Bush voters put Bush back into office because....

[kentuck]

...he may be a stupid and reckless bastard but, by God, he is their "bastard". They voted for him before. Ain't no way they are going to admit they were wrong the first time. And they voted to renew their own mistake. They could not admit they were wrong. But they were.

Ain't no way they are going to accept responsibility for the huge deficits and the wrecking of our economy. They rationalized that the "war on terror" was a threat to them personally and that George W Bush was the best person to "protect" them. And they need "protection".....protection from themselves.

[phaseolus]

1. From that Sagan book I had to read after seeing it discussed on DU...

"One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we've been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We're no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. It's simply too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves, that we've been taken. Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back. So the old bamboozles tend to persist as the new ones rise."

from "The Demon-Haunted World", 1995

[blm]

2. because...they are Rapture Ready, and by God, Bush is leading them there.

They want the Apocalypse they were promised by the evertrustworthy Tim LaHaye.

[carnie_sf]

3. they are ignorant maroons

who don't know enough to vote their own self interest, enlightened or otherwise.

[madison2000]

4. "he may be a stupid and reckless bastard, but he's our bastard"

its kind of touching really, the way fools love their corrupt leaders. I bet there were many who said the same about Saddam.

[Skittles]

5. BUSH VOTERS MAKE ME SICK

I could maybe - MAYBE - forgive those who voted for him the first time but those who voted for him THE SECOND TIME can f***ing GO TO HELL and NO I don't CARE if they are RELATED to you or if you are f***ing DATING them. :grr:

[dkofos]

6. Because they own the machines

[NVMojo]

7. I am from the "west" and the western bush voters put him there

cuz he will let them drill for oil, mine for gold, ranch on public lands, drain the water basins dry and not charge them anything cuz it's all for profit and profit is king.

People need to sit down with the Indians in the West and band with them to take this mentality out. The land and water management of "public land" should include the Indians. They know what it means to protect the earth, except those Indians who have been sold on the greed factor of the white face. I've met a few of those in Nevada.

[ashmanonar]

9. ok, this is gonna probably get me flamed (tho i don't give a damn)

but just bc someone is of native american descent doesn't mean that they're "in tune with nature"...many've been brought up with the ideals and education we all know and hate, what makes them "natural?"

and bc someone's japanese american they are used to living close to other people? and mexican americans are hard workers?

what is it with people (many people, not just the wingers) and racial profiling? Native Americans are just people, like everybody else.

[kodi]

8. same reason people buy really ugly dogs.

.

[vixengrl]

10. The denial runs deep with Bush voters.

This may sound awful, but the reflex thought of such people is, "Doesn't effect me personally, so I don't care." They don't care if Iraqi civilians are bombed, because it isn't them. They don't care if people suspected of terrorist connections are put in jail forever without charges or trials, because it isn't them. They aren't worried about their freedom of speech, because of course they are free to cheer *their* leader. And there's no trying to explain to them that the shoe could be on the other foot--nope. They can lose jobs, lose benefits, lose their children's future. "Nope, not me," they'll opine. It's as if Bush in their minds stands between them and bad things-"If we do unto others, it won't get done unto us." It's a watchdog that'll bite the houseowner, I think.

[Phoebe_in_Sydney]

13. Not arguing with you ...

but if people aren't worried unless something directlya affects them then how do you explain people who don't even know any gays being so worried about what gay people do?

or men being rabidly anti-abortion?


:eyes:

[pdxmom]

11. I have 3 siblings

All voted for Bush. Their reasons:

1. One didn't want to change horses in the middle of the war. I explained that if Bush were re-elected, we'd probably still be there at the end of his second term, too. Then what? She had no response.

2. One likes war. Period. Too much testosterone.

3. One did it because her husband told her to. That pretty much says it all.

In other words, not one thought out vote in the bunch. And these, honestly, are very smart people. I have yet to figure it out.

Neither do my parents. They both voted for Kerry. Obviously, I was the only one to get the true smarts in the family. <g>

[paulk]

12. they needed to believe that Bush is who they wanted him to be

not who he actually is.

There was a focus group on c-span just after the election - 12 Ohio voters, 6 Kerry, 6 Bush. Some things really stood out. The Kerry voters were, as a whole, much better informed about what Bush's actual policies were than the Bush voters.

In the last segment, the Bush voters were asked what advice they would give Bush for his 2nd term - four of the six practically recited Kerry's platform. They wanted Bush to do what Kerry had said he would do. It was weird. They wanted Bush to change - as if his actions of the previous four years had no bearing on what we could expect from the next four.

[ClearMessage]

14. I disagree.

This article explains why Bush has such a "grip" on many Americans.

We may think they were stupid, but it's more complex than that. They were afraid of the terrorist boogie-man, and they had to find a strong anchor to be their protector, and to them, it was Bush.

Logic & reason played no role. As the article describes it, they were in the "grip of desperate dependency".

[shraby]

15. They didn't

Kerry won.