**Update: Ian at Hot Air has kindly posted the segment. You can now view it there at your leisure**
At about 45 minutes past the hour I’ll be a guest on FNC’s “The O’Reilly Factor.” We’ll be talking about the Bill Maher meltdown on Leno last night, and specifically why certain people in Hollywood hate the president so much. From the beginning of his presidency, the Left has never rooted their arguments against the president in fact or logic. Instead, it has been an orgy of personal attacks, name-calling and vitriol. The Maher diatribe last night encompassed all of that. And it’s not just “liberal politics.” This is a reflection of what drives those who in the world– envy, jealousy, self-loathing, and paranoia, all reflective of Malignant Narcissism.
Many of us disagree passionately with many of the president’s positions, but I do so with respect for the man. When the argument devolves into literal personal hatred for a person you do not even know personally, you have to ask yourself, What is really behind my attitude? People like Maher inevitably find that it has nothing to do with a stranger (the president) but everyone else in their life (like their father) whom they still resent, even hate, and are simply projecting those feelings onto someone else.
For Maher and Hollywood and Leftist elites like him, President Bush represents a father figure who they resent and feel unable to please. They project their own hatred for their father or parents on who the Left traditionally sees as parents–the government. And unless they see themselves in the president (as they did Bill Clinton), their malevolence overwhelms any shred of decency or reason in the process. They resent him because he represents values they cannot match, and they’re jealous of him because the American people embrace him and have given him power.
Frankly, people like that, whether it be a disturbed Bill Maher or a drunk Danny DeVito (remember “The View” debacle?), shouldn’t be on television; they should be in a psychiatrists office dealing with their personal rage issues.
There’s more to it, but that will be my general approach tonight. Bill’s in Los Angeles, so I’ll be in-studio with him for a change.
I hope you can tune in.
I’m not sure psychology is a clinical science, but all my intuitive instincts reaffirm the truth about Tammy’s interpretation of why these people despise George Bush so very much. They can’t accept the possibility that he might just be another imperfect politician; no, Bush has got to be the anti-Christ.
We all carry a ton of emotional baggage, and I think life’s prime obligation is realize this and not project our garbage onto others. Tammy is so right in observing that this insane projection is, by definition, the characteristic of the malignant narcissist, who believes his or her own emotional state coincides with the will of God Himself.
And what has Maher accomplished with his life…what has he done to make our country better? He seems to be a hate filled person that only knows how to whine and denigrate….pitiful….even though he doesn’t believe, we should all pray for him.
I read “the death of right and wrong” and this guy is the epitome of a malignant narcissist. I live in NYC and many people (on the left) here have the same reaction to Guliani. And he turned this entire city around.
You know my husband and I watched that last night and tried to figure him out. Jay Leno didn’t even look amused, in fact at most times he looked pretty uncomfortable. To qoute my husbands parting words as we tuned out….”what an @$$!” I mean seriously, it reminded me of those times as a kid when your parents punished you and instead of going peacefully to your room you sulked loudy and dropped notes from the stairs. All that was missing was the teary, “I hope you get hit by a bus….sniff, sniff.”
I’m not a big fan of what our President has done recently. That said, however I do believe he is a good man who has the best interest of this nation at heart. I also don’t believe he is driven by personal motives which I respect and admire. Tammy’s analysis is something I have never considered before now. I will look at these people in a different light in the future and will give this more thought. As always, Tammy makes me think! Thanks and I will be watchiing tonight!
Saw your appearence on The Factor tonight. Very good. Regarding your theory on the anti Bush vitriol, my first thought admittedly was well, that’s kind of cheap psychoanalyzing. Second thought however was, well, how complicated are people like Bill Maher? I find him tawdry. The intensity of hatred for Bush is irrational. Facile psycholanalysis works when aimed at facile people.
Tuned in to “The O’Reilly Factor”. It’s not surprising that, once again, Tammy was superb. It’s obvious that we need to see & hear more of Tammy Bruce.
