[Peace-discuss] A Question about the Puppet

[Randall Cotton]

Yeah, it's pretty wacky. It cannot be anything other than the result of a
purely political calculation, though. Voters still do count for something,
(perhaps less and less as time goes on, granted) and it's commonly accepted
that Christian right folks are generally Bush die-hards. There are plenty of
them around (15-20 % of the U.S. population according to polls) and this may
be a (largely inconsequential) move intended to help dissuade them from
leaving the flock, lest they tempted to vote Democrat or (more likely) stay
home in November. It's a risky strategy that may or may not pay off, it
seems to me. It does, yet again, expose the administration as increasingly
desperate, to my eye. It's as if they're pretty much giving up hope on a
very large chunk of the political spectrum and willing to bear the brunt of
whatever backlash results in an attempt to lock up their base. Also, it
seems to me that to some extent, Rove et al know they may be headed for
trouble come November and they're brainstorming now, trying out various
ideas to see if anything gets traction. Things like the mission to Mars
thing (most folks just cock their head and say "ok, whatever"), putting Bush
in front of Tim Russert on Meet the Press (another flop) and now this. I
think we can look forward to a few more crazy experiments as the election
approaches.

And, as Carl often reminds us, the experimentation could extend to military
adventures as well. We all know that happened last election cycle (and it
worked). They'll have a tougher time of it this time around, but to pretend
they've learned their lesson in Iraq would be naive. There will be at least
some Republican strategists, it seems to me, that will advocate going with
what worked before, and if the supply of new ideas runs short, they may
prevail. And if another "threat" miraculously emerges that affords Bush the
opportunity to present himself as a bad-ass turrurist killer protecting the
securuty of the amurucan people (preferably against nukyular attack), it
will, indeed, benefit the party in power immensely. Therein lies the
greatest danger.

R

----- Original Message -----
From: "Paul King" <pmking at students.uiuc.edu>
To: "Peace Discuss" <peace-discuss at lists.cu.groogroo.com>
Sent: Wednesday, February 25, 2004 11:17 PM
Subject: [Peace-discuss] A Question about the Puppet


: Bush has announced that he is in favor of passing an ammendment to the
: U.S. constitution that would ban gay marriages. Albeit, he has conceded
: that civil unions could be legalized by states, but nevertheless...
:
: Given that national policy is determined by corporations within the of
: oil, energy, military and banking industries:
:
: Why do these lobbies allow him to pursue such fringe interests? Are they
: placating him? Is it merely to draw media attention away from his record
: on jobs, healthcare and foreign policy? I would think that this is a
: dangerous diversion. Surely another issue could have served this function
: better. Is this a bit of self-determination that remains in the executive
: branch? Or are the lobbies exhibiting a lack of coordination here?
:
: I never knew that a population could be ruled by such idiots.
:
: ..:: paul
:
:
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