What to Know Why *'s Numbers Still > 50%?

[bobd]

Here's why (from The 09/02/03 Toledo Blade):

"I just hope he does enough," said Mr. McGlashan, who said he usually votes for Democrats. "I’d like to see the U.S. government stop shipping jobs overseas."

Mr. McGlashan said he hasn’t heard of a Democratic presidential candidate he can support yet.

Referring to Mr. Bush, Mr. McGlashan said: "He’s an awful charismatic President. He’s a good speaker."

and

Mary Fuentes, 51, whose husband works at the union training center, said Mr. Fuentes voted for Vice President Al Gore in the 2000 race; she hasn’t decided whom she’ll back next year.

Speaking about Mr. Bush, she said: "He’s so proud of the American people. I really think the American people, especially since 9/11, have come into more fellowship."

These people are fucked up. What is god's name does the fact that Bush appears to be "so proud of the American people" have to do with anything?

I STILL maintain that the "American People" are one bunch of fucked up IDIOTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They are consciously choosing to shut their eyes to the dangerous cabal that's driving this country into the mud. I'm really afraid that things will have to get much, much, much worse before these fucked-up sheep open their eyes.

We live in the one of the most fucked up countries on the planet. I am so sick of it. So damn sick of it. I want out, goddamnit! I just want out.

[procopia]

1. He's a good speaker?

HE'S A GOOD SPEAKER?


Gawd.

[uptohere]

15. like it or not, the average Joe feels better listening to him

thats the quality about Clinton that got people behind him as well.

Couple that with the school of thought that the economy was getting better anyway when CLinton took over and people may just be willing to believe that a little patience is in order.

Hey, may not like it but everyone gets an equal vote here. Railing about it doesn't help. Educating people does.

[Bandit]

17. Are you comparing Bush*'s speech qualities to Clinton's?

If so I am in shock. :shrug: America is even more screwed up than I could have possibly imagined.

[Sterling]

21. Sorry that is complete bullshit

Not even my redneck Bushbot family thinks idiot boy is a good speaker. He can't get a whole platitude out without fucking it up. Now maybe some shitkickers think he sounds like they do but even the shitkickers I know think * can't speak for shit. Fact is many people support * for the same reasons people joined the clan. The problem for Bush supporters is there is little they can honestly say that they like about * that is openly acceptable in our society so you get bullshit like "Bush is a good speaker" which really means "Bush hates Blacks and Arabs too".


Don't believe the hype, use your own ears and eyes to see what people think of Bush not Rove's talking points.

[Tennessee Gal]

2. Uninformed Dolts!

The problem is that so many Americans are too shallow and lazy to look beyond the sound bites fed to them on television by the "liberal" media!

The country is going to hell in a handbasket and the media just whistles a happy tune for dumbya.

[indepat]

4. Economic and eternal hell

in my opinion.

[HFishbine]

6. So

What are YOU doing about it?

Two thirds of Dems cannot name a democratic candidate. Half of all voters think Bush is likely to be reelected no matter who they vote for. We sit here, pious in our certainty that we see the truth and that the majority of the American people are misinformed. But what are we DOING about it?

1) Write a letter to the editor
2) Print campaing materials from your candidate's web site; get some free voter registration forms from your local elections board, and go door-to-door around your block one evening.
3) Get the word out (to the "real" world), with bumber stickers, t-shirts, yard signs.
4) Volunteer for your candidate's campaign.

It's up to us folks. We can rely on the media and the usual machinery and then mock the ignorance of the American people, or we can take matters into our own hands and actually DO something.

[Bluzmann57]

3. One mans opinion

If a person says he or she is leaving because "everything is so fucked up", then he or she isn't showing very much in the way of guts. Stay and fight! These people(the facist wing of the republican party) can be stopped. Mostly, they hang themselves anyway. And as far as the people of the USA being "stupid", I disagree. I think that society has changed to a "get it done yesterday" type of mentality and that has changed people's attitudes. As well as the fact that an awful lot of people are cynical and don't trust any politician. So its time for honesty in our elected officials and its time for accountability and its time for them to work for us instead of the other way around. Since I am on my way out the door to Chicago, I'll just close with, GO CUBS!!!!

