Tammy Bruce steps up to the plate...

...and knocks the ball out of the park.

The Increasingly Ugly Left

July 26, 2005

Tammy Bruce

It’s always shocking when the left unmasks itself—it’s usually very brief but when it happens not only can’t you turn away, it’s actually important that you don’t. While it would seem impossible, the left has found a new low, this time courtesy of both the Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times.

On the same day, both newspapers published bizarre attacks on the most basic values of personal appearance and physical health of the president and those he supports. It’s the newest indication of how frustrated and frenzied the left has grown in the face of an America which refuses to join them in their drowning pool.

In a piece for the Los Angeles Times on July 22, 2005, titled “The (over)exercise of Power,” Jonathan Chait notes he finds the president’s interest in exercise “disturbing.” He bleats, “What I mean is the fact that Bush has an obsession with exercise that borders on the creepy.” As opposed to a president’s obsession with Big Macs and a certain intern?

Chait finds the fact that the president makes time to exercise “astonishing,” he then notes “My guess is that Bush associates exercise with discipline…The notion of a connection between physical and mental potency is, of course, silly…” Really? Not according to the medical establishment and the surgeon general’s office which notes the benefits of exercise. Such as? Better sleep, reduced tension and stress, reduction of high blood pressure, reduction of anxiety and depression, reduced risk of colon and breast cancer, healthy bones, muscles, and joints, improved self image, and generally improved physical health.

For the most powerful man on earth, the man on whose shoulders the fate of the free world rests, the president clearly recognizes exercise is an imperative component to his being able to do the job.

Chait tries to assert his point about the “silliness” of connecting exercise with mental acuity by arguing, “Consider all the perfectly toned airheads in Hollywood—or perhaps, even the president himself.” The last time I checked, most actresses in Hollywood are emaciated, they are not “perfectly toned.” There is a difference between being thin and being healthy—a distinction lost on Chait and Hollywood in general.

It would be easy to dismiss Chait as just another “journalist” who makes a living hating the president, but there’s more to it than that. You see, leftists harbor a personal jealousy of people unlike them. And who would that be? People considered “on the right” or “conservative,” those who have a healthier, happier, more positive view of life. When you view the future with optimism, when you feel you are in charge of your destiny, you’re going to be kinder to and take better care of yourself.

The pettiness of Chait’s argument reaches its pinnacle of envy with an insistent but unconvincing shout of I-Have-Self-Esteem-Too! in his last gasp. Chait closes by accusing the president’s encouragement of exercise among Americans as a further indication of how “out of touch he is. It’s nice for Bush that he can take an hour or two out of every day to run, bike, or pump iron. Unfortunately, most of us have more demanding jobs than he does.”

Wow, that says it all, doesn’t it? Chait is smarter, more clever, is much busier and certainly more important than the president. And he doesn’t even need to lift his keester out of his chair! Make no mistake here—the Left is obsessed with one thing--mainstreaming their nihilistic, empty lives. Within their narcissism and desire to be ‘normal,’ society must be made to look like them, and let’s be honest here—their world of victimhood, depression and hate is not a pretty one.

Consider their political and public leadership—those who are supposed to be the cream of the crop, meant to attract others to their camp, the Role Models—Teddy Kennedy. The Clintons. Lynne Stewart. Barbra Streisand. Whoopi Goldberg. Rosie O’Donnell. Michael Moore. Alec Baldwin. Al Franken. Need I say more?

During my time with the National Organization for Women one of the (many) things that disturbed me during national board meetings was the fact that many of the women seemed to be allergic to bathing, and especially frightened of the concept of ‘grooming.’

The simplest things reveal you are in a room full of unhappy people—many were significantly overweight, and by grooming I mean engaging in the simple act of running a brush though your hair, brushing one’s teeth, visiting a dentist if need be (at least on occasion), and simply caring enough about yourself to at least attempt to appear healthy.

When I would dare to bring up the issue of appearance (as gently as one could imagine), that notion, of course, was rejected as “surrendering to the male dominated view of female beauty.” Hey, how about surrendering to not being repulsive? That helps every cause, whatever it may be.

Of course, on the Left, one gets lost in groupthink. Personal health, exercise, and being aware of ones own body in itself is an indication that you’re conscious of yourself. Yet, it is personal unconsciousness which is encouraged and fostered in leftist activist and leadership circles. Being Unhealthy and celebrating the Ungroomed is an art form on the Left. And ultimately, as evidenced by Chait’s opinion piece, those who do take care of themselves, and dare to remind society of how things should be, are demonized. Why? Because they serve as a counterpoint of what the left is not.

You see, it now cannot be ignored that one side of the political spectrum even looks unwell. And how does the left strive to make that irrelevant? By marginalizing those who are unlike them—the physically healthy, those who actually take care of themselves, are to be mocked and shunned.

Think I’m being too extreme? Consider Robin Givhan’s coverage of John Roberts’ family at the president’s press conference announcing Judge Roberts as his nominee for the Supreme Court. In her Washington Post story also on July 22, 2005 titled “An Image A Little Too Carefully Crafted,” Givhan eclipsed Chait with an astounding pettiness thought only in existence on the elementary school playground. Givhan actually attacks Judge Roberts’ wife and children for being groomed and well-dressed.

“His wife and children stood before the cameras, groomed and glossy in pastel hues—like a trio of Easter eggs, a handful of Jelly Bellies, three little Necco wafers…Separate the child from the clothes, which do not acknowledge trends, popular culture or the passing of time. They are not classic; they are old-fashioned. These clothes are Old World, old money…”

In other words, the Roberts children should have been dressed in GAP clothes, preferably with a piercing of one body part or another. While Josie, their daughter, would have been more appropriate in a pair of low-rider jeans which make refrigerator-repairmen out of little girls.

President and Mrs. Bush, and the Roberts family make the mistake of not pledging allegiance to the decline of culture. They insult the Left by reminding intellectually lazy Slaves to Decay like Chait and Givhan that class, decorum and respect still exist. Tradition, caring for ones family, and caring for oneself, are still values that prevail.

Is Lynne Stewart to be the new American beauty standard? Is Michael Moore, and the slow suicide of morbid obesity, to be sought after? Is Ward Churchill to be the New Ideal Man? Is the discipline brought by exercise and self-restraint so frightening that we would prefer to have a quadruple-bypass like Bill Clinton?

After all, if you care enough about yourself to resist a Big Mac and Krispy Kreme, you would also have the discipline to resist an intern. Unless, of course, your world is one where there are no standards, exercise is “creepy,” and looking good is “old fashioned.” Theirs is a world, as Bill Clinton mused, where you do what you want ‘because you can.’

Thank goodness Americans are deciding they deserve better.