I've been told by a few Republicans that they didn't particularly like Bush, but they couldn't bring themselves to vote for Kerry. Some say he was too much of a wimp.
I don't buy it. Part of the Right Wing, Republican battle plan is to tap the false machismo, the tough guy facade that right wing males embrace. Rush Limbaugh takes on a sotto voce to mock "girlie" liberal ways of being.
Boobernator Ahnold talks about girlie men. These dumb shits are persuading THEIR dumb shits that Democrats, and liberals in particular, are weak, wimpy, negative, over-angry, over-emotional, indecisive, and of course, fanatical about raising taxes and producing big government.
This is the koolaid, the drumbeat that has been driven into the heads of the people who voted for Bush. It's more than a mantra. It's cult programming, repeated thousands of times.
When a Republican is faced with a sleazy, lying, corrupt, stupid Dubya, it's not surprising that his thoughts drift to alternatives, to regret and misgivings. But then that Republican programming kicks in. "What was I supposed to do? Vote for that wimp, Kerry? That flip flopper with the fake military record?"
There's something to learn from this. Running a campaign is not just about finding a great candidate and promoting his strength. It's not about opposition research and attack ads, whether you chose to use them or not. The Republicans never stop attacking the very idea of a Democratic candidate, particularly liberal ones who really stand for something different from the corporately sold out right wing politician.
The lesson? We on the left must start and maintain a drumbeat that defines the right wing in a negative way. We must keep the fires burning, holding right wingers' feet to the fire, portraying them as corrupt, more loyal to corporations than the US, as dishonest, crooked, unethical, incompetent, arrogant, greedy, tax-dodging, cheap, stupid, religious fanatics.
I don't have a problem with that. The right wing leaders are all of those things. When people vote for these despicable leaders, they take on the responsibility and labels. Stupid, corrupt, disloyal, dishonest. I know my Republican readers may be shaking their heads-- "not me. I just want to prevent tax and spend, big government, wimpy democrats from running things," they'll say.
Sorry friends, relatives, etc., but you are drunk on the koolaid and while you are avoiding phantoms and ghosts planted in your heads by the right wing propaganda machine, you are voting for and electing real pigs-- liars and crooks who have betrayed America, her ideals, her financial interests, her industries.
If the koolaid ever wears off, the right wingers who are not hopeless cases will see that the Democrats they saw as wimps or whatever were attacked by liars, millionaire liars with lots of reasons to do everything and anything they could to prevent the Democrats from gaining power.
On the other hand, we need Democrats who will act and talk tough on their own terms. I want to see Democrats demanding clean, paper ballot elections, total elimination of corporate, lobbyist and PAC influences on elections. That's what voters want.
As far as I'm concerned, I want to vote for Democrats who will commit to putting Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rove, Gonzalez... That's one way to be tough. I want tough Democrats who are not afraid to talk about peace, about negotiation, about non-war ways to end the threat of Islamic extremist terrorism. I want tough Democrats who will talk about balancing the budget, instead of the spineless economic path Bush has licentiously pursued.
I want tough Democrats who will stand up to stupid, shallow machismo jerks like Dickless Cheney and speak truth, who will proudly turn on the lights where Cheney and Bush and the neocons have created darkness and secrecy.
I want Democrats who are tough enough to tell the Generals that lied about the war that they will be fired, that we need genuinely brave Generals who will tell the truth, even if it isn't what the legislators and leaders want to hear. That's the real thing, the real guts.
We need to show what total wimps the Bush Whitehouse and the Republican leaders in the house are, how their false bravado and total lies have been anything but manly.
There are wimply politicians. But they're the tough talking cowboys who are all hat and no cattle. It's time the real wimps of the right wing are called at their game. Let's start with Georgie boy Bush, Billie Frist, Tommy DeLay. The first two are weak, crooked rich boys. DeLay is a cowardly bully. Then we have the whole host of whorish senators and congressmen who took Abramoff money. What manly men they are... not!!
I was agreeing with you during most of your article until you named the candidates who were real men. Hillary has more balls than all of them. She can't win and neither can any of those guys. Keep trying though, I'm listening. Your redneck buddy from the south, Doug
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doug andrews (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 11 comments) on Wednesday, Mar 1, 2006 at 10:50:46 AM
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