[liberalmuse]

5. There's no excuse...

for the kind of stupidity described in the examples above. I'm not claiming to be a genius or anything close, but Jesus, get a clue, people! Bush a good speaker? OMG! Unfortunately, these aren't isolated cases. Even my liberal friends are surprised when I tell them what the Bush administration has been up to. They have no idea. And they have televisions as well as internet!

[Kbowe]

7. Doesn't he know that Bush is FOR FREE TRADE and allowing

corporations to ship jobs out of the country to increase profits and avoid taxes. It's every Republican's dream to bankrupt the Federal coffers so that no poor, needy, minority, or elderly person can get any help. Never mind that lack of Federal aid will hurt only the underserved in this country...the fat cats will get their share through government contracts (welfare for the wealthy) which most fools don't consider government handouts...

[farmbo]

8. This is the "Morning In America" syndrome...Watch Out!

If Rove can convince Joe Six-pack that Bush is just a plain talkin',flag-wavin', old fashioned, good 'ole boy, with a $300 million, soft- focus, flag-o-Rama ad campaign, we're sunk. He'll do what he did in Texas; winning a second term handily.

Call it "opposition research", "voter education" or just downright negative ads; Democrats have to get on the air early and often to tear down this facade. The Media won't help us; history might, but we've got to do it.

Dean's taking heat for threatening to reject spending limits, but that sort of an effort is exactly what's required.

[Buns_of_Fire]

9. A good speaker?

Face it, to them he is a good speaker. He's popular with those people partly because he talks like them. Some folks get uncomfortable with people who use too many polysyllabic words. Obviously, this isn't a problem with Boosh -- he'd break his mouth if he even tried to say "polysyllabic!" He's the dumbing-down of America, personified -- the King of the Slackers. And they love him for it.

[liberalhistorian]

10. And that is why I've decided, in all seriousness,

to move to Canada if the Bushistas manage to maintain their coup after November of 2004! I've always joked in the past about doing that, like when Poppy, aka King George I, was elected (I wanted to during Raygun's time, but was too young). But this time I fucking damn well mean it! I will NOT live in a nation that votes for and supports the likes of Shrub and his minions, the worst and most dangerous president we've ever endured, and I will NOT watch him continue to totally destroy and trash this once-great country. He's done this much damage in less than three years, I can't imagine what he's going to do with four more!

[wakfs]

11. Not surprising at all

But dismaying just the same.

Most Americans are incredibly stupid, and I mean that in the nicest possible way.

There's a reason why monarchies worked for so many centuries. Democracy depends on an educated and informed populace to work.

[JaneQPublic]

12. Perception is everything; reality is nothing.

Reminds me of a married couple who were friends of my parents back during the Nixon years. After all the Watergate mess unfolded nightly on TV and after Nixon resigned to avoid certain impeachment, this couple said, to my parents' shock, that they still respected Nixon and would vote for him again.

Some people will reject the facts staring them right in the face before they will abandon their comfortable illusions about how things are.

I guess our job is to show these people that the reality our candidates offer will be as safe and comfortable as the illusions about Chimpy they insist on clinging to.

[Gin]

14. Maybe when they are affected by the reality * has created...they will

rethink their position on him.

[pansypoo53219]

13. massive massive cognitive dissonence

created from the dust of 9/11. time to clear their lungs.

[Catherine Vincent]

16. "He’s an awful charismatic President. He’s a good speaker"

This person sure is fucked up.

[reachout]

18. The worse news is, they are not stupid

I'll be honest, I don't think these people are stupid. Even with all the garbage they get fed by Fox and Rush, I don't think they are that uniformed.

The more frightening truth is, I think Bush is the outward expression of what is in the hearts and minds of millions of Americans. We will see next year whether that is really a majority of Americans.

I've lived all over this nation, and I can tell you there are a lot of cruel, vengeful, selfish people out there to whom George W. Bush would seem like a perfectly acceptable president.

I don't buy that he's fooling the American people about anything. His lies are laughably transparent. Rather, I'm willing to contend that a lot of people out there are giving the administration a wink and a nod, and that they understood perfectly well that Iraq was never a threat to this nation but were willing to allow the cover story of WMDs, al Quaeda or whatever continue to be floated as justification.

