MaxedOutMama
Sunday, November 05, 2006
Pew Trends
I'll be glad when this election is over, although I don't think it's going to settle anything. We have some tough decisions to make. Still, Pew confirms that there is a basic shift in sentiment toward the Republicans. Ace writes about two other recent polls.
My take is that people are getting serious, and that they have severe concerns about the Democratic leadership. For one thing, Kerry just had to open his stupid mouth and remind everyone that he was the Democratic candidate for president in 2004, which was naturally followed by the thought "Thank God he didn't win." Then we had Howard Dean weighing in with the comment that Bush was the worst president of his lifetime, which of course immediately induced anyone who remembers Carter at all to think "Now that was a BAD president!" Carter's presidency was a preview of how socialism would wreck the country. Just think about how the two administrations responded in response to fuel shocks, and just look at the differing results!
Pelosi is not just screamingly liberal (the woman is just a tad right of Mao Tse-Tung), but regularly acts like Paris Hilton acting the part of an up-and-coming senator in a comedy with a very bad scriptwriter. Furthermore, she's the wife of a developer and a big supporter of eminent domain. Hardly the champion of the people. And Reid, well, Reid is now implicated in a most unusual (but profitable!) real estate deal which he did not report as required by congressional rules. Murtha is on tape trying to lift some cash from a Saudi sheik. So much for patriotism and integrity.
No one buys the idea that these aging peaceniks are capable of being tough in facing down terrorism; if someone threw an irritated squirrel into a meeting of these people, they'd probably kill themselves trying to escape while screaming anti-Bush invectives. The self-inflicted slaughter would end with the squirrel chittering in triumph atop a pile of Democratic corpses jammed in the doorway.
It's not that the Republicans don't have their own card-carrying members of the "Utter Contempt for the People" party, to which so many of these public "servants" really belong. Symptoms of membership include hysterical outrage when the offices of indicted politicians are searched by court order, not to mention hysterical outrage when bribe-taking politicians are indicted!
But the Dems don't have an advantage here - we've got bipartisan corruption and contempt for the country's welfare. Cunningham is a great Republican example of the feeling of entitlement to the public's cash these people display. And let's not forget the truly bipartisan McCain-Feingold bill. The only thing more dangerous than either of these parties having control of Congress is when they get together - that's when they show their true anti-constitutional colors. They want to be above the law and above criticism by the public. They only seem to unite when protecting their own interests, which ought to tell us all something about their true priorities.
So what it comes down to is that people are justly riled with the current Congress, but rather concerned by the prospect of a shift in control. Only this Democratic leadership could turn the coming recession into a depression. And then there's the terrorism issue, which 70% of the American people do believe is and will be a real and consistent threat for decades to come. The "Bush made it happen" waltz of the Democratic leadership has been too consistent not to cause deep insecurity in the voting population.
If you threw an irritated squirrel into a meeting of the Republican leadership, they'd kick it around like a football, waterboard it and then barbecue and eat it. This may raise humanitarian concerns even among non-PETA members, but it does engender a sense of greater national security. Most Americans are conservatives when it comes to national security.
In short, we have a worse-than-Nixonian congressional choice - do we vote for somewhat incompetent crooks or totally incompentent ones? Do we vote for triumphant squirrels or barbecued squirrels? This is why I believe that polls are particularly poor indexes of voting this year. The most aware and responsible portion of our voters are rightly infuriated, and unwilling to admit how they are going to vote. I'm disgusted by these voting machines because I want to inscribe a little raised-finger emblem on my ballot. Perhaps similar sentiments account for the great increase in absentee-ballot voting....
In the end, I think barbecued squirrels are going to win marginally, but I think the genuine and justified anger in the American population should not be ignored. Anywhere people think they can, they are going to throw out their particular elitist.
My take is that people are getting serious, and that they have severe concerns about the Democratic leadership. For one thing, Kerry just had to open his stupid mouth and remind everyone that he was the Democratic candidate for president in 2004, which was naturally followed by the thought "Thank God he didn't win." Then we had Howard Dean weighing in with the comment that Bush was the worst president of his lifetime, which of course immediately induced anyone who remembers Carter at all to think "Now that was a BAD president!" Carter's presidency was a preview of how socialism would wreck the country. Just think about how the two administrations responded in response to fuel shocks, and just look at the differing results!
Pelosi is not just screamingly liberal (the woman is just a tad right of Mao Tse-Tung), but regularly acts like Paris Hilton acting the part of an up-and-coming senator in a comedy with a very bad scriptwriter. Furthermore, she's the wife of a developer and a big supporter of eminent domain. Hardly the champion of the people. And Reid, well, Reid is now implicated in a most unusual (but profitable!) real estate deal which he did not report as required by congressional rules. Murtha is on tape trying to lift some cash from a Saudi sheik. So much for patriotism and integrity.
No one buys the idea that these aging peaceniks are capable of being tough in facing down terrorism; if someone threw an irritated squirrel into a meeting of these people, they'd probably kill themselves trying to escape while screaming anti-Bush invectives. The self-inflicted slaughter would end with the squirrel chittering in triumph atop a pile of Democratic corpses jammed in the doorway.
It's not that the Republicans don't have their own card-carrying members of the "Utter Contempt for the People" party, to which so many of these public "servants" really belong. Symptoms of membership include hysterical outrage when the offices of indicted politicians are searched by court order, not to mention hysterical outrage when bribe-taking politicians are indicted!
But the Dems don't have an advantage here - we've got bipartisan corruption and contempt for the country's welfare. Cunningham is a great Republican example of the feeling of entitlement to the public's cash these people display. And let's not forget the truly bipartisan McCain-Feingold bill. The only thing more dangerous than either of these parties having control of Congress is when they get together - that's when they show their true anti-constitutional colors. They want to be above the law and above criticism by the public. They only seem to unite when protecting their own interests, which ought to tell us all something about their true priorities.
So what it comes down to is that people are justly riled with the current Congress, but rather concerned by the prospect of a shift in control. Only this Democratic leadership could turn the coming recession into a depression. And then there's the terrorism issue, which 70% of the American people do believe is and will be a real and consistent threat for decades to come. The "Bush made it happen" waltz of the Democratic leadership has been too consistent not to cause deep insecurity in the voting population.
If you threw an irritated squirrel into a meeting of the Republican leadership, they'd kick it around like a football, waterboard it and then barbecue and eat it. This may raise humanitarian concerns even among non-PETA members, but it does engender a sense of greater national security. Most Americans are conservatives when it comes to national security.
In short, we have a worse-than-Nixonian congressional choice - do we vote for somewhat incompetent crooks or totally incompentent ones? Do we vote for triumphant squirrels or barbecued squirrels? This is why I believe that polls are particularly poor indexes of voting this year. The most aware and responsible portion of our voters are rightly infuriated, and unwilling to admit how they are going to vote. I'm disgusted by these voting machines because I want to inscribe a little raised-finger emblem on my ballot. Perhaps similar sentiments account for the great increase in absentee-ballot voting....
In the end, I think barbecued squirrels are going to win marginally, but I think the genuine and justified anger in the American population should not be ignored. Anywhere people think they can, they are going to throw out their particular elitist.
