The Problem With Democrats
While reading and reflecting on the liberal reaction to Bush’s re-election (well OK, gloating still just a little bit) I came across, for what seemed like the millionth time, another case of some liberal whining (in a deliciously pitiful way) 'Bush lied about WMDs'. This was intended of course as another indictment of all the morons who voted for Bush. However with the perspective of the last few days (decisive win for Bush, defeat and ruin for his supposed intellectual superiors) it started me thinking. Could this be a clue to where the democrats have gone wrong? Maybe their problem is the average voter senses that their intense dislike of President Bush has left them, well, a little unhinged.
Taking the WMD case as an example, it’s common knowledge that folks pretty far from Bush’s end of the political spectrum, like Bill Clinton and Jacques Chirac just to name two, also thought that Saddam Hussein possessed WMDs. Now a snappy little saying like 'Bush lied, people died' (or whatever it was) could be useful for a day or two. It’s sort of like what is called 'puffing' in advertising. You are allowed to exaggerate slightly for effect and it’s supposed to be understood as just a quick shorthand way to make your point. On the other hand, if you repeat something like that so many times and so seriously and so sincerely that people start to understand you really believe it completely yourself, then they are likely to watch you carefully while slowly backing away.
This, it seems to me, is the basic problem of the democrats. They hate Bush so intensely, they so much want to believe the worst of him, that they have completely bought into their own puffing. As long as they only talk to each other this works really well for them. They can validate each other’s opinions and congratulate each other on their superior grasp of the political situation and finely tuned moral sense. The problem occurs when they bring that sense of certainty and conviction about 'facts' that just aren’t quite true to a broader audience.
There is a long list of such 'facts'; Bush lied about WMDs, Bush corruptly awarded contracts to Halliburton, Bush will reinstate the draft, Bush will slash Social Security, Bush has ruined the economy, and Bush will give tax breaks to companies to send your job overseas, are just few. Each of these statements is, in its own way, legitimate puffing or shorthand designed to make a point. Bush did justify the war against Iraq based on WMD that were nowhere to be found. The government did award a large non-competitive contract to Halliburton, whatever the reasons. Bush may follow a course that will demand a larger military than Kerry would. You get the point.
The Bush campaign has a pretty long list of such 'facts' themselves; Kerry is the most liberal senator, Kerry will institute government run health care, Kerry voted to slash intelligence spending, Kerry voted to slash defense, Kerry will raise your taxes, and Kerry thinks terrorism is only a nuisance, and so on. This is all legitimate puffing too because it clearly has a core of truth and is designed to make a point.
The democrats though, appear to have gone completely over the edge. You couldn’t really tell for sure while the campaign was still going on because endlessly repeating campaign slogans is an accepted part of the game. Now that the campaign is over though, and the logical motivation for puffing is gone or even, considering the outcome, reversed, the fact that the democrats continue to repeat 'facts' like this is a little spooky. And even though you couldn’t really tell for sure did the average voter sense during the campaign that the democrats were slowly floating away from reality?
The lesson in this is, let’s not get sucked in by our own slogans. For example, sure it’s a lot of fun to mock the French and ridicule Kerry’s global test but we still have to figure out some way at some level to work with Europe and the UN to get the nations business done. Again, you get the point. We don’t want to end up like the democrats; a party visibly twitching and muttering to itself, with its eyes fixed on 'facts' no one else can see.
Taking the WMD case as an example, it’s common knowledge that folks pretty far from Bush’s end of the political spectrum, like Bill Clinton and Jacques Chirac just to name two, also thought that Saddam Hussein possessed WMDs. Now a snappy little saying like 'Bush lied, people died' (or whatever it was) could be useful for a day or two. It’s sort of like what is called 'puffing' in advertising. You are allowed to exaggerate slightly for effect and it’s supposed to be understood as just a quick shorthand way to make your point. On the other hand, if you repeat something like that so many times and so seriously and so sincerely that people start to understand you really believe it completely yourself, then they are likely to watch you carefully while slowly backing away.
This, it seems to me, is the basic problem of the democrats. They hate Bush so intensely, they so much want to believe the worst of him, that they have completely bought into their own puffing. As long as they only talk to each other this works really well for them. They can validate each other’s opinions and congratulate each other on their superior grasp of the political situation and finely tuned moral sense. The problem occurs when they bring that sense of certainty and conviction about 'facts' that just aren’t quite true to a broader audience.
There is a long list of such 'facts'; Bush lied about WMDs, Bush corruptly awarded contracts to Halliburton, Bush will reinstate the draft, Bush will slash Social Security, Bush has ruined the economy, and Bush will give tax breaks to companies to send your job overseas, are just few. Each of these statements is, in its own way, legitimate puffing or shorthand designed to make a point. Bush did justify the war against Iraq based on WMD that were nowhere to be found. The government did award a large non-competitive contract to Halliburton, whatever the reasons. Bush may follow a course that will demand a larger military than Kerry would. You get the point.
The Bush campaign has a pretty long list of such 'facts' themselves; Kerry is the most liberal senator, Kerry will institute government run health care, Kerry voted to slash intelligence spending, Kerry voted to slash defense, Kerry will raise your taxes, and Kerry thinks terrorism is only a nuisance, and so on. This is all legitimate puffing too because it clearly has a core of truth and is designed to make a point.
The democrats though, appear to have gone completely over the edge. You couldn’t really tell for sure while the campaign was still going on because endlessly repeating campaign slogans is an accepted part of the game. Now that the campaign is over though, and the logical motivation for puffing is gone or even, considering the outcome, reversed, the fact that the democrats continue to repeat 'facts' like this is a little spooky. And even though you couldn’t really tell for sure did the average voter sense during the campaign that the democrats were slowly floating away from reality?
The lesson in this is, let’s not get sucked in by our own slogans. For example, sure it’s a lot of fun to mock the French and ridicule Kerry’s global test but we still have to figure out some way at some level to work with Europe and the UN to get the nations business done. Again, you get the point. We don’t want to end up like the democrats; a party visibly twitching and muttering to itself, with its eyes fixed on 'facts' no one else can see.
posted by IR1 at 8:52 PM
1 Comments:
The problem with Democrats is that they have allowed Republicans to slander them. When we allow Bush and Cheney to get away with the repeated lie that Kerry thinks terrorism is only a nuisance, we are betraying our national essence, which is to tell the truth (something which many cultures feel is childish). Kerry should have brought a pair of dueling pistols into the Senate and thrown down the gauntlet, or, at the very least sued those liars for defamation of character.
Our ancestors preferred death to lying -- confessing to being a witch in Salem would save the accused from execution -- now, damn you, you Republicans do it all the time. Where are your morals, man?
Rise, Ye Sea Slugs!
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