I’m curious how many dopers supported Bush back in 2004. I know this board skews left, but plenty of voters chose Bush, so there’s probably more than a few around here. (But how many will admit to it?)
What were the primary reasons for choosing Bush, and do you feel those reasons were justified, in hindsight? Any regrets?
Do you think he did a better job than Kerry would have? I know there was a perception that Kerry was too wooden, too pompous, too “New England”, etc. And Bush was supposedly the guy you’d want to have a beer with. I wonder if anybody really chose Bush again based on personality alone.
I’m not a doper, so I’m not sure if you’re just looking for doper responses.
Yeah, I voted for Bush twice and I’d vote for him again if it was possible. Unlike a majority of people, I don’t base my decisions on popular opinion polls or media hype. I completely disregard these elements, they don’t exist for me. So the reasons I voted for Bush initially have not changed. And I have no regrets.
Just for clarification, you post on this message board, so you’re a doper.
I see. So…uh…let’s see here…um. Hmm. You have…followed the news in the past few years…right? I mean, Bush has done a lot of things since 2000 and 2004. Things that…well…uh…er.
Let me put it another way. Popular opinion at one point was in support of Bush. Now, popular opinion is against Bush. If everyone now hates Bush because it’s popular opinion, then how did it become popular opinion in the first place? Something had to cause popular opinion to change other than it being popular opinion.
Err, no, he’s asking for you to hush because he thought the OP asked for Dopers who voted for Bush in 2004 but have subsequently regretted it. To be fair, so did I until I reread it just now. If The Controvert had asked for that, your input would be interesting but irrelevant. As it is, your input is not interesting and not actually helpful, since you don’t go into any detail.
Yeah, every level. There is no organization devoted to informing the public that favors Bush or is scrupulously dedicated to impartiality.
Now, here’s a question for you: if, as you claim, the media sets public opinion, what happened to the media to make them shift how positively people thought about Bush between 9/11 and, say, 2006?
I wanted to let the readers know there are voters out there who actually have no regrets for supporting Bush. My reason being, I valued what he stood for 8 years ago and 8 years later, I still share his values. I’d still vote R across the board.
Of course I believe Bush was not as fiscally conservative as I wanted him to be, but he was sure better than the alternative. His tax cuts contributed to a strong economy even with major obstacles after the 11th of Sept, our economy bounced back and has been growing ever since. Our unemployment rate is low and we’re clearly not in a recession. I’ve been keeping a close eye on the WSJ for the past few years… we’ve had record breaking highs in the stock market. And although it’s going down, I often wonder why people don’t realize that “what goes up, must come down”. One segment of our economy has been weakened (real estate) due to unfair lending tactics. But again, real estate was on an increase for so long, why wouldn’t we expect a change the market? don’t forget, the market is also unsure due to the threat of a democrat taking over the white house and screwing up the economy with heavy spending and tax hikes. And this will always create fear on Wall Street. So now we’re feeling the repercussions.
Hi Johnnie, welcome to my thread. By “doper”, I meant Straight Doper, i.e. someone on this board. While I welcome everyone’s contribution, I started the thread to understand the mindset of Bush voters, which the above post sort of addresses.
However, some of your subsequent posts seem to veer off into other debates. That’s fine and all, but feel free to start another thread if you’re really want to discuss the media, etc.
You state what your reasons were not. I am curious what your reasons were / are for choosing Bush. Was it personality? Fiscal conservatism and promise of reduced taxes? etc.
Edit: After posting, I saw you stated your reasons. Please disregard last paragraph.
No, it’s interesting – because it says nothing at all about foreign policy or the war. Haven’t you figured out yet that that’s the main reason W’s approval ratings are so low?
Right, a Democrat’s heavy spending and tax hikes, as opposed to Bush’s heavy spending and tax cuts. Here’s something you might not have thought of: lower taxes are not necessarily a good thing. The government needs money in order to function, and if it doesn’t get the money it needs in revenues, it just borrows to fill the gap. This in turn places an immense burden on future generations, which I think we can all agree is a bad thing, correct?
Also, why did Wall Street suddenly become afraid a month or two ago?