WHEN CHICKENHAWKS ATTACK!

The Smash/Tom Tomorrow debate (now linked by Instapundit with our MilBlogs launch) reminded me of the very reason I started this weblog a few months back.

From one of my first posts:

Has anybody noticed that in this go-round satire is used by the conservative side, while feeble jokes and slogans (..."Buck Fush" - that's convincing!) seem to be the main heavy artillery of the more pompous liberal establishment. (Political satire...requires a target that in a way invites the attack due to the ridiculous nature of their position. This is why (the left) can't use it in this current situation... Note "Bush is a big fat dummy" is not satire) How the brightest of the left must wince in pain when seeing clearly the truth between the lines of every "news" story (on ScrappleFace).

...I submit the precursor to Greyhawk's Theory is Greyhawk's statement on satire in political debate. The side that can use satire is close to the truth. A side whose attempts at satire inevitably backfire probably needs to re-examine their motives.

Greyhawk's Theory on Satire Backfire? Hmmmmm....

Interesting, to me at least, that Glenn obliquely tied me into something that actually was one of my original inspirations for blogging, but he made the connection for a different reason altogether.

Actually, the memory kicked in while I was entering this comment at Dean's World, in response to his insightful observations of the situation:

Parody and satire work best when the target is worthy, with some fundamental flaw in their thinking or action that when exposed via a skilled humorist reveals them for the misguided buffoons that they are. (This can be done without rancor if one avoids attacking the fundamental character of the individual.)

For so many years the Right has been the target of so many such jokes, and perhaps deservedly so. Now I'm quite convinced the Right is often mocked out of habit without any real examination of the issue that is being mocked.

Satire and parody work best now when pointed Left. Witness the success of ScrappleFace.

As further illustration I offer the decline of Saturday Night Live as a comedy program over the past few years. Can't wait to see that Sharpton episode though, maybe they'll reverse the trend!

"Greyhawk's Theory" referenced above, was (is) this:

"The liberal view in the liberal vs. conservative debate can not survive the immediate "printed" media that is today's web." --Greyhawk's Theory

Nonetheless, the liberals will not go away.
--The Terwilliger corollary

I would re-state the same today using Left and Right in place of liberal and conservative. Good folks like Dean long ago convinced me that the Left has converted "liberal" into something meaning exactly the opposite of its long accepted use. I am a liberal.

Now as to the MilBlog/Chickenhawk thing, let me make this clear: I'm anti-war. You may know someone in Iraq, I learn every day about another friend I've got over there, and my turn may come. War gets people killed, and good people are now very dead because of one man's vanity. That Saddam Hussein forced my nation to war will anger me forever, and here's an example of the type of anti-war rally I'd attend.

Those out there who are anti-war for the purist of ideological reasons, I salute. Those who would be "anti-war" for personal or political gain I refute.