And one of the biggest problems the left has is that that majority knows the left thinks of them this way. These people have no desire to be governed by people who think they are better than they are, or who think that “the people” are stupid and unable to determine what’s best for themselves. Even if it’s true. (I don’t think so.)
Overall, I think Bush was a fairly weak candidate for an incumbent. He should have been easy to oust. I just think that the Dems would have had a much easier time if their candidate was just a little closer to the center.
Regarding the OP - I don’t think the new stratgy will work. Any talk about the war leads people to think about defense and the military, areas that Bush (and the GOP) have typically owned.
Kerry may still win, but in general I’m not impressed with my country’s ability to put quality people in competition for the highest office in the land. Maybe we need to get better incentives or something; I don’t understand how anyone could get excited about any of the candidates.
The left AND the right think of them this way … because they ARE this way. Furthermore, they don’t KNOW the left and the right think of tem this way, because they don’t KNOW much of anything. Most of them probably could not locate Iraq on a map or tell who Iraq was at war with prior to the U.S. Think Homer Simpson, here. People who post to this site and a lot of others are WAAAAAAAAAY outside the bell curve of average voters.
That may be true, but the right tries very hard not to show it at least.
All I can say is that my anecdotal evidence says this is false. I have often heard the complaint from people on the right (most of my family and some of my friends) that the Dems think that people are too stupid to make decisions for themselves, and use that opinion as a way to ridicule the party.
Furthermore, the happiness of the majority is an important component to a successful country. Even if you believe the majority to be making a decision that is bad for them, in the end it may be just as important for their will to be done just to appease them.
Besides, stupid is relative. In fact, most of the country is average, by definition. Maybe you feel you are smarter than average; that’s good, but ridiculing others for not having your intellectual abilities gives them reason to demean you too, doesn’t it?
…and I’m sick and tired of that old saw; I didn’t call them stupid or inferior; I called them assholes. I’m pretty good at picking my insults. If I wanted to denigrate these folks by swiping at their mental capacity, I would have.
I’m calling them assholes because I think they’re assholes, period. I know it’s a broad stroke that can get me in trouble, but basically, I am of the opinion that a bunch of rednecks who think this whole “bring it on” stuff is manly or cool or strong or whatever don’t have to live in one of the main terrorist targets. So basically, they’re hurling insults at someone who’s throwing rocks at me whilst hiding behind their mother’s skirts. Assholes.
So I’m not trying to determine what’s best for others because I think they’re idiots; I’m trying to improve my family’s safety by ousting the bellicose pretend redneck who’s further engendering terrorism, IMHO.
BTW, I’m not exactly “The Left” incarnate, either.
I’ll repeat what I said above: Kerry can always respond to the above charges with
So, he can still claim to have been *for * the war, but *not * for the way the war was conducted, which was horrendous. Which makes Bush look like an incompetent commander in chief.
I just don’t think “flip-flopper” or “waffler” is a very strong charge, and it’s a hard one to make stick. I’m sure the Repub hardcore will buy it, I doubt that people who don’t have much invested in the Bush admin emotionally will. It doesn’t have nearly the emotional power of, “Bush is a man who has led us into a pointless war in which over a thousand Americans have lost their lives, without making us one bit safer.”
“Flip-flopper” or “waffler” in response to that is frankly a very weak defense.
In 1964, the President of the United States said that America was under threat of attack. The members of Congress believed him and authorized the President to take whatever steps he thought were necessary to defend America.
The threat was a supposed attack on American ships in the Gulf of Tonkin. An attack which we now know never happened. The result was the Vietnam War. A war in which over seven hundred thousand Americans were sent to fight and over twenty thousand Americans were killed.
In 2003, another American President told us that America was under threat of attack and asked Congress for the power to go to war. Congress again gave the President the power he said he needed.
And once again we have now found out that we were responding to a threat that never existed. Iraq did not have an arsenal of biological, chemical, or nuclear weapons or any other means of attacking America. Iraq was not supporting al Qaeda or other terrorist organizations which threatened the United States. Saddam Hussein was an evil man, but he was a fading dictator whose regime was ebbing away because of the international sanctions which curtailed his power.
We are now a nation at war. Over two hundred thousand Americans have already been sent to fight in a foreign land and over one thousand of them have already died. The international reputation that the United States had built for over two centuries as a beacon for hope and justice has been tarnished. And the threat of terrorist attacks against the United States has been increased by the anger that has been aroused throughout the world.
Now is the time for America to decide what the future holds. We may continue on the same path we have been put on and send our sons and our daughters off to fight for years for no purpose. Or we can create some good out of what has been done. We can leave the past behind and work on bringing peace and stability to the Middle East. We can concentrate on defeating the forces of terrorism that threaten our nation. And we can bring our children home.
I cannot predict what challenges will face America in the future. But I can promise this. If I am President, I will never send Americans off to war for false reasons.