when ryan and i spoke at the punk town meeting at pix fest last summer, one of the arguments that i made was that the danger of George W. Bush was that he shifted the language and way of speaking and thinking about politics from one that was rational and considerate to one that was unilateral and ignorant. Right now I’m listening to some radio documentary on stabalizing the conflicts in Venezuala. The commentator spoke about how the Venezualan leader, Chavez, has a very aggressive and confrontational way of public speaking. She notes that in terms of how the media addresses contentious issues was affected by this. They would choose speakers, and even counterpoint speakers that mimicked this aggressive speaking style, so the entire political dialogue shifted a little. This is exactly what I feel has been going on in the US as well. The president and the way he talks has influenced other in his party, the media, and the response from the left and even radicals.
the radio program is here, i think