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5.25.2004
Damn, I let some of my politics slip at work. How did it happen? A co-worker admitted that he would never vote for Kerry because he flip-flops. I think my jaw just dropped. I told him that I could never vote for Bush because he was liar and he was incompetent. I have to marvel. How does this flip-flop thing work? I mean, all politicians dance around and give non-answers or cater their message to their audience. Any politician with a long career will have issues where they have changed their stance. (Do I need to mention that many lawmakers who formally pushed to limit stem cell research are, rightly, rethinking their position?) Are we to pretend that Bush doesn't not do this? Keep in mind that I have listened to his speeches. They are fluff. He does consistently says that we will fight evil. But every time I hear him say such things I bust out laughing. He claims that tax cuts are growing the economy when that claim has been false since he first started making it. The economy may be picking up again but there is no proof that it had anything to do with tax cuts. Lest we forget that Bush forecasted the effects of the tax cuts but was wrong both times that he did. The way its going he can claim that the tax cuts are working if the economy "picks up at any time after the passage of said tax cuts"; be it three months or three years after they were to have worked their supposed magic. But, so the conventional wisdom goes, Bush is not a flip flopper. This despite the 2000 election rhetoric about being a moderate, working across both sides of the aisle type president. Has our country and our government been any more divided? He is even having trouble keeping his own party from devouring itself. The CIA and the State Department are giving each other evil glares and the Pentagon and the Defense Department are at odds over Iraq. For fun I tracked down some of the notorious Kerry Flip-Flops, and I found some... Now, Kerry Expresses Doubt About NAFTA. "Kerry, who voted for NAFTA in 1993, expressed some doubt about the strength of free-trade agreements. 'If it were before me today, I would vote against it because it doesn't have environmental or labor standards in it,' he said." (David Lightman, "Democrats Battle For Labor's Backing," Hartford Courant, 8/6/03) Holy Cow, so ten years have passed and we have seen the affects of NAFTA on our economy. So, Kerry is supposed to stick with his initial belief even in the face of ten years of NEW EXPERIENCE. And the Medal flip-flop...? On several occasions dating back to his 1984 Senate campaign, Kerry has asserted that he threw ribbons, not medals, over the fence. Recently, on ABC's Good Morning America Kerry argued, "No, you didn't see me throw...Charlie, Charlie, you are wrong. That's not what happened. I threw my ribbons across..." Ok, I never got this one. Why is this important again? This ranks with the SUV flip-flop as being the most asinine nitpicking. If I had thirty years of public statements on record and this was the worst you could come up with on me I would feel pretty relieved. If Bush never flip flops its because he never strays far from his "defeat evil" script. But I've been thinking about this all wrong, thinking like a liberal again. I was getting all caught up in ideas about proof and evidence and all that nonsense. I assumed that the rules applied equally across the board. I've since come to realize that the reason they can throw a weak label like Flip Flop on men of longstanding service like Gore and Kerry and have it stick is because its all just a pretext. That's right... a pretext: a fictitious reason that is concocted in order to conceal the real reason So what is the real reason? I'm not certain but from what I can tell, most of the people that I've met that support Bush do so out of a religious conviction. The Christians have anointed their man, Bush and pinning labels on Kerry are nothing more than thin excuses to vote for Bush anyways. Bush is the holy warrior who will defend "our way of life", as DelGiorno put it. Christians are scared of the Muslims. September 11th put the fear of Allah in them. They are rallying behind the same warriors that defended them against the Commies. You remember the Commies don't you? That time the Christians had the fear of Marx put in them. Fear is a powerful motivating force for all sides. Leaders of all varieties use fear to consolidate their power. From FlipFlopper.com "When will the jackass Democratic leadership in America figure out that the war on terror is bigger than them getting back the White House? The prison scandal was a perfect opportunity for the Dem's to stand BEHIND our President, not with the Islamofacist-head sawing-animals." Once again we can only understand this mentality if we accept that large numbers of Iraqis are involved in worldwide terrorism. Notice the dichotomy? President on one side, terrorists on the other. The author of this quote equates any and all that do not line up with the President as being "with" the "Islamofascist-head-sawing-animals". That includes Democrats and Iraqis; the infidels and the people that would sympathize with them. President Bush has become a cult-like figure for a portion of the religious right. I give Bush himself the benefit of the doubt, that while he DOES pander to that segment with certain rhetorical flourishes, I don't feel he ever comes out and overtly puts out this image as Holy Warrior. Religious right figureheads, like Robertson and the Free Republic have cultivated an image of Bush in that community that feeds into this US-President/Them-Muslims picture. They do so for complicated reasons, including various political goals that have little to do with terrorism. The usual disclaimer applies. I make generalizations about a small but very vocal minority of Christians . However, a much larger group of church-goers are influenced by this group that has anointed Bush as "our man". I've met quite a few people, who are very socially liberal but will still vote for Bush because of reasons of church. I must confess I'm still a little baffled, and with all such posts, I'm still trying to figure out the details. Weigh in... |
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