Sarah Baxter has an interesting piece in the Times of London on why she supports President Bush:
When the metrosexual chap standing next to me confides that urban sophisticates prefer Kerry because “you have to have a low IQ to appreciate Bushâ€, I know I am making the right decision.
“The guy is an idiot,†he continued snobbishly. “I don’t know what the rest of the country is thinking.â€
Perhaps I can enlighten him. I will be one of the millions voting for Bush because I trust the president’s judgment on the war on terror more than Kerry’s. In this election, I am a single-issue voter. It is that simple. Even in the New York metropolis, there are more of us out there than he imagines.
Indeed, I think that there are far more people like Sarah Baxter out there than one would think – and there a lot people who understand instinctively that Kerry just doesn’t have the right understanding of this war to be trusted as Commander in Chief. I would imagine that a lot of these 9/11 Democrats will be holding their nose when they pull the lever for Bush, and understandably so. However, even if they don’t like his domestic policies, even if they don’t like him personally, Kerry has failed to convincingly show that he understands this war and would prosecute it to the end as we must. In the end, nothing is more important to the electorate than their safety against terrorism – and that is why George W. Bush will be reelected.
I read Baxter’s childish logic this morning. Like most “Democrats” who plan to support Bush, Baxter’s cartoonish worldview ensures she was never bright enough to remain a long-term supporter of Democratic Party ideals anyway. September 11 was certainly a wake-up call that America needs to fight terrorists, but on the spectrum of history, 9-11 was but a blip. Self-absorbed “security moms” like Baxter view the tragedy as revolutionary enough to trivialize or ignore all of the other serious issues facing this country and give George Bush a rubber stamp for a foreign policy that essentially boils down to world takeover. While she would sincerely deny that an American takeover of the world is her desire, the nuts and bolts of her (and most other Bush supporters) argument is grounded in the notion that until every other culture in the world is a mirror image of us…and if you don’t wanna become like us, we’re gonna spill your damn blood into the streets.
The Sarah Baxters of this world, children of privilege who view their own “safety” as grounds for global revolution, are too dangerous for me to lament their departure from the Democratic Party. Luckily, moderates from a more sensible era of the Republican Party such as former Minnesota Governor Elmer Andersen and former Nixon advisor Kevin Phillips, appear to be more than making up for the Ed Koches and Sarah Baxters willing to sacrifice core values to a President who completely ignored the threat of terrorism pre 9-11 due to a baseless feeling that Bush will keep them “safe”.
Arrogance and ignorance all in one package. I believe we’ve found the one thing that the Democrats are efficient about.
More bad news for Bush…..
The University of Cincinnati just released a poll from Ohio showing Kerry with a two-point lead in the state. This is particularly significant since this same poll showed Bush leading by 11 points in Ohio just last month. RCP now shows a poll average shifting to Kerry’s advantage in the state. A loss in Ohio would likely be devastating for the Bush campaign, as Bush would have to get really lucky and pick up a couple marginal Gore states to do. Right now, there’s little indication that any of the Gore states are gonna tip for Bush (although Wisconsin is always a possibility). Meanwhile, New Hampshire looks poised to turn blue, Nevada is totally up-for-grabs and Florida is looking better every day. If Bill Clinton were to rise from his wheelchair, FDR-like, in front of a big crowd in Little Rock a couple days before the election, he could tip the narrow Bush margin back his way. Things could certainly be better for John Kerry right now….but the same could be said for Bush, and recent polls from Florida and Ohio must be scaring the bejesus out of you guys.
Yeah, a poll that shows Kerry winning 56 to 26 with independents and 88 to 7 with Democrats yet only leading by two points is a real reliable poll. I don’t know what in their methodology is screwed up, but their figures don’t even remotely make sense.
Not that Ohio isn’t close, but I highly doubt Kerry has a chance there. New Hampshire is a write-off for Bush as it was a fluke he won there in 2000. Nevada isn’t even close anymore – Survey USA had Bush up by 4 even after the first debate.
The latest FoxNews poll has Bush up by 5 in Ohio – I’d imagine that’s probably a bit optimistic, but no more out of the mainstream than Kerry +2.
I haven’t seen Fox’s latest Ohio poll, but it’s out of sync with the rest of the polls I’ve seen there in the past two weeks. As for Nevada, a four-point deficit is hardly overwhelming. It’s probably within the margin of error even. If Kerry’s smart enough to piss off Nevadans about Yucca Mountain late in the game, he has a 50-50 chance in the state.
Nevada really isn’t all that important in this race. If Bush loses Ohio, he’s pretty much sunk unless Iowa, Wisconsin, and Minnesota go for him. (Possible, but unlikely)
The only way in which Nevada could really matter is if Bush loses New Hampshire and Nevada while keeping all the other states he won in 2000. In that case we get a 269-269 tie that gets decided in the House and Bush wins. I rather doubt that would happen – thankfully.
