy Critics, Krauthammer, Noonan and the Death of BDS

By Lee Russ

Tuesday, August 21, 2007 at 08:49 PM

Do you have to be crazy to really be bothered by President Bush's actions, attitudes, and policies? Charles Krauthammer seemed to think so, when he apparently coined the phrase "Bush Derangement Syndrome" to describe people who were rabidly critical of Bush.

Specifically, Krauthammer defined "BDS" as "the acute onset of paranoia in otherwise normal people in reaction to the policies, the presidency—nay—the very existence of George W. Bush."

Krauthammer's creation seems to me to be part and parcel of the attempt by conservatives to paint all critics, especially those dread "liberals" as insane. If they can convince the populace that critics of conservatism are nuts, they don't have to bother refuting all the specific criticisms.

We're taught early and often in this country that it is bad to "hate." Just plain bad. So what better way to convince America that a group of people is so insane, unhinged, over-the-top, that they can be wholly ignored than to paint them as "hate mongers."

I've run into this in several contexts, including the 2006 elections when I volunteered for Bernie Sanders in Vermont. Letter writers to the Vermont newspapers several times described pro-Bernie folks as hate-filled based on our criticism of his opponent, Rich Tarrant. A conservative on a message board has recently told me that I am over the top in my vilification of the right, and overly filled with partisan hate. The one and only Kevin McCullough wrote a Town Hall column titled "Why liberals hate Christians." And there are countless other examples.

This little sleight of hand--to criticize me is to hate me, but it's okay for me to criticize you for hating me--is starting to fail, though, based on recent evidence. For example, Peggy Noonan of all people wrote last month that "I'm not referring to what used to be called Bush Derangement Syndrome. That phrase suggested that to passionately dislike the president was to be somewhat unhinged. No one thinks that anymore."

So things are looking up just a bit in sanity land. Though I will always wonder, over and over, how such a "crazy" theory could have held sway as long as it did, when it was the conservatives who said such sweet and gentle things about their critics as Ann Coulter wrote in "Treason: Liberal Treachery from the Cold War to the War on Terrorism."

So no more BDS. We've reduced it to good old fashioned BS, just in time for Tom DeLay, who says in his new book "No Retreat, No Surrender" that “liberals have finally joined the ranks of scoundrels like Hitler.” A truly love-filled observation from a man of Jesus.