June 17, 2003
Joe Citizen Does Care
Stephen, I can understand your frustration (Re: Third Party Blog: “Joe Citizen Doesn’t Care”). Don’t get discouraged and for heavens sake don’t get so cynical to think that the tide can’t be turned.
A while back Bill (you know, the Big Dog) said that when people are scared they will follow someone who is “wrong and strong” instead of someone who is “weak and right”. He’s right (again)! Bush’s handlers have puffed him up to Superman proportions and are trying to make us believe he is right. So far, Karl and Ari are doing just that.
I think people do care, but they are scared and want to feel secure. Dubya makes them feel like he can make the world safe for them. He can make us feel safe for the short term and today is what most people care about. The only future he’s worried about is his own political one.
But there’s a method to his administrations madness.
Why doesn't Bush and his hyperbole and rhetoric get exposed? I feel it's because we're in a constant media and information overload. Who can keep up with all the news and figure out what's real and true? A prime example is all the various and sundry reasons for going to war in Iraq. If one hyped reason wasn't good enough, well, here's five more. His administration is doing a great job of feeding us half truths and they keep coming so fast that we can't keep up with everything that is going on. I mean who can keep up with all the excuses for the war, the tax cuts, the economy, terrorism, and everything that comes at us every day.
It's classic bait and switch, slight of hand and political alchemy. They're keeping us so baffled with bs that we don't know what to believe so we believe what makes us feel good. Think of the mushroom syndrome. They're so good at keeping the real news covered up (like deficits, Middle East quagmire, lack of jobs, etc) that we see and hear only what the bought and paid for media is allowed to broadcast. Bush has the mass media eating out of his hand and the Dems message is lost in his cowboy rhetoric. I think the Bushies are laughing up their sleeves at how they have put one over on us.
The Democrats message must be not only that the Emperor has no clothes, but they must have their own positive and passionate message. I think people respond to honesty and passion. Or they buy whatever they perceive to be honesty and passion. Bush has one out of two. The Dems are sorely lacking in message and passion.
Don't blame the US public for being duped, blame the opposition for not being STRONG as well as RIGHT.
Posted by grover at June 17, 2003 04:08 PMWell, you’re right, the Democrats are having to refocus on having message and passion. But unfortunately it’s a diluted version of the same message or just plain diluted. As for passion, well, their passion has tucked tail and left because they’ve been neutered so efficiently by the GOP and moreso by their OWN ranks.
I don’t think the “Bushies” are laughing, I think they whole-heartedly believe everything he says and takes it all at face value. We’ve grown up and been deceived so many times by our government that a few people just snapped and “learned to love the leader”. What worries me more than them is that the Bush Administration is no longer worried about having to deflect lies (bye bye Ari, he was fired a few weeks ago BTW) and are transitioning to full-blown propaganda. To top that off, they don’t regard it as propoganda but as “furthering the cause”.
I stand by my statement that the US is converting to a mob, we’re in a society of superfluous men with superfluous desires. We are spoon fed American Idol, Anna Nicole, and the Osbournes. We have an obsession with idolizing over what tie the president wears, laughing at him choke on a pretzel or fall off a Segway, but when it comes down to important domestic or international issues most people are content to flip the channel back to American Idol unless there’s a good war on.
Posted by: Stephen VanDyke at June 17, 2003 04:27 PMJust to correct myself, Ari announced his resignation. He won’t be departing until after the 2004 elections. Though I still think he was “encouraged” to move on.
Posted by: Stephen VanDyke at June 17, 2003 04:39 PMJoel Engel at The Weekly Standard has an interesting theory regarding this very issue: Democrats, and others amongst the “intellectual left” have a habit of equating intelligence with well meaning action, even when there’s no evidence to suggest that this is so.
The Bush Administration, however, takes great pains to simplify policy decisions; taking on issues at face value rather than looking for subtext. As Engel puts it:
… a case can be made that President Bush’s strength as president derives from his lack of sophistication. There are no pixels in his worldview, only solid colors—particularly black and white. He doesn’t read Bloom or Sontag, and wouldn’t understand a word of Jacques Derrida, which is probably a boon to his leadership skills.
As evidenced by the video Stephen posted, this closely mirrors the way average Americans view the world. That this is so might strike you and I as unfortunate, but it doesn’t mean that the populace is without concern or wholly ignorant.
What it does mean is that the public at large is ready and willing to get behind broad and simple issues. This is why a bit of improper fellatio garners far more attention than the thorny issues of weapons inspections and the possible existence of chemical weapons.
So rather than blasting Bush for effectively communicating with the public, those of us who would like effect change (regardless of ideology) need to learn those same skills ourselves.
There’s nothing wrong with reading the Times or digesting Congressional Quarterly - but to look down on those who don’t share these interests is dangerous. We do so at our own peril.
Posted by: dce at June 17, 2003 04:53 PMThe largest problem facing the Democrats is the disenfranchised voters that are not participating in the election process. Unless some dramatic action taken on behalf of these voters they will join the trendsetting Republicans, en masse.
Posted by: Babbashabu at June 18, 2003 03:46 AM
