In recent days, I've seen an opinion poll that puts the support for President Bush (those who "approve" of the way he's handling his presidency) at 31 percent and one that puts it at 35 percent. So, let's just say that one-third of the people tell pollsters that they approve of GWB.
I've always taken this at face value. And it leads me to despairing questions like: what do these people know and what do they not know? what are they doing with the information that they do know that ought to make "approval" for this president impossible for any thinking and decent person? what would it take for their opinion of him to change toward disapproval?
But lately, it has occurred to me that perhaps we ought not take these numbers at face value. What I've been thinking about is some of the underlying psychological and cultural dynamics of loyalty. I'm not sure how accurate my intuitive sense of these dynamics is, but what I am thinking is something along these lines.
Perhaps with some substantial portion of them, what they say to the pollsters really means this:
"I really am troubled about a lot of things that are going on with Bush and his presidency. But damned if I'm going to tell some pollster about my concerns. However bad Bush may be, he is one of us, he has the same enemies I do. Like the liberal press, those elite media outfits with their pollsters and such. I'll keep my reservations about Bush to myself rather than add them to the poll and help encourage my enemies. Maybe I'll say something about them, but only in private with other guys like me who know where the real battle lines are drawn. We've got to stick together-- subordinating the present problems with this incompetent president to a longer view of the long-term problem of us-against-them. So I'll stay loyal to President Bush as part of staying loyal to the larger cause --the culture war, including an idea of patriotism-- that made me support him in the first place."
What do you think?
Andrew Bard Schmookler's website www.nonesoblind.org is devoted to understanding the roots of America's present moral crisis and the means by which the urgent challenge of this dangerous moment can be met. Dr. Schmookler is also the author of such books as The Parable of the Tribes: The Problem of Power in Social Evolution (SUNY Press) and Debating the Good Society: A Quest to Bridge America's Moral Divide (M.I.T. Press). He also conducts regular talk-radio conversations in both red and blue states.
That these same(33%) people see through the lies, smoke & mirrors and understand what Gw Bush is really doing and support that? You asked what I think, I think it's possible.
by
"Hoss" David P. (51 articles, 5 quicklinks, 14 diaries, 338 comments)
on Wednesday, January 24, 2007 at 1:08:15 PM
George Bush received the backing of the majority of American voters in the past election because he reminded them of themselves ~ ordinary and uncomplicated ~ while John Kerry was unlike them ~ astute, intellectual and multifaceted. America also claims to be a most-religious nation and Bush claims to adhere to the same basic Christian principles America has. That means a certain percentage of the population will never abandon Bush no matter how wrong, how disoriented, disillusioned, stubborn and mistaken he becomes on all issues because that would mean abandoning God and America.
They are like Islamic radicals, who think Allah created their societies and governments as he wanted them. But there is a paradox in that things aren't as Allah wanted, so the West has to be responsible for their dictators, corruption, poverty. They attack the West for its decadence just as Bush supporters attack progressives or liberals for Bush's failures.
by
tabonsell (29 articles, 0 quicklinks, 22 diaries, 249 comments)
on Wednesday, January 24, 2007 at 5:01:13 PM
I'm frankly surprised that Bush's rating has fallen below fifty percent. Consider the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections, and all that had transpired between them, yet Bush still received about 50% of the populsr vote in 2004 even if he also stole votes in Ohio and elsewhere. How do we account for this? I call it the monkey rule:
Let 100 million monkeys vote along side the American people. In 2000, the vote anmong the monkeys would have been split about 50-50 because, as monkeys, they vote mindlessly and at random. Then, four years later, how do the monkeys vote? Fifty-fifty. They don't understand the news and continue to vote at random. Bingo. The American people have been dumbed down to a simian level of citizenry.
I'm predicting that the 2008 presidential election will be close.
by
Yaybob (12 articles, 0 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 174 comments)
on Thursday, January 25, 2007 at 2:50:30 PM
First, I suggest if you want to live or die by LAMESTREAM poll numbers, that you begin by checking the poll numbers in support of Democrats, specifically, hardcore liberals like Kerry, Murtha and Kennedy, whom lead the DNC charge today. Their numbers are lower than Bush's.
Then you might check out the even lower approval ratings (and subscriptions) of the lamestream press that plays around in polling data, with a purpose and an agenda all its own.
But for the sake of argument, lets use your numbers, that only 1/3 of America still approves of Bush's over-all job perfomance.
Your argument assumes (incorrectly) that the other 2/3 disapprove of his performance for the same reasons as you. This is not true, according to more specific polling data, not true at all.
In broad terms, of the 2/3 who disapprove at this snapshot in time, only half of them, or 1/3 of the nation, disapproves for the reasons you do. The other half, or 1/3 of the nation, disapprove because they think he spent too much time compromising with your 1/3.
So at the end of the day, 1/3 still approve, although, I'm sure only to the degree that they have not yet found someone they like better, 1/3 disapprove because he isn't conservative (hawkish) enough, and your 1/3 disagree's because you are not pro-American at all, which naturally places you at odds with Bush and anyone else pro-American.
This is a very accurate picture of reality, though I doubt you can see it through your socialist anti-American glasses.
No? Do your homework next time, before raising a question you don't know the answer to.
I realize that this is published on an extreme left-wing blues site. But once in a while, someone like me comes along just to check out the lies you all sit around and tell each other, and once in a while, folks like you foolishly provide a grand opening to set the record straight.
by
A Real American Conservative (1 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 17 comments)
on Friday, February 2, 2007 at 3:03:42 PM
5 comments
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