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I think it has a lot to do with the era in which we live. This is a time of great uncertainty. The cold war is over and the old paradigms do not apply in the same way. Great doubt has been cast on the ideas of what used to constitute conservatism and liberalism.
Bush is the representative or figurehead of a new right wing activism. One part of that activism during the Gingrich years of the 1990s, as Sparhawk alluded to, was a white hot and calculated hatred of Bill Clinton. Perhaps the left fears that this new right wing activism will destabilize the global order unless they can temper it with their own new perspective.
A large part of their currently unfocussed energy involves a visceral fear and loathing of George W. Bush and what will happen to international relations during his tenure. This energy should be focussed on finding and communicating a new left wing alternative perspective. The success or failure of this effort will dictate the future of political argument.
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