Bonus politics of Katrina thoughts
I think so many liberals are upset about the hurricane because it confirms many of their notions of the Bush White House, but much to their chagrin their feelings on Bush are not shared by the majority of the country (not that I agree, but this is an important point). We have seen Bush prompt liberal outrage time-after-time (think: Florida recount, all of Iraq, not responding to 9/11 faster enough--remember when his choice not to immediately return to the White House was so prominently featured in Fahrenheit 9/11, the Karl Rove v. Joe Wilson scandal, Abu Ghraib, etc.). But regardless of how many times Bush upsets this group; it never seems to faze the majority of the electorate. I think this is primarily because the majority of the country does not hate Bush with a passion that so many on the left do. Not everyone cringes at seeing him smirk or upon hearing him evoke religion in a speech. Much of the country (or at least the important 2-3 million voters in America) gave Bush a second chance after 9/11; they now view him as sincere in his devotion (instead of a failed good ole boy turned politician). Bush's sincerity is his single greatest asset and the Michael Moore/moveon.org strategy of getting contributions by mocking Bush’s past, his friends, his laugh, or his monkey-like features may bankroll fancy movies and websites, but it isn’t going to create any desperately needed Democratic votes.
-Mr. Alec
posted by Alec Brandon @ 3:28 AM
3 comments
3 Comments:
I think we largely agree, I am just being pessimistic and your are being optimistic. Maybe something in the middle will happen, we'll obviously see.
-Mr. Alec
We aren't looking for any coalition of politicians, we are merely wondering whether the events that have happened the past 2 weeks will sink THIS coalition of politicians in the way that Monica sunk Clinton Democrats.
I have attempted to give reasons why I don't think it will sink Bush, Stecker has given reasons why he thinks it will sink Bush. Perhaps you would like to join in our speculation?
But on a serious note, we are not saying anyone has done anything wrong, we are merely looking at the politics of it all. Although our individual biases may effect our political outlook, that does not preclude us from the ambition of a-political analysis (at least that was my intention).
So no need to get persnikity.
-Mr. Alec
Mihai,
Our intention has not been discuss the truth of Katrina. The headline on my post is not, "Thoughts on Katrina." It was "Thoughts on the politics of Katrina." Those are two entirely different beasts.
I have had dozens of highly charged discussions about what has truly happened in New Orleans. They have gotten no where because for the most part, people's opinions are based upon baggage they brought to the arguement. If someone hates Bush then they tend to blame it on Bush. If someone loves Bush they tend to blame it on the LA governor. The reality is that no one, at this point, knows who deserves blame. Hopefully an independent commision can be established to find out who is to blame and what cna be done to fix that in the future. But in the meantime, what we do know is that there will be political implications about the debate occuring all over the country that is based on incredibly imperfect information. The result of that debate will have incredible significance on much of Bush's second term agenda. So my speculation although not the crux of the whole issue is my attempt at approaching this situation from a constructive (or less emotionally charged) point of view.
My goal with these posts have had nothing to do with what I hope will happen. Although that may influence my views my hope that I can be right in the future is much stronger. All I really want is to be able to link to this or the prior post on this matter in Nov. 2006 and say, "I was right."
We'll see what happens. In the meantime, I am going to speculate away.
-Mr. Alec
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