The Stats: Bush Will Ride Into Power On American Ignorance

Both sides of the political spectrum took notice when Bush finally slipped below 50% in the approval ratings. But Democrats shouldn't break out the champaign just yet. An equally revealing statistic - and much less inspiring - is the news that American Idol ratings grabbed more viewers than Bush's State of the Union speech. That apathetic ignorance will be more of a hurdle for Democrats than any amount of infighting.

The statistics show a huge proportion of Americans, perhaps even a majority, are operating of a very twisted view of the world. Naturally, these misinformed and warped views of the world result in misinformed and warped political opinions. This ignorant attitude has a profound effect on American politics and in my opinion, it will ultimately decide who is the next president.

In the end, this is a bad thing for Democrats because American ignorance typically strengthens conservative points of view. For example, in the post-Sept 11th atmosphere it was seen as unpatriotic by many to question our governments policies. In that atmosphere most Americans believed unquestioningly that Iraq was a direct threat to America; that weapons of mass destruction were present in Iraq; that Saddam and Osama were in cahoots; that a 76 billion dollar missle defense system that, by all accounts, is utterly ineffective was a necessity. After all, politicians never lie and are never wrong. Except when they are. Like they were about Iraqi weapons. And Iraqi terrorist connections. And their disasterous economic policy.

Politicians (both Conservative and Democratic) have to deal with this American stupidity everyday. They will either have to pander to this ignorance, or run the risk of alienating themselves from the majority of voters. Whenever a Democrat points out the obvious truth about the Iraq war they risk being accused of being unpatriotic by throngs of uninformed fools who are staunchly pro-war even though they have no real reason for their opinion beyond a typical conservative gut instinct America can do only good.

Consider the American mindset: According to a poll by the Washington Times a few months ago 70% of Americans believe Saddam Hussien was "personally connected" to September 11th. This assertion was just as absurd then as it is now. Even today - despite administrative backpedaling - the belief persists. Another poll, conducted by the Associated Press, indicated that 79% of Americans believe Saddam Hussien is connected to Al-Qaida. Again, this idea seems ridiculous to most informed observers. Even now, many Americans still support the war.

There is a clear nexus between the benightedness of Americans and their support of Bush. After all, if I thought that Saddam was directly connected to Al-Qaida and personally involved with September 11th, I would have supported the war as well.

It seems that in the minds of many Americans, the War on Terror is being fought against some monolithic undefinable enemy - unrelated and often contradictory concepts and people blend together into one big boogie-Imam. Little or no distinction is made between Hussien's secular dictatorship and Osama Bin Laden's terrorist movement. Likewise, Islam is as alien to most Americans as the theory of relativity or the inside of a book without pictures. We just lump ?'em all together and, in the words of our intrepid leader, label them "evil doers," or "enemies of freedom," or "Axis of Evil," or whatever the popular phrase-of-the-moment is. This is America, Godammit, and we aren't about to let reality get in the way of our galvinizing speeches.

You could make the argument that my fellow countrymen are well informed and just draw different conclusions than me. You could accuse me of partisan bickering or arrogance. Reality begs to differ. A recent 'deliberative poll' offers some insight here. A random sample of citizens spent the day debating about Americas role in the world with a panel of bi-partisan experts. They were asked questions before and after. Another group of random citizens (a control group) was simply asked the questions without going through the learning process. Consider the results:



These statistics indicate that the more informed people become, the more they oppose Bush's core policies. The participants were far less likely to support the war, they were more likely to want internationalization, they thought the War on Terror was being fumbled.

In todays America, where patriotism is synonymous with blind support of government, it has become taboo for candidates to speak truthfully about certain subjects. Instead, Democrats are forced to pander to American ignorance to avoid losing votes. Look at what happened to Howard Dean (not that I am a Dean supporter) when he spoke openly about Saddam Hussien.

When Howard Dean said that Hussiens capture "had not made America any safer" he was merely vocalizing the sentiments of many informed observers. It was a perfectly reasonable statement. Dean was summarily lambasted by the uninformed masses, who assumed his statement to be the height of absurdity. He should have known better than to state the truth. The real truth is, as much as America bemoans the lack of truth in politics, truth is a pariah in politics. Truth is the first casualty of American politics. Truth doesn't win elections; vague generalities, giving speeches (written by someone else, of course) while staring melodramatically into the distance, appeals to religion, and traipsing around on a political soundstage is what wins elections. Bush is adept at this.

He is perhaps less comfortable than any other American president giving unscripted appearances before the general public. Instead, he prefers to go gallivanting around the nation dressed in an Air Force jacket and giving speeches to military audiences - this way, he knows he can count on a strong applause and a large showing. It also has the effect of drawing attention away from his own questionable military record.

And so, nobody really seems to notice when his stated reasons for war are disproven one by one (just as most informed people knew they would all along.) Our reason for killing 8,000 - 10,000 innocent civilians and over 500 Americans has almost been reduced to: Saddam Husssien may have, at one time, contemplated the possibility of contemplating the possibility of making WMD related programs. But, hey, why let the facts get in the way of American patriotism? When the stated reason for war fails, just move on to the next, equally retarded pro-war argument.

The fact is that Bush barely won the last election (and I use the word ?'won' loosely because he lost the popular vote.) Given the statistics above, it is clear that if the public had been better informed and more active in the political process, Bush would not have won at all. George Bush rode into town on the ignorance of the average American, and he is going to ride that horse till it collapses.