Diatribune

For more than a year now the people of the United States of America have disapproved of the way that the Bush administration has run the country. The majority of Americans actually finally agreed that they didn’t like what the Bush administration was doing shortly after he was re-elected in November of 2004. The trend in the polls should frighten those of us that believe that Democracy is the will of the people. It was quite clear that Americans rallied around the flag after we were attacked on 9/11/2001. Once again after we sent our military into Iraq to conquer that country the general support for the president rose. But, the background support for the president has declined aside from those two events.

What could this striking data mean about human nature, politics and democracy?

What we should take away from this experience is that people generally don’t understand what they are told by politicians. It really doesn’t matter whether the politician is from the left or from the right, because people don’t understand the big picture.

How could I possibly come to this conclusion?

Well, part of the answer may be found in Paul Krugman’s column this week. Part of the answer may be found in the polling data that I mentioned above. And, part of the answer is found in understanding simple human nature of politics.

So, first of all we have to understand what politics has evolved into in the United States in this century. Currently we have 25% of the American people represented by the Republican Party in that these people believe that the Republican party will make their political dreams come true. Similarly we have 25% of the American people represented by the Democrat Party in that these people believe that the Democrats will make their political dreams come true. The other 50% of the American people don’t really believe that either political party will do much to help them but sometimes they will cling on to an issue that one party or the other party supports or opposes just like they do.

The 50% of the American people in the middle have been turned off to politics in general. They don’t see any hope of any solutions, because they see both political parties as looking past them and not listening to their problems. And, because they have no stake in the outcome of any of these political discussions, they loose hope in the political process. Many of these people don’t vote, or even register to vote. The two political parties are happy that these people don’t vote, because it keeps the balance between the two political parties relatively equal.

Occasionally a politician may become more populist and begin to attract a group of people from the middle 50%. Sometimes this support from the middle is enough to turn an election or two, but for the most part these people see no results from the hopeful candidate, and they drop out of the political process once again. A presidential candidate like Ronald Reagan was able to give hope to some of these people. However, a president like George W Bush easily erases all of those gains as and sometimes more by proving that nothing has changed even with all those nice words being spoken during the election.

But, this middle 50% isn’t the whole story. The extremist 25% on both sides of the political spectrum also play a role. This is because that 25% percent of true believers is not a hard and fast rule. That group can grow when there is hope that a political party can solve problems. But, that number can also shrink when it is certain that the party that simply serves someone else’s interest.

For example, when the Republicans adopted the anti-abortion rhetoric that attracted a huge number of religious extremists that believed that the Republicans could pass a constitutional amendment that would make abortion illegal. But, as it has become clear that the main goal of the Republican party is to make more money for the wealthy many of the religious extremists have begun to give up hope and move back to the middle 50% that don’t believe that politics can solve their problems.

Similar things have happened on the political Left when groups of environmental extremists wanted the Democrats to clean up our planet, but it became clear that most Americans weren’t willing to sacrifice their personal comfort to protect the planet. These people moved back into the middle 50% as they lost hope.

During the Bush administration we have this classic example repeated once again. People believed that the Republican Party could solve their problem after we were attacked on 9/11/2001. Many people from the middle 50% quickly cheered on the administration because they feared that believing that the job could not be done would be too painful. America is the land of denial when fear is at hand. If we believe that it can’t happen, then it won’t happen. Fortunately Americans don’t all live in denial continuously. Gradually Americans look around themselves and the see reality. And, slowly they fall away from the mentality of the herd. And, by the time the 2004 presidential election was upon us the Bush administration had about 50% support compared to the 90% support just after 9/11/2001. There was a small bump in support that only campaigning can do, but for the most part George W Bush’s support was falling, and it continued to fall after the election as well, as Americans pick their heads up and look around them at the problems that the administration caused.

The hardcore supporters of George W Bush has fallen to 17% now, based on the latest Rasmussen Reports poll. This number is lower than the number of conservatives, or people who call themselves conservatives. Obviously a fair number of conservatives have taken to the idea that George W Bush has betrayed the true conservatives. Richard Viguerie is leading this charge with his website ConservativesBetrayed.com. But, on Monday New York Times columnist Paul Krugman pointed out that everything that these conservatives are “shocked” about have there roots in previous conservative rhetoric. Conservatives want and inefficient government that is in debt and inept. After all, this only makes for proving their point that the private sector could do it better. There is no consideration to the fact that poor management can make these things happen at a very rapid pace. Cutting Taxes for the wealthy is what every conservative wants, as well as to use up the Clinton surplus to pay private contractors to fight a war.

The real point here is that Republicans have veiled their true purpose to keep the wealthy in control at all means behind their words of phony conservatism that people like Richard Viguerie believed. The truth is not that Richard Viguerie was betray with his notion of conservatism. It is better understood that George W Bush has done what conservatives before him have done. They speak a good game to get the majority to vote for them, then when they have power they disregard those supporters and they carry out the true agenda. And, they’ll keep doing that until they’re figured out.

-----------------------------------------------------

Don't forget what Stephen Colbert said, "Reality has a well-known liberal bias."

Cross Posted @ Bring It On, tblog, Blogger and BlogSpirit

Reflection

__________________________