Why Bush will win

[qwertyMike]

I live in Canada. I'm on a mailing list that has an American Republican on board. We were chatting about the election and I asked him why Bush is doing so well with the electorate. Here is his response: I was impressed. Anyone agree?

Quote:
"I'll try to explain "why" many Americans love George W. Bush.

First, despite what gets printed or broadcast from the media centers on the East and West coasts, Americans are not universally deep thinking intellectuals who spend great amounts of time pondering the
complexities of the issues of the day. Americans are a very straight forward and (at the risk of bringing on the snickers) *simple* people. No, not simple as in stupid, but simple as in looking to eliminate complicated problems by simplification. For example, I can almost guarantee that the majority of Americans, when they heard John Kerry recently suggest that he would conduct a more "sensitive" war on terror, they shook their heads in utter disbelief, probably thinking "sensitive my ASS..you gotta KILL the SOBs!"

Americans as a rule, are not interested in "nuance", they have no love
of philosophical eggheads who have some Freudian solution to nearly every problem confronting society be it domestic or foreign. Americans mostly look at issues in a strict black and white context - "is it good? is it bad?"

That isn't to say that Americans aren't capable of considering the
various "shades of grey" that accompany any question great or small. But they do not spend inordinate amounts of time agonizing over what "shade of grey" must be given their uninterrupted attention - they cut to the chase, making a decision yea or nay, and damn the person who wants to equivocate and do some elaborate dance of the seven political veils. In a sense, America is mostly a digital nation - digital as in "1" or "0". Yes or No.

Now having said all that, Americans love George W. Bush because he is
not a man of deep complexities - he has a very stark black and white
view of the world. There have been many presidents who were intellectuals, but they reached the White House because they understood that after all the sophisticated mental gymnastics, after all their lofty 'ivory tower' rhetoric, the voters want to know just one basic answer to every basic issue, which is "what do you stand for?" That in a nutshell, not only explains why Bush generates such intense loyalty in some people, but it also explains why the negative perception of Kerry keeps going up - the American people see him as not only someone who waffles on every issue, but they are beginning
to suspect that rather than just telling each audience what they want to hear, that (even worse) Kerry isn't capable of taking a position and sticking with it."
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Interesting. BTW I respect this man.

Mike

[talullah]

1. I think he's 100%

on the money. Definitely an accurate description of the typical working class American, IMhO.

[qwertyMike]

6. Doesn't that sound

Patronizing??

[talullah]

22. How is that patronizing? nm

nm

[qwertyMike]

30. "Definitely an accurate description of the typical working class American"

One of THEM, not of we, the more enlightened.

[SotarrTheWizard]

34. Not just working class. . .

. . . I know a lot of professionals who think the same way. Thank Ghod that IT is full of liberals (well. . lots of libertarians too, but they at least are halfway onto the right path. . .)

[volosong]

38. BUSH IS STUPID, AMERICANS ARE UNINFORMED & WE HAVE TO CHANGE THAT

[KC21304]

2. Then we have to tell the people the truth. That George Bush

is a G D liar. And then prove it to them. That should be simple enough for them.

[talullah]

4. We've been doing that

and it's not working. By making these personal attacks and calling him "liar"-even though it's true-we are no better that Zell "Fawg-horn-Leg-horn" Miller.

[KC21304]

8. But what Zell said isn't true and we can prove it.

I think Kerry has to answer every charge, but keep it simple.

[talullah]

13. Agree

It is HIGH TIME that Kerry come out and answer these charges about his Senate record. Hell, it's high time he talked about his Senate record PERIOD.

[KC21304]

21. You bet. How embarrassing is it that the Republican's keynote

speaker got his speech from some spam on the internet that has been debunked by Snopes ?

[talullah]

24. Guess I'm uninformed.

Who's Snopes? As in the Faulkner Snopes?

[Jackpine Radical]

28. Snopes is a site that examines various claims & assertions

& publishes thier results, debunking as appropriate.

I think it's www.snopes.com

[talullah]

29. Thanks.nm

nm

[KC21304]

35. Here you go. Enjoy.

http://martinirepublic.com/item/zell-miller-s-speech-based-on-email-hoax

[troublemaker]

7. No person in America will vote against Kerry because they think

he's a liar. So why would they vote against Bush for that reason?

Democrats need to stop harping on what bothers US and start harping on what bothers THEM.

Bush will get us into a nuclear war and all of our children will die.

[KC21304]

19. Maybe they won't vote for Kerry because they think Bush is a liar.

Maybe they will vote for Kerry because they will find out he is not a flip-flopper, or he has a great record as a Senator, or he has the courage tell the truth about what is really important to them.

[lancdem]

I think this makes a lot of sense

Kerry has not found a way to blunt attacks on his being a flip-flopper, and it's costing us because Bush has made this election about him and not about Bush's record.

[barb162]

20. Kerry's not going negative on Bush

has hurt a lot too. Negative politicing, although everyone says they hate it, works. Look at the RNC, one whole nazi hatefest of Kerry. And the Bush numbers jump about 10 points.

