I have friends and relatives who suffer from “Bush derangement.” Readers of Naked Villainy will recall that your humble Smallholder is not a big fan of the Bush adminstration’s profligacy, poor planning, and incapacity to process new information. However, my disagreements are over the best policy. I do think Bush means well - he’s just largely mistaken. In the two areas where I think he actively promotes immoral stances (gays and immigration), I can see him making compromises - in order to carry out his larger vision he needs to get elected, and if he needs to villify two groups for whom he holds no personal dislike in order to get elected, so be it. I don’t like it, but understand that politics works that way.

Peter Wood has a good essay describing the sources of the vitriolic anger of the left. Check it out.