I talk to right-wingers and most of them admit they never thought there were WMDs. What they won't say, but what seems to underlie their reasoning, is that 3,000 people were killed on American soil on 9-11 by Muslim Arabs, and they want to see much more Muslim and/or Arab blood spilled as a result. We know for certain, that at least three times as many innocent people have been killed in Afghanistan and Iraq than died on Sept. 11, and I think that sets perfectly well with people.

It's like the South during the Nadir years. African-Americans were regularly lynched, and we like to pretend it was a few extremist Klansman. The fact is, lynchings were done with the knowledge and private consent of whole towns of white people.

Read the polls. Just as in the South, the killing and chaos in Iraq still has the consent of the majority of the American people. As well, not many other than a few shrill commentators or rightist comedians will say it aloud, but a lot of Americans think it is perfectly fine to take Iraq's oil if it benefits American interests. I had a conversation with a medical doctor the other day who said his view is that the world is ruled by the strong and the greedy and if we don't take the oil someone else will.

As to other issues such as civil liberties, I don't think as many Americans are really that concerned with their rights as we'd like to think. A recent poll, found that over forty percent of respondents thought the First Amendment "goes too far." If the people of this country really wanted to protect their rights, they would stand up and do it. However, as long as they believe these violations will be leveled against people who don't look or act or worship like they do, it isn't really a big issue.

Many of these same people thoroughly believe in a Darwinian model of economics, even when it is they who are being eaten. Cut taxes and let the Market sort it out. If they are smart and hard-working they'll be rich someday too, and they don't want a bunch of bleeding hearts giving away their money to welfare moms in the ghetto. It's not pretty to hear, but go to a bar where working people hang out and ask around to see how much of this you hear from them. Or for that matter, just take a look at how many unions are blatantly anti-immigrant. Never mind that those unions were mainly formed by poor immigrants fighting for their rights. They are now the haves and don't intend to share with the have-nots.

With the election looming, I think it is more important than ever to stare some cold, hard truths in the face. There is a darkness, a certain cruelness out there in this country. I want to believe that the American people are just being fooled by Bush, but more and more it seems that they know exactly what he is and are making their choice for him and his brand of politics with their eyes wide open.

Bush is charismatic to them because he speaks to a very primal place in them. He spiels out jingoism and vengeance. He may not be able to wrap his mouth (or his mind) around some of the more complex words, but he performs like an old-time tent preacher. He speaks with anger and passion and they love him for it.


I'm sorry to ramble on here, but I don't think closing our eyes to this possibility serves us very well. Perhaps I'm wrong. Maybe living in the heart of red America has skewed my perceptions. I just haven't seen much to convince me that Bush isn't exactly what a big swath of America desires.

[bobd]

20. Couldn't have said it better myself

This is EXACTLY what I've been trying to say.

Bottom line: Unless events cause people to open their minds chances are that hate, greed, and selfishness will win out in November of 2004.

[Sterling]

22. You are right but.

I see a change in people already. I am in NYC not exactly a Bush stronghold but I can say that a year ago even this area was behind Bush but the backlash is very strong. Peoples fear from 9-11 is turning to anger as they see that Bush's crusade has provided but little comfort or security for the country.

I think there are Americans like you discribe but I don't think they are the majority. If that were true men like FDR, JFK, and Clinton would have never conected with the masses.

We are in the middle of a very effective psy op far more advanced than those of the former USSR or Germany. Hopefully Americans are smart enough to stop drinking the coolaid before it is too late.

[sandnsea]

23. We're #1, we're #1

That's all the American voters wants to hear and all that they want to be. Somebody who deludes them into thinking the country is #1 and that something in them is #1, or is at least as good as those who are #1.

George Bush says "I'm a #1 guy, but you're as good as me." If he actually did anything for any group of Americans, that would be treating them 'special'. That would point out the obvious fallicy in the 'we're all great and all the same' argument and and the entire Republican ideology would come crumbling down.

[RichM]

19. You're absolutely right. It's part of the "genius" of capitalism to make

certain that the population is kept ignorant & confused. The media & educational system are instruments of a very real kind of brainwashing. These simpletons are like trained monkeys.

When the above-noted monkey says Bush is "so proud of the American people," etc, she feels better. It brings her present world into alignment with things she's been indoctrinated with in the past. There isn't much more to it than that.