There are a lot of other things going on of course. I think the christian right has grown a lot in the last 4 years...and they don't care what Bush does as long as he keeps saying his favorite book is the bible. And the swift crap went on way too long without the Dems responding to where the hell was Mr. Awol. Etc.

You know the old line about you get the government you deserve. If the mass of this population doesn't give a shit that he is killing innocent people in Iraq, that he is a bigtime liar, that all he cares about is tax cuts to his rich buddies, that he doesn't care if Americans have good jobs or not, then

WE DESERVE WHAT WE GET.

[troublemaker]

3. White Amrcns will cut their throats if they think it hurts non-whites more

That's all this is about. Americans aren't stupid stupid. They are stupid on purpose as a mode of agression.

[talullah]

16. I don't follow you. n/m

n/m

[Piperay]

32. I agree

many would rather keep something away from someone else even if it means they deprive themselves.:eyes:

[WI_DEM]

5. 1/3 of the country loves Bush, 1/3 absolutely hates him

and 1/3 don't pay attention.

[greenohio]

9. $hrub will not win

Why does everyone assume that swing voters support this war? Kerry will win if he says he would never have invaded Iraq unless we found WMD through inspections. Until he says that, there is confusion, even on these boards of where he stands. Confusion just pisses everybody off.

[unblock]

10. this is all bull, actually.

it's not really true that americans ARE simple or seek simple (simplistic?) solution.

what IS true is:
(a) the MEDIA seek simple solutions and short sound bites, and;
(b) shrub is simple (simplistic!) and therefore, in order to sell their candidate, they must push the idea that americans are like him, and like him.

so what's more true is that simple WORKS for shrub.

[barb162]

26. I think more and more Americans every day

are turning to this. christian right simple solution: vote Bush, his favorite book is the bible.

Okay the media does push the simple fast sound bites. But then what prevents the "simps" from figuring out he's been selling the same story "the economy is turning the corner" every month for about 4 years now. You know what, it takes simple deductive reasoning that the economy is NOT getting better and obviously, there isn't much of that going on in this country these days if the Time, Newsweek polls are correct. Same story on WMD and a whole host of other issues.

[unblock]

31. the problem is that the masses don't automatically assume simple = lying

that's why it works for shrub. his simple-minded side of the equation actually masks vast problems and covers up lies.

WE know this, but the people don't. they hear the simple lines, they understand that real life is more complex, but they don't (yet) know to infer that the simplistic solution is simplistic for a nefarious reason.

[West Coast Democrat]

11. Americans also loved (and still love) Pres. Clinton....

he was a complex president, and an intellectual. The theory that Democrats come from an intellecutal "ivory tower" that the mainstream doesn't understand is greatly exaggerated.

Americans are not a stupid and simplistic as the Republicans wish we were. We understand when we're being misled and being lied to.

[union_maid]

12. I don't think the "liar" or "misleader" thing is the most powerful

Most people who are the sort of person described in the above post and who are also potential swing voters think all politicians are liars. And all the Repubs have to do is conjure up some apparent inconstistancy in statements Kerry has made and it's presented as the moral equivalent of lying to lead us to war.

The main slam I've heard on Bush from average Americans is that he's an idiot. Incompetence has been the hallmark of this administration and that's the meme that should be stressed IMHO.

[bigtree]

14. I think voters will tire of the folksy bullshit

and make a vote for their future and the future of their draft age children.

[Jade Fox]

15. What he has described is the mindset of Conservatives.

Studies of Conservatives reveal the same thing: low tolerance for complexity
and nuance, and a strong need for quick closure and resolution of issues
and conflicts.

Not all Americans are conservative. Which he clearly believes.

[DaveSZ]

17. Well

With Clinton, he was an intellectual and also folksy at the same time.

He had both of those qualities and that's why he was so effective.

Kerry has intelligence but not folksiness.

Bush has folksiness but lacks intelligence.

[Jade Fox]

25. Good point about Clinton, but...

I don't believe he would have won in 92 had it not been for a combination
of Perot draining off votes that would have gone Republican, and Bush Sr.
running a spectacularly bad campaign.

I think Clinton was re-elected in 96 because he was doing a good job and
Bob Dole was a joke.

[George W. Dunce]

18. Yawn

It's how Bush is portrayed in the media, decisive and stead fast.Well except little things like

No 9/11 commission
Well have a 9/11 commission
Condi will not testify
Ok she will, but not in public
Well ok in public but not under oath
Ok under oath but I or my VP will not testify before the commission
Ok she'll be under oath and we will "meet" with the commission
The commission will not go beyond the deadline
OK the commission will be allowed to go beyond the deadline

What the hell is decisive about any of that?
While I do believe the premise of the article that most Americans don't want nuances. Bush is just as nuanced as any other politician. I just cited the 9/11 commison we could extend that to Homelad Security, the power grid and so on. It's more of his perception by the American public through the media. That is how he is protrayed. and the binary thinkers among us eat it up.

