The Hammer

Giving 'The Hammer' his due

Democrats seized by 'schadenfreude'
Monday, October 3, 2005; Posted: 3:03 p.m. EDT

WASHINGTON (Creators Syndicate) -- The Germans have a word for the emotion that seized many Democrats after hearing of the criminal indictment on money-laundering charges of House Majority Leader Tom Delay, R-Texas. The word is schadenfreude, which is defined as taking malicious pleasure at the misfortune of others.

Dear Mark Shields and CNN,

On behalf of Democrats, fuck you. Fuck you for impugning our motives. Fuck you for pretending to read our minds. Fuck you for quietly suggesting that everyone who doesn't like Tom Delay is a Nazi. And of course, fuck you for lying.

No one, Democrat or otherwise, has said they take pleasure in Tom Delay's misfortune. We struggle to live our lives within the limits of the law, whilst criminals like Tom Delay profit off of their illegal acts, and use those profits in order to entrench their illegally gotten power.

Do we take pleasure? Yes we do. We take pleasure because we choose to do right, while Tom Delay chooses to do wrong, and has finally been stopped after years and years of getting away with it.

Why shouldn't we take pleasure knowing that good has finally triumphed over evil? Isn't that how a decent person should react? When the bad guy is killed at the end of a cheap hollywood action film, are we supposed to take pity on the antagonist, lest we be accused of "schadenfreude"? No, we take pleasure knowing that "good" finally triumphs.

Fuck you for suggesting otherwise, you partisan hack.