How do we arrange a “pay per view” event matching the likes of a Bill Maher or a Rosie O’Donnell with the erudite Ms. Bruce? Tammy is “the first mainstream gay-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking gal”. What? That’s been used already? Sorry! However we describe her, Tammy would rout anyone from the cultural or political left. Amen.
Saw you on the factor tonight, great and accurate as always. Keep it up!
One question about malignant narcissism and such. Okay, part of the theory goes that because of a bad childhood/adolecence (when combined with a few personality disorders, perhaps) some of this people have an incredible capacity for selfishness, nihilism and hatred. Anyone else find it ironic that that these same people want to ban “child abuse” aka spanking?
Tammy,
You were absolutely brilliant tonight. And beautiful, too. And dead on right. These clowns are malignant narcissists. They are also what I call “free floating haters”. They just need somebody to hate, anybody will do, right now it’s George Bush, forty five years ago they were hating black people, seventy five years ago, they were busy hating Jews. Same kind of person, different object of hate, down through the ages. Oh, and I guess they’re back to hating Jews, too.
Evil Roy
I wasn’t able to watch last night. Thank you Hot Air for posting the video. We’d love to hear Tammy all day long, but she doesn’t need much time to trounce the Left.
Tammy on O’Reilly Factor
Especially appreciated the point you made about how the (Christian) concepts of discipline, sacrifice, and becoming better people are essentially an anathema to those in the secular left. How sad for them, but how apparently true.
Congratulations on a great appearance on the O’Reilly show last night, you did great. I believe part of the hatred also stems from the 2000 Election. Many Demcrats have not been able to get over that close election and were again disappointed with John Kerry. They cannot accept defeat and blame Bush for stealing the 2000 Election and somehow believe Kerry was “swift boated” (whatever that means) in 2004.
I think Tammy’s analysis is good but with one significant qualification. I don’t think it is their father that most MalNars have a problem with but, rather, their Father. My evidence is admittedly circumstantial and anecdotal, but in my many conversations with such people, I find that if you let them talk they will pretty quickly turn the conversation to religion, long before the most zealous evangelist could have hoped to do so. Their objections seem to be:
1) They wish God didn’t exist,
2) They are angry at God for not existing,
3) They are angry at God for not solving their personal problems, and
4) They wish God would just leave them alone.
Rational? No. But these points all come up often enough that the pattern is pretty predictable.
They often do have issues with their parents as well, but I find that they never have really good explanations for why. No specificity is what I mean. Just general “MyparentsdidnotunderstandmeandwerealwaystryingtoteachmeaboutGod” mumbo-jumbo.
I recognize that some people have legitimate and sincere questions about God and that not all atheists or agnostics fall into the MalNar mind-set. But it almost always does work the other way around.
Ooh. I just watched the video and see that Tammy and Bill make a similar point. How gratifying!
I’ve visited your site but hadn’t heard you on air before. Well done: refreshing and civil, in constrast to Maher’s primetime boorishness.
I agree with Tammy’s analysis. This group of extreme leftists are not simply democrats out on the edge. They have left the traditional values and thrust of the classic democratic party and classic liberalism, and have gone to a place that is truly dangerous. They cling to the negative, dark side of the so-called sixties, and have shed much of what was positive. If you think it through just a bit, you can see that this group has an aversion to authority figures who are clear and firm about their values and goals, and this is especially true if those values clash with their’s. Rebellion against the hated father figure?
Yes, at a certain level of analysis, that is precisely what I believe it is. Nevertheless, much more is going on and Maher is a shining example of how the rage and fury lies just below the surface. Lasch discussed it well in The Culture of Narcissism and Nick Cohen’s new book describing how the left has left the traditional values of classic liberalism hits home with many of them. And you can feel their seething anger when you read their comments about Cohen on leftist blogs.