[bobbyboucher]

23. Bullshit.

A great portion of Bush voters are 9/11 PTSD fools. They haven't thought straight since 9/11 because they are intellectually lazy and some are just plain rubes, and of course they are being continually manipulated by the Repub echo chamber that they are in imminent danger. As every day goes by, as another "orange alert" of questionable timing comes and goes, a few more come groggily to their senses.

Bush is running out of time. If he lies his way into office again, it will all be very painful to watch as their house of cards, their mountain of lies and distortions and corruption comes into plain view. It is going to be ugly.

It's a combination of PTSD and Florence Nightinggale syndrome. Bush was the one that was in position to comfort them after 9/11, and now they look to him as some sort of mythical hero. Rove and the rapacious liars are playing it to the hilt. When it comes apart, it ain't gonna be pretty. The people are going to realize that they have been played, and a lot of these same people take pride in their business acumen and cunning.

It might not happen before the election, but it is slowly happening. My hope is just enough people are tired of being lied to about every goddamn thing in their lives, and they stay home or vote Kerry.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

27. Bush's message is very nuanced

Even though Bush has been quoted as saying "In Texas, we don't do nuance", his actual message is very nuanced, in my opinion. The reason why we went into Iraq has now become a tortuous nuanced excuse. Whereas the reason used to be black and white, namely the grave and gathering threat of WMD, the excuse has morphed into a myriad of vague and nebulous arguments that can't be summed up in a simple black and white sound bite, such as "Saddam was a WMD himself", and "he was thinking about contemplating the development of intiatives to eventually develop programs for the ultimate production of WMDs", and "he was paying the families of Palestinians whose family members were terrorists and this was an incentive for other families' members to commit terrorist acts and even if they weren't the same terrorists who hit the Twin Towers they were someone's terrorists", and "he had Al Qaeda terrorists on his soil who although they were operating in Kurdish independent areas they were nonetheless in Iraq and could perhaps have eventually replaced Saddam and come under Iranian influence", and "we were invited into Iraq to save the Iraqi people and eventually they will realize and cherish the democracy we have brought and spread it through the middle east, although they certainly will have the freedom to elect an Islamic Fundamentalist government hostile to the West if they choose". It's the same thing with the economy. The economic proposals of Bush used to be as simple as the mantra of "tax cut, tax cut, tax cut". When the tax cut didn't work, that then morphed into a tortuous nuanced messsage of "well you see, we inherited Clinton's recession and 911 affected the US economy, and then there were the corporate scandals begun under Clinton that undermined investor confidence, and the turmoil in Venezuela and price of oil in the middle east has increased the cost of energy and that is why even though we've lost hundreds of thousands of jobs the economy is still looking up because it can't get any worse".

Unfortunately, the media only pays attention to Kerry's complex and nuanced explanations but virtually ignores the zigzagging maze of excuses within excuses that has characterized the Bush apologists after his black and white sound bites failed to produce results either in Iraq or in the economy.

[qwertyMike]

33. kick

[kcwayne]

36. Americans are woefully uninformed

We don't read widely, and have very limited exposure to current events, facts, or history. We don't discuss topics, and tend to simply reiterate opinions from media or dubious sources such as Rush Limbaugh. We don't listen to a dissenting opinions, we simply tune them out.

Given all of that, for a majority of people the facts do not matter. They will vote for Bush because he is a Republican, or a born again Christian, or because he is "pro business". These are not thought out positions, they are inherited or dictated ideas that have been adopted, not created from reasoning based on evidence.

[JerseygirlCT]

37. First: this explains perhaps one half -m

of those likely to vote. The other half (us) like to think. The picture painted of Americans in your post is foreign to me. Are there some "simpletons"? Sure, and I expect you'll find the same anywhere. Are there also many people capable of sophisticated and "nuanced" thought who also care deeply about the future of the country? Yes.

Are Bush's supporters more likely to see things in black and white? There I would agree. Frankly, I do not understand why anyone would support the man, but I suppose this explanation is as good as any I've heard.

But do understand: Americans do not love George Bush. More than half of Americans cannot stand the man.

Second, negative impressions of Kerry are not increasing. He took a hit with the recent spate of campaign-directed lies, but he'll bounce back. Kerry's problem is less growing negative impressions and more that too many people still don't have a fully formed impression. That can be fixed, and I'm pretty confident it will be.

[indie_voter]

39. His portrayal of the GWB supporters is spot on

The issue I would take is with the typical American vs GWB supporter.

What is a typical American? I don't know. There are the Northeastern and CA "liberals" , The "heartland", blah blah blah.

It has become a cliche but unfortunately it is true, America is at odds with itself. We are engaged in a fight between those who see us as part of this world and those who see us as *the* world.

If (and I can't even wrap my mind around the concept) GWB wins this election, I believe we as a nation are headed off a cliff. I can only hope enough fellow Americans (those who don't vote, which pisses me off!!) sense the importance of this particular moment in time and vote for Kerry.