(Untitled)

[elno]

At the eve of the first 2004 presidential debate, I decided that I wouldn't ride the emotional rollercoaster of this election year's last few weeks -- I decided to condition myself for a Bush victory. If Kerry actually won, great, but if he lost I wouldn't feel traumatized. I accepted that Bush and Cheney would stay in power, that civil liberties

Comments

Re: The morning after...

[elno]

If you don't see a world of difference between "your Medicare premiums will rise" versus "the terrorists will probably attack us" then we'll just have to agree to disagree on that.

"Bush ran the country the way he felt he needed to run the country, and it looks like more of the country agreed with him in it then thought they would in 2000."

Actually, no -- the same polls say that the majority think the country is headed the wrong way. Fear and, as you mentioned, morality (which in this case is really religion) were brought to bear so that the red state voters voted for four more years. At a time when the country is engaged in two wars, the Republicans managed to make gay marriage a prime issue for voters.

And as for agreeing with how Bush ran the country, that's probably because they're viewing the country and the world through rose-colored glasses.

http://www.pipa.org/OnlineReports/Pres_Election_04/html/new_10_21_04.html

If you'll look at the numbers above, you'll see how woefully misinformed the majority of Republican voters are.

72% still believe Iraq had WMD or a WMD program.
75% still believe Iraq supported al Qaeda in November 2001.
63% believe evidence for the above has been found.
55% believe that was the conclusion of the 9/11 Commission.

Mind-boggling. It's like they're living in an alternate reality.

Re: The morning after...

[anselan]

Sure I see the difference between premium hikes and "You'll get blown up" - but all the fear boils down to 'You'll die' or 'You'll be so poor you'll die'. (The draft is a threat of death, losing medicare/social security is a threat of poorness/death) But yah, agree to disagree

And I think that the Leno show has shown us for years that a fair portion of our society is made up of blithering morons. I would say there's as many people who voted democratic who think that Bush is responsible for the lack of flu shots as people who actually believe some of things you stated. I really think those numbers are overly high.

I also know that there are people who voted on the other side of the ticket feel that those of us who voted for Kerry are just as dillusional. I'm talking about intelligent educated people as well.

I don't want to turn into a Republican apologist though. So I'll drop it from here.