Monday, November 08, 2004
let go and let Bu$h
What is incredible to me is how some people bought Bu$h and Co.'s lines so deeply that to argue with them becomes almost heretical.
My own mom tonight said I was un-American - and I wasn't even saying anything very negative about Bush. I certainly wasn't making personal attacks - I merely said that I thought he hadn't done a very good job as president - since when is that un-American?
Somehow, Bush seems to have become nearly equated with a god (with God??) in the eyes of some of his followers (and I'm not talking about Christians or people of any particular religion). He can do no wrong, he has all the right answers, he should not be criticized, and anyone who criticizes him is unfaithful and heretical. The cult of Bu$h seems to be an as-yet underestimated (misunderestimated??!) cultural phenomenon.
Further examples of the Bu$h belief statements: Some day you'll understand that he is right; or, Bu$h isn't as negative as __________ (fill in the blank with the current American citizen as enemy the administration is trying to smear). Any attempt to argue with a non-believer that perhaps Cheney's Halliburton connections are somewhat dubiously ethical tend to be met with comments about Clinton. If you try to argue that a tawdry affair with an intern, while not especially moral, is nonetheless not quite as bad as making millions off of dead Iraqis in an unprovoked war, your patriotism gets questioned again. And on it goes.
I'm starting to realize that we lost last week because we were trying to confront faith with reason, which simply doesn't work for the true believers. People don't want to have their faith shaken. They want to believe that we are doing the right thing. They want to believe that America is a force for good in the world. They want to believe that our president is a plain-spoken man from Texas with our best interests at heart.
They did not want to hear us criticizing the Iraq war. They didn't want to hear Kerry criticizing Vietnam. They don't want to hear us fretting about election fraud or the Supreme Court or global warming or a draft. They want to believe that America always does what is right in the end, and that God acts through George W Bu$h, and that they were right to vote for him last week. They want people to get on with their lives, to "let go and let Bu$h", and to wake up in 4 years with a bright shiny new America filled with jobs, educated students, a mended Social Security program, and terrorists sitting with Martha in prison making doilies.
It's sort of like manifest destiny all over again, and they really want the 55 million of us (give or take 6 million) who are bitter at having to bow down before their god to just sit down and shut up or to leave them to their god and their country. If you don't have anything nice to say...
We may be part of the reality-based community, but reality, like global warming and evolution, is apparently something that many people in this country have yet to be convinced of. No matter how much evidence we show, many people just shut their eyes and cling to their faith. Unless and until we can provide them with a reality that can somehow be reconciled with their faith, I think we may continue losing elections to the faithful.
¶ 10:11 PM
What is incredible to me is how some people bought Bu$h and Co.'s lines so deeply that to argue with them becomes almost heretical.
My own mom tonight said I was un-American - and I wasn't even saying anything very negative about Bush. I certainly wasn't making personal attacks - I merely said that I thought he hadn't done a very good job as president - since when is that un-American?
Somehow, Bush seems to have become nearly equated with a god (with God??) in the eyes of some of his followers (and I'm not talking about Christians or people of any particular religion). He can do no wrong, he has all the right answers, he should not be criticized, and anyone who criticizes him is unfaithful and heretical. The cult of Bu$h seems to be an as-yet underestimated (misunderestimated??!) cultural phenomenon.
Further examples of the Bu$h belief statements: Some day you'll understand that he is right; or, Bu$h isn't as negative as __________ (fill in the blank with the current American citizen as enemy the administration is trying to smear). Any attempt to argue with a non-believer that perhaps Cheney's Halliburton connections are somewhat dubiously ethical tend to be met with comments about Clinton. If you try to argue that a tawdry affair with an intern, while not especially moral, is nonetheless not quite as bad as making millions off of dead Iraqis in an unprovoked war, your patriotism gets questioned again. And on it goes.
I'm starting to realize that we lost last week because we were trying to confront faith with reason, which simply doesn't work for the true believers. People don't want to have their faith shaken. They want to believe that we are doing the right thing. They want to believe that America is a force for good in the world. They want to believe that our president is a plain-spoken man from Texas with our best interests at heart.
They did not want to hear us criticizing the Iraq war. They didn't want to hear Kerry criticizing Vietnam. They don't want to hear us fretting about election fraud or the Supreme Court or global warming or a draft. They want to believe that America always does what is right in the end, and that God acts through George W Bu$h, and that they were right to vote for him last week. They want people to get on with their lives, to "let go and let Bu$h", and to wake up in 4 years with a bright shiny new America filled with jobs, educated students, a mended Social Security program, and terrorists sitting with Martha in prison making doilies.
It's sort of like manifest destiny all over again, and they really want the 55 million of us (give or take 6 million) who are bitter at having to bow down before their god to just sit down and shut up or to leave them to their god and their country. If you don't have anything nice to say...
We may be part of the reality-based community, but reality, like global warming and evolution, is apparently something that many people in this country have yet to be convinced of. No matter how much evidence we show, many people just shut their eyes and cling to their faith. Unless and until we can provide them with a reality that can somehow be reconciled with their faith, I think we may continue losing elections to the faithful.
¶ 10:11 PM
