One of the weirdest cases of psychological projection in American politics was the fad in 2003-4 for Republicans to dismiss even mild criticism of Bush by Democrats as the result of irrational anger. Remember "angry Dean"? Remember David Brooks' lectures about how the Democrats were so "angry"?
This from a party that has spent the last four decades or so trying (successfully) to make itself the political home of the "angry white guy".
Glenn Greenwald's blog post today brought that back to mind when he discusses the Republican Party as A political movement built on rage Unclaimed Territory blog 04/24/06, with particular reference to their reactions to the firing of Mary McCarthy, the CIA official who is accused of leaking information to the press about illegal kidnapping and secret prisons used by the CIA:
The most striking and disturbing aspect of the reaction by Bush followers to the Mary McCarthy alleged CIA leastory is that it reveals, yet again, how much intense anger, hatred, and an insatiable desire for destruction lies at the heart of this movement. So many of them - including many of their most prominent spokesmen and pundits - desperately seek out, and usually find, new enemies on an almost daily basis who are decreed to be deserving of scorn, hatred, imprisonment or worse. They routinely advocate new policies and government action devoted towards the destruction of their political opponents on the ground that the targeted individuals are not just political opponents, but enemies of the United States. (my emphasis)
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