There’s a wild card with a West Virginia elector who has expressed reluctance to cast his Electoral Vote for Bush. Another from South Carolina has expressed the same feelings. If the election hinged upon it, I highly doubt these Republican electors (unless West Virginia surprises everyone and goes Kerry…unlikely, but no polls in a month) would be willing to personally unseat Bush from office.
Split numbers from ABC. The good news (depending on your perspective) is a three-point Kerry lead in Ohio, a state that seems to be heading the donks direction…at least for now. The bad news is that ABC’s traditionally GOP-leaning national poll model shows Bush leading by five. Even if they’re right on the latter, which seems a little extreme, a Kerry victory in Ohio would make a Bush victory nationally extremely difficult.
I like this Mrs Baxter. She seems really honnest and true. I mean, she accepts to be considered an idiot when she says things like:”In this election, I am a single-issue voter. It is that simple.” And she is right, she is totally stupid. Why would anyone consider only one aspect of geopolitics when voting for the US president?
Moreover, why does Bush has this reputation of being serious about terrorism? Isn’t it during his mandate that 9-11 happened? Ok, he was in office for a short period of time, but that was enough to receive the memos of the end of August, and make at least a small move toward preventing it. He never did anything. Of course it was unforeseenable, and I don’t blame him for not foreseing it, but he never showed any interest for Ossama before 9-11 even though some attacks already occured against US forces abroad. Maybe he never cared about what was happening outside the US. Once more, I would like to stress that he NEVER went abroad before being a president. That doesn’t show much of his interest for international affairs, not its openess to discover new cultures. Well, that’s just a side-point.
By the way, Ossama wasn’t captured yet. It seems to me like this is a proof of cruel inefficiency. Bush pretends to be fighting terrorism since 9-11, but the guy who actually did 9-11 is still on the run. It’s almost 2005, hello!!
The only thing he did achieve is put the ME on fire. I don’t see how any “mom” caring about the safety of her children would consider him as “the best on security issues”. It just doesn’t make any sense.
My main problem is that I don’t know if Kerry is any better.
Yeah, I’d agree, Bush is the man to fight the war on terror. He’s taken a non-terrorist state and made it into the US’s own West Bank, created a multiplying effect on Al Qaeda recruitment, sat by while Iran and N. Korea have developed nuclear weapons and all the while the US economy has gone in the tank. Certainly he is the right man (puppet) for the job.
I live abroad and have traveled extensively around the world during the past 10 years, and I can promise you I have never seen so much hatred directed toward the US. Not even close. It’s bad enough that nearly all Muslims truly hate us, especially since many are willing to die trying to kill Americans, but now even people that used to support the US in places like Eastern Europe have overwhelmingly turned against the US.
You didn’t print my comment/question from last time, which disappoints me as I assumed this website provided an open forum for discussion of important issues. Maybe I was another victim of the Patriot Act. Then again, it also confirms what I wrote, which is that no conservative has ever given me a good reason why the US gives Israel unconditional support in light of the blowback that we face because of it. Support for this tiny country has cost us thousands of lives and hundreds of billions of dollars. And for what?
Reality,
I’ve seen your post from last time.It was a good question and even though it is a “sensitive” issue on this blog, I don’t think it was offensive for pro-israelis. Sometimes, I’m surprised by Jay’s reactions.
Have you ever seen this documentary (sorry i forgot the name…) on christians extremists explaining why they support israel? They have interpreted the Bible as: “When the jews get their country, the holy game is over and everybody gets to paradise to party for ever!!”
These powerful lobbys are close to Bush…
What I think is the best statistic is the poll showing the vote intention of jews in the US: 70-80% for Kerry!! Most american jews actually criticise Sharon’s actions, and are conscient that Israel is turning way too religious…
Vincent,
Post the name of the documentary if you think of it. I know all about the Christian right and its beliefs that salvation will come once the Jews have all of their land but, like you mentioned, how do we let a such a small segment of society run our foreign policy? Especially when the majority of Jewish voters are opposed to Sharon and Bush?
Democracy cannot work when powerful and wealthy lobbies representing the few can control the lives and liberties of those who do not support these lobbies. Unfortunately, these small lobbies know that if the lights are on too bright, the people will find out what they are doing and put an end to their power. The silent majority of Americans, of all faiths, needs to stop our suicidal policy of supporting the most radical Israeli policies otherwise the cost to our country will make today’s battles look like a peaceful time.
I don’t know if you read french, but here is a very good article describing their beliefs and influence: http://www.lemonde.fr/web/article/0,1-0@2-3222,36-383542,0.html
From this article, you learn among other things that “sionist christian” (sic) are 5 times more numerous than jews in the US. That is not a small lobby!
Regarding the documentary, I just remembered it was a french documentary from “envoyé spécial”, and I really doubt it went anywhere outside France…
BTW, did you realize how Bush is anti-constitutional? He just appointed new judges who are favoring pro-life ideas through the reason that their powers come directly from God!!! Bush is just a religious fanatic, just as many others…He should be impeached for that!
Wait, is it right-wing Christians or Jewish neo-cons who run the United States? I forget which paranoid conspiracy theory is all the rage among the Zéropean intelligentsia on any given day.
