Will Dems blow it again?
Poll: Terrified Sheeple Rally to Bush, GOP
Posted by Jon Ponder | Sep. 21, 2006, 5:16 am
Hapless Dems Watch Tongue-Tied and Hamstrung as America’s Bright Future Appears to Fade to Permanent Darkness Under Bush Regime
On virtually every comparison between the parties measured in the survey, Republicans have improved their position since early summer.
Fear and loathing: As the White House political team mapped out its strategy for winning the mid-term elections, Karl Rove, President Bush and the others plotted a campaign of political terror designed to ratchet up the fear among the populace.
In one of the most audaciously cynical political maneuvers ever undertaken by the Bush White House political office — and that is saying a lot — they launched their campaign of fear in conjunction with commemorations of the fifth anniversary of the September 11th attacks.
The White House was willing to risk criticism for using the sacred memory of 9/11 to win votes for one reason: They’re desperate. If they lose control of either branch of Congress, the era of unfettered executive power will end.
Sadly, but unsurprisingly, new polls show that the president’s fear-mongering is working. Despite the GOP record — botching the war in Iraq, losing an entire American city and running up the highest deficits in U.S. history — several recent polls, including the new Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll, show that President Bush and the GOP are gaining popularity, with mid-term elections about six weeks away:
President Bush’s approval rating has reached its highest level since January, helping to boost the Republican Party’s image across a range of domestic and national security issues just seven weeks before this year’s midterm election, a new Times/Bloomberg poll has found.
The survey spotlights a continuing array of Republican vulnerabilities, but it also offers the first evidence in months that the GOP may be gaining momentum before November’s battle for control of Congress.
Democrats hold a lead in the poll, 49 percent to 39 percent, when registered voters are asked which party they intend to support for Congress this year. But that advantage may rest on softening ground: On virtually every comparison between the parties measured in the survey, Republicans have improved their position since early summer.
In particular, Republicans have nearly doubled their advantage when voters are asked which party they trust most to protect the nation against terrorism — the thrust of Bush’s public relations blitz in recent weeks.
Democrats, meanwhile, stand in the hustings wringing their hands, worriedly watching as American democracy and our way of life crumble. They know they are right but they feel helpless to combat the lies with, well, the truth.
The only thing that can stop the GOP from commandeering another election is a bold counter-offensive. But hopes that fearless and decisive leadership will suddenly erupt from the Democrats are starting to fade.
Of course, President Bush’s approval rating and the national polling are only leading indicators of public sentiment. The polls that matter are in the states and in the districts where the battle for Congress will play out.
Republicans have proved, over and over, that while they know how to win elections, they are terrible at governing. There are polls show that majorities of Americans are wising up to this — the GOP gets poor marks for poor performance on the war, healthcare, the environment, education and the rest.
But come on. It ought to be a slamdunk by now to even the dullest among us that the GOP has failed to govern effectively. And yet, when it comes to the so-called war on terror, more than half of us are routinely snookered by what the White House cynically calls its strategy but what is in fact a never-ending campaign of smear, spin and sloganeering that has nothing to do with stopping terroris.m, and everything to do with domestic politics.
Legitimate leaders don’t acquire their power by enflaming fear among their followers. That’s what dictators — what fascists — do.
What we need is a clear alternative to Bush’s cult of terror. We need leadership now that shows us by example that what Americans need in the age of terror is not more fear but less — that, in fact, what we must do as a nation is lose our fear and gather our courage. If we live in fear, the terrorists win but with courage, we will defeat them. |
