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Politics : High Tolerance Plasticity -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: kodiak_bull who wrote (22176)	11/4/2004 10:56:55 AM
From: kodiak_bull	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 23153

Although the colors are backwards, here is the county by county map from 2000: allianceforamerica.org Does anyone have a link to this kind of map for 2004 yet? TIA, Kb

To: kodiak_bull who wrote (22176)	11/4/2004 11:49:23 AM
From: cnyndwllr	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 23153

Kodiak, I read the George Will article and I must be missing something. I can't see where he said anything terribly insightful. I believe there are some important things to say about the election but that he hasn't said them. George Bush didn't win the election just because John Kerry was too liberal. That was part of it but there were many stronger forces at play including world events and key election team advantages that the Bush team held. Bush was able to exploit the dangers of terrorism, had chosen to create a "nation at war," and was spending like the debt didn't matter. His Congress, with his help, had created a "marriage of gays" issue that mobilized homophobes across the south and elsewhere. More importantly, he appealed to born again Christians who saw him, accurately I believe, as one of them. In their eyes that meant that he was more apt to be under the influence or guidance of their personal God. Take away a small percentage of the "god is working through him" vote and he loses the election. He had the brightest, hardest working and most astute political team in history and they had been working for his reelection from the time he assumed the presidency. He had been campaigning in key states for four years. They drafted newsworthy statements mocking the "opposition" which he read in speeches over his four year presidency. Those statements polarized the nation but were nonetheless effective in creating an image of the "other side" as being foolish and alarmingly unconcerned with the safety of Americans. He had the advantage of the bully pulpit enjoyed by the president of the U.S. and, until the last days of his campaign, he had strict discipline among Republicans who would echo the talking points word for word whenever asked. Most importantly, he had the avid support of churchgoing Americans who saw the "moral" issues as the real issues in the election. Many of them were people who thought god was working through Bush and who were, therefor, willing to forgive him mistakes because, after all, God works in mysterious ways. And he won the election by about 3% and the state of Ohio. It was only close because many people saw his policies as failed policies and the man as much less articulate, much less intellectual and much less insightful than they expected from the president of this country. Now the pundits are asking what the Democrats SHOULD do to become competitive in the South. They seem to think that the Democrats must move toward whatever it is that the southern whites find acceptable. It's a dumb idea because the democrats can only accomplish that by changing into something they see as backwards and ignorant, or by pretending. The former defeats their view of how America should be governed and the latter won't work. The Democrats have to hope that a majority of Americans will one day recognize that this country is being guided on the wrong track by the more radical forces in this country. When that happens they will have to have articulated a moderate position that the country can move toward. Because if they don't, the country will move toward more moderate Republicans. The pendulum does swing and they must await their turn again. In the meantime they should stop hiding behind carefully crafted words and start speaking out plainly and articulating choices in values, ideas and policies. If the South comes more toward their party, fine, but they cannot morph into what the South wants in a politician and then call that a victory. If the South remains rednecked maybe the rest of the country will be strong enough to counter a "born again" South. They must also study the lessons learned from Rove-engineered defeats on the strategy level and they must get better at campaign organization. They must figure out what they stand for in the big picture because it's not enough to know that the other side is on the wrong track, you must also show that you can drive the train. Who knows when, or if, they will gain power over the next decade. Much of it depends on what the Republicans are able to accomplish over the next years of Republican power. In view of the screwups of the Bush people in terms of formulating and implementing policies, both foreign and domestic, the country may turn away from the Bush/Cheney and Republican Congress much sooner than their 51% majority would indicate. Ed