It’s not as though the United States supports Israel because it is the only democracy in the Middle East and the only place in the region where the exports are advanced technology including life-saving medical technology rather than xenophobia, hate, and terrorism.
If you think Israel is so bad, try imagining which you would like better: being an Israeli Arab or a Syrian Jew. Anyone with a shred of intellectual honesty would see the difference.
Yup, obviously Bush is a religious fanatic for believing in the right to life. It’s not like the concept of innate human rights isn’t written right into the very Declaration of Independence.
Then again, when _shari’a_ is instituted across Europe, I’m sure you’ll know all about religious fanaticism.
“is it right-wing Christians or Jewish neo-cons”
I know you can only see the world through your binar “with or against us”, “black or white”, “good vs. evil” paradigm, but yes, different lobbys can have an influence at the same time. It doesn’t has to be ONLY ONE lobby ruling everything…yeah Jay, the world is complex…I don’t see the contradiction to have both right-wing Christians AND Jewish neo-cons lobbying the Bush administration at the same moment for the same goals. I mean, that’s how the system works!
Answering Jay’s post above: I’m not talking about human rights and neither is Bush. He said very clearly that he was choosing THESE judges because they were “aware that their powers were coming directly from God, and therefore they would support a christian point of view when confronted to abortion cases”.
This has nothing to do with human rights. It has everything to do with freedom of religion. The US constitution is very clear about the separation of the interest of the State and the Church. Bush is anti-constitutional when he puts HIS religion on top of the US politic.
“United States supports Israel because it is the only democracy in the Middle East”
Yes, and the US army protected only the minister of petroleum in Baghdad in order to spread democracy! We all know how everything Bush makes is just beautiful and philosophically noble. If you really believe what you say Jay, you are just the most…I mean, you should read more sources than just watch FoxNews…
Did you hear that speech from a black evangelist saying that Jesus had made everything to help Kerry win this election? Comparing these words to any of Bush’s speech, you really wonder if Jesus is just another swing voter or if he just doesn’t exist and some liars make him say whatever they want to convince intellectually weak people.
“when shari’a is instituted across Europe”
OK, I got it now! This is just a joke, right?
“Israel, where the exports are advanced technology including life-saving medical technology rather than xenophobia, hate, and terrorism.”
It seems like you forgot some of their exports:
A report published by the UN on 21st October summarises the israeli attack in Gaza from the end of September(operation: “forgiven days”):
-129 palestininans killed
-91 buildings razed
-134 families homeless-675 homeless people
-2.5$ Millions of damages
-5 schools and 1 mosquee have been damaged
-240 000$ of damages for road network
-350 000$ of damages for communication and sanitation networks
-several acres of olive trees have been destroyed (over 50% of all olive trees have been destroyed since 2000 in Beit-Anoun: are these trees firing any rocket or what?)
Well, if you call that a democracy, that’s your problem, but a country that kills 130 people , destroys all the food fields and send tanks downtown a refugee camp in one week in order to arrest a few activists is called a fascist regime lying on its real objectives in my mind.
When the californian police will be chasing cars with robbers in it by shooting missiles downtown LA, killing every citizen in the neighborhood, LAPD may be taken to court…
Once again, Jay, you fail to answer the basic question: how have we in the US benefitted from Israel and the billions of dollars we’ve poured into that country? Here’s the answer: we haven’t.
In fact, it has cost us countless lives in addition to a monetary fortune, and it will cost us more in the future as our blind support keeps further enraging Muslim and Arabic countries every time Palestinians are killed and denied basic rights.
So what if Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East (where is Turkey?), as you ask. Does that fact automatically mean we should support it? How many democracies are there around the world? Should we spend billions on all of them too? Armenia is a small Christian country surrounded by agressive Muslim countries, and many with oil. But we could care less about it–and the Armenians also suffered an unimaginable genocide at the hands of our NATO ally, Turkey. It sure never bothered this administration, or any of the previous ones, to support dictatorships and theocracies in the region before, like Saudi Arabia, so this false nobility of supporting Israel because it is a democracy is simply a pathetic attempt to cover up the truth, even if you won’t face it.
We support Israel because of the disproportionate and extreme influence of the Jewish lobby, a lobby that has grown much stronger in recent times due to the emergence of the Christian Right. Both the neocons and Religious Right back the radical policies of Sharon, though for different slightly reasons. For one the issue is mainly a land grab and the other religious salvation, but both are predicated on Israel taking all the land it feels is due it according to Scripture. Even if it has to trample on the human rights of the Palestinians. If you don’t believe it, tune into Pat Robertson, who was in Israel recently threatening to break ranks with the Republican party because it didn’t go far enough in supporting Sharon!?
The bottom line is this, religious extremists have always been dangerous, Christian, Muslim or Jewish. Thank God there are a few more principled conservatives, like Pat Buchanan, who see the dangerous path we’ve taken, while the rest of the goosestepping conservative crowd is too blind to realize we are sacrificing America for radical pro-Israel politicians.