Letters to the Editor
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Where, Oh Where Has Our Democracy Gone?
According to the Post/ABC News poll, 48 percent of Americans say the war in Iraq is the issue they want Bush and Congress to be dealing with this year -- and "no other issue rises out of single digits."
Sure, Bush will ignore the public, but come on - so are the Democrats. The public can't stop the war. We vote for the other party, we give them the power to defund the war and bring the troops home, and we end up with a surge. Democracy doesn't work here anymore.
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Are 1/3 of the public simply brain dead??
How else to explain an approval level of 33% - can it possibly be that 33% of those polled think this idiot is anything other than the most incompetent and dangerous fool to have occupied the Oval Office since James Buchanan??
Are there actually people out there who respond to his simplistic prattle about victory? About Iraqis standing up and our troops standing down?
Does he even know what these terms mean? What about his legacy ???
Can't someone sit him down and tell him that if he's lucky - really, really LUCKY - his LEGACY will be to avoid being the first president to be impeached and REMOVED, and spending the rest of his days in the prison cell he so richly deserves for crimes against humanity.
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Domestic issues
So, is he going to focus on the failure of the prescription drug plan and the rising costs of health care? Or maybe the generally declining standard of living for the middle class. That'd go over well. Maybe he wants to focus on the fact that, while the overall median income rose between 2004 and 2005 (the last dates that figures are available for from the Bureau of Labor Statistics) that when adjusted for inflation, it actually fell. Or that between 2004 and 2005 the median income for black men and women actually fell.
Speaking of poor black people ignored by the president, maybe he wants to touch on how New Orleans is still not cleaned up, its displaced citizens still live in trailers, and he'll get on that real soon now. Hey, he could talk about the failing education system! That'd help his poll numbers. Maybe he'll introduce a new plan to privatize Social Security again. That plays well with seniors, right?
Honestly, I can't think of anything he could say that would actually make me feel even a little bit better. Maybe he could say he was firing Cheney for being wrong about everything he's said as Vice President (and for shooting someone).
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Memo to Congress
During the speech, sit on your hands. That's what I'd like to see. When Bush is up there announcing that the "State of the Union is good" you just sit on your hands. Let his stupid little banality yield the cricket chirps it deserves. The same for all his other meaningless jibber-jabber (thanks to Mr. T for that perfect description), "We're gonna to work on a health plan that will allow all Americans the ability to go slightly less bankrupt paying for life-saving care. -- We're gonna defund our education system, so that every American can know the joys of school vouchers -- We're gonna eliminate environmental standards so that the free enterprise system can be free to find their own solutions."
Just sit on your hands. Not even a smattering of polite applause. Just let his statements fly out and plop to the floor under the weight of their own stupidity. Imagine the response that Stephen Colbert got at the White House Press Corp dinner, remember how quiet everyone got when they realized that he had the audacity to call them all out to their face? That's the sort of energy you want to give back to Bush. Only Colbert kept going; imagine Bush's reaction to such a response, imagine the fun of watching him work up a nice sheen of flop sweat. What fun!
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Hard Core Numbers and (Un)reality
As approval ratings for The Decider tumble to the low to mid-thirties, is there any reason to think that they can drop much further?
Probably not.
Even if The Decider were suddenly to sprout horns, fangs, and a forked tail, his True Believers would remain convinced that he is the Chosen One.
The absolute floor for his support is approximately 30 percent, the carefully assembled Rovian Hard Core. Here is why:
--35 percent (and 67 percent of Republicans) of Americans still think that invading Iraq was a good idea
--67 percent (or even 74 percent, depending on the poll) of Republicans think that Bush's troop "surge" to escalate the war in Iraq is a good idea
--30 percent of Americans think that Big Business has the right amount of influence (22) or too little influence (8) on the Bush Administration
--29 percent disapprove of interracial marriage
--32 percent consider themselves to be "born-again" Christians
--25 percent think that the Rapture/Second Coming will occur in 2007
--24 percent think that automatic assault weapons should continue to be sold to the public
--20 percent (and 81 percent of evangelical fundamentalists) believe the creationists' literalist dogma that God created the entire cosmos 6,000 years ago
--37 percent think that the teaching of creationism (or the latest version, Intelligent Design) should replace the teaching of evolution
--17 perent think that abortion should be illegal even in cases of rape or incest
--39 percent admit to harboring prejudice against Muslims
--27 percent of Illinois voters cast ballots for the certifiably extremist Alan Keyes rather than for Barack Obama in 2004
--74 percent (yes--three-fourths!) of Republicans deny that global warming is occurring
These polls reflect what Karl Rove has spent his life creating: a rock-solid base of credulous gun-totin', SUV-drivin', conservation-deridin', Bible-thumpin', Rapture-awaitin', ignorance-embracin', global-warming-denyin', evolution-dismissin', science-rejectin', home-schoolin', contraception-and-abortion-rights-opposin', tolerance-refusin', gay-bashin', Constitution-shreddin', civil rights-denyin', Bill-of-Rights-ignorin', anti-race-mixin', Confederate-flag-displayin', Fox-News-believin', Rush-Limbaugh-admirin', foreigner-despisin', Muslim-demonizin', militia-joinin', perpetual-war-lovin', war-and-oil-profit-cheerin', robber-baron-servin', Fuehrer-enablin' social conservatives.
These poll numbers largely, though not perfectly, overlap. Some abortion foes will feel even more strongly about the loss of life resulting from the unnecessary invasion and occupation of Iraq. Some gun enthusiasts will feel strongly about protecting the environment and curbing global warming. Some viewers even of Fox News will have doubts about skewing economic and tax policies primarily for the benefit of big business and the wealthiest one percent.
All the same, no matter what blunders he makes, The Decider will still have an unshakeable Rovian Hard Core of between 30 and 35 percent of the voters approving of his actions.
They have faith, you see, in the righteousness of The Decider's cause. They have always inhabited, and shall always inhabit, an alternative (un)reality, a sort of 12th century medieval time warp, where reason has no place.