HOW LONG UNTIL BUSH CRITICS BEGIN DENOUNCING VOTERS? [09/28 11:48 AM]
Kerry Spot
Well, this is the truth.
New York's state Democratic Party chairman derided President Bush yesterday as "simple" and "that simplistic gentleman up there in the White House with his one- and two-syllable answers."
Yes. Yes. A thousand times, yes. That is why Bush keeps winning the message debates. The average voter is working hard, maybe trying to start a business on the side or sell something on E-Bay or whatever. They’re taking the kids to school, soccer practice, band camp, etc. They’re much more worried about the groin problems of their favorite team’s starting linebacker than the future of Social Security. They don’t want to spend an enormous amount of time reading up studies by the Brookings Institution on the pending difficulties in Trans-Atlantic relations. Seeing the towers fall on 9/11 frightened them like nothing else in this life, and they right now have very simple, but not small expectations from their leaders. Which message is going to appeal to them more?
Bush: “I’m gonna kill terrorists. Killin’ those who need killin’ is what I’m good at.”
Kerry: “I will restore our nation to its respected position in the international community.”
And if Bush’s critics want to take this opportunity to rip the American people for being “too simple-minded” to understand Democratic arguments and philosophies, the GOP will cheer them on.
Folks on the right fell into a dangerous habit during the Lewinsky scandal when they started dismissing the insufficiently-outraged American people as “sheeple.” In recent years, this bad habit quickly got picked up by the left, particularly as the antiwar movement picked up steam.
Look, you may be smarter than the average member of the public. You may have better judgment than the average member of the public. But once you start declaring this for all the world to hear, the average member of the public will quickly conclude that you are a egomaniacal jerk.
“Vote for me because I’m smarter than you are, you morons” is not a winning slogan. |
