Hate, the new spin buzzword of both political parties, is getting a bad rap.

Media columnists and pundits both Democrat and Republican misuse the word “hate” as often as a fat woman eating candy.

Here’s how it works.

If you criticize President Bush and I don’t like you doing that, I accuse you of being a “Bush hater.”

Likewise, if I’m a Democrat and you criticize Kerry, I call you a “Kerry hater.”

Since when has criticism become hate?

Another variant is the word “bash.” Bash implies an act of violence, when in fact criticism of public officials who should be held accountable in a free society is only necessary and just.

By calling somebody a hater, you’ve accomplished two things. You’ve relegated the hate-tor to being a member of a group (by inference). Thus, if you’re a member of a group, it’s only one more logical linked step to imagine that group involved in a conspiracy “hating” your favorite candidate.

What else do unspecified groups do but hatch secret conspiracies?

My late father was closed-minded when it came to disagreement over politics, and once angrily called me “one of them” when he didn’t like my opinion.

Who are them?

Okay. We’ve established that a hater is a member of a group of haters. You’ve also (by inference) with the word “hate” linked that person (by inference) to a common word usage today, “hate group.” Well known hate groups include the Ku Klux Clan, Nazis, communists, eco-terrorists, any number of angry people.

There is also something called a “hate crime.”

We’re cooking here. You’ve now inferred that your political opposite is a criminal.

By calling the person whose political beliefs you don’t like a hater, you’ve connected them with extremist groups, even though you didn’t have the guts to come right out and call them a Nazi, communist, or whatever, a charge they could easily refute.

It’s a very dishonest and cowardly ploy.

It takes effort ant intelligence to counter someone’s opinion by debating and presenting facts in rebuttal. But to a lazy brain, it takes no effort at all to simply label someone a bad person----a hater.

Hate groups and those who misuse the word “hate” to make political hay against opponents have given the word a bad name.

Hate is not necessarily bad. It’s possible for me to hate someone’s policies without hating them personally. If I hate you personally, I probably hate your wife, and your dog (Franklin D. Roosevelt once made a joke out of Republicans hating his little dog).

If I really hated you, I might call your wife a dog. I hate Bush’s policies, not his wife, who I find rather attractive. If Bush went back to his village in Texas, I wouldn’t hate him at all.

I hate what he’s doing-----not him.

Likewise, hate can be an emotion that gets positive things done. If I hate injustice, does that make me a bad person? Hatred of racism got the Civil Rights Act passed.

Hate can also be qualified. We’ve heard the phrase, “I hate your guts.”

“Good, then you don’t hate my face, only my guts.”

There’s hope for improvement.