Letters to the Editor
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They're both very much alike
George W. Bush and Hilary Clinton made war on Iraq together, causing one of the worst humanitarian catastrophes in the modern era. Clinton might know more about history than Bush, but she, like he, is a cold-blooded killer who will continue making war on a nation that never attacked us and had no way to attack us.
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Intelligence a weakness?
The Achilles heel of the Democratic Party and the political left has always been their noticeable level of intelligence, intellect, and their strong grasp of difficult geopolitics. Nothing confirms that fact better than when you contrast President Clinton with President Dubya. President Clinton was born in extreme poverty, but became a Rhode’s Scholar, the youngest governor ever, and later the president to finally balance the budget after years of deficit spending. Bush was born rich, got through a college that his father was alumni of on a C average, failed miserably at every company position he was handed, put the budget back into the red while in office, and got America’s military bogged down into the worse quagmire since Viet Nam. But people called Clinton “elite,” and saw Bush as a common man.
Why do American voters gravitate towards stupidity, and why do Republicans suffer from inferior intelligence, intellect, and grasp of geopolitics?
I am sure that if we can figure out those two pressing puzzles, then we will shortly there afterwards be able to figure out how to put into action solutions that will solve all of the world’s pressing problems.
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@MMiller
An alien life form visiting Earth might be hard-pressed to see the difference between you and your cat. But if you can't see the difference between either Clinton and Bush, if you honestly don't think the last six years would have unspooled in a completely different fashion if Al Gore had been president -- well, maybe you are an alien life form.
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Oh, George...
"And if a reporter were to ask such a question, can you imagine Bush answering by saying that "it's hard to take what was a philosophy with respect to the use and containment of power during the Cold War and try to shoehorn it into a post-Cold War context"?"
Well, we know he can say "it's hard".
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Conservatives' blindness to irony?
Dubya says, "We're at war with coldblooded killers who despise freedom, reject tolerance, and kill the innocent in pursuit of their political vision...."
It's interesting how that seems to describe the tactics and attitude of his own administration. Has anybody noticed that neocons seem to either lack the ability to grasp the concept of irony? Or that they're so arrogant as to believe nobody will notice the irony of their statements versus what they actually do?
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What's The Difference?
Hillary Clinton might have a more nuanced approach to the "War On Terror" than George W. Bush, but she is serving the same "base", the corporate globalist elite. She would keep American troops actively intervening in the internal affairs of other countries to secure resources and markets for transnational corporations. Aaron Russo said it best, "The 'War On Terror' is a war on your freedom."
If you want American soldiers to continue bleeding and dying and the taxpayers continuing to be bilked out of 100s of billions of dollars annually to support transnational corporations, just keep voting for "front runner" candidates who have received the blessings of corporate controlled media. Don't pay any attention to the "fringe" candidates like Dennis Kucinich, Mike Gravel, or Ron Paul.
There needs to be a totally new direction for America, away from violence, meddling, and intimidation. There is no question that "markets" will suffer in the short run, but who can truly say that the current approach is anything but a lemming march to catastrophe?
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Fetboy, it's not the intelligence; it's the contempt.
The reason that "liberal" and "intellectual" people have gotten a bad rep is not their intelligence. It is the contempt for people who are not as educated or sophisticated as them.
When Franklin Roosevelt decided to take some drastic steps to bring America back from economic depression, he used his "Fireside Chats" to explain his reasoning to Americans - not as an intellectual trying to say "I'm a genius and you're not," but simply assuming that these were things that people had not been taught. He became the most beloved President of the 20th Century, because he made it clear he wanted to help.
But the grandchildren of Roosevelt are proud of their education and love to show it off. Not that he's progressive or cares about people (he doesn't) but Ralph Nader is a prime example of this disease. Ask him "What would you do to correct the imbalance in media power?" and he'll give you a four-hour lecture, probably reading his script for a children's educational show and teaching you how to properly install a BNC video connector on a hunk of cable.
It isn't the intelligence of the candidate. It's the implied belief by the candidate that the voter isn't. They're all like Mr./Ms. Garrison on South Park, spewing contempt on you for not knowing the right answer (his/her answer) immediately, and angry that you didn't realize that understanding the detective process of Barnaby Jones is the most important thing you can learn in his/her class.
Compare that to the would-be cowboy with the gin blossoms all over his face and the love of war and oil, and yeah, you'd flock to the stumbling pretzel-eater. It would take genuine abuse - which people understand that Bush is actually doing now - to get people to dislike him. And all the Republicans need to do to recover is nominate a non-drunk non-idiot with some vague promises to end the war some decade, and the people will flock back. Anything's better than being called Stoopid, as one Salon columnist did to the majority of Americans.
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Y'all's missin' the point
"Cold-blooded killers," "dead or alive," "bring it on," and their ilk are sticky. They speak most directly and emotionally to our fear-ridden population. That's what wins elections, people.
The problem isn't that Democrats are too intelligent (you're kidding, right?), but rather that they THINK they're more intelligent than everybody else. After all, everything's so obvious, and people who don't see things the way we do are aliens or worse. Give me a break.
Yeah, Hillary's great. Let's see, voted for the war, keeps voting to fund the war, keeps voting to increase surveillance on her fellow citizens... Yeah, I see the difference now. She wears a dress and W doesn't, at least not in public.