15. Franklin Graham
Leftists really hate Franklin Graham for one important reason: he stands in stark contrast to his father Billy in choosing to clearly stand on the Right. When I was a “progressive” in college I lamented how he had abandoned his father’s approach of trying to keep quiet about politics and play both sides. (Remember when Billy suggested that Bill Clinton should become an evangelist so that Hillary could run the country?) Leftists wish that Christians would just shut up, go to church on Sundays, and stand by while their country gets destroyed.
Franklin also got plenty of heat for being willing to tell the truth about Islam.
14. Roger Ailes
Fox News has done critical damage to the Progressive Psyche. Before the blogosphere emerged as a crucial component in the media war, Fox News broke the leftist monopoly on television. The conservative viewpoint could no longer be marginalized; the “consensus reality” was shattered. And Roger Ailes is the one to blame for it.
13. Dr. James Dobson
There is no greater bogeyman of social conservatism than Dobson, head of Focus on the Family. His alleged conspiratorial powers to enact anti-gay, anti-women hate agendas is mythological in the leftist imagination.
12. Clarence Thomas, Antonin Scalia, and the other Supreme Court Justices (Sandra Day O’Connor, Anthony Kennedy, and William Rehnquist) who voted in support of George W. Bush in Bush V. Gore
The Townhall article only included Thomas and Scalia on the list of most hated but really all five of the Supreme Court justices on the Right in 2000 should be grouped together. Certainly Thomas and Scalia garner more animosity than most (for being a race traitor and outspoken originalist respectively) but the whole group of five are ultimately to blame for the abomination of the Bush years in the progressive imagination. The nightmare can all be traced back to one Supreme Court decision that the Left believes should never have happened.
11. David Horowitz
No explanation is needed. Just consult Radical Son, Left Illusions, Destructive Generation, and Indoctrination U and it’s all pretty clear why NRB’s Editor-In-Chief would be ranked here.
