Time for some real discourse on Bushland part 2

[Yelof]

Originally Posted by jaguar

Titor came to my mind too, with this kind of mandate there is a far chance america really will get the government it deserves, Shrubs comment to hacks along the lines of "we're gonna have some fun" gave me shivers. On the upside he'll be so busy giving US debt to friends and family the deficit should help slowly strangle the US and history will write off another little empire gone to seed.

Yeah there is a good chance this is going to happen.. the only problem is that the world economy is totally tied to the US dollar because oil is priced and paid for in dollars that if the US were to hit another great depression, the world would go too. There is no escaping the coming collapse.

I am quite convinced by the Peak oil theory and think that the world is going soon to be faced with some difficult choices that will make the stupid "war on terror" seem irrelevent..Bush in office means few constructive things can happen in this area for at least the next 4 years and yet strangely enought I am more at peace now...why?

While there was hope I was more agitated, I would be checking endlessly to see if there was any possibility that news would break and what implication it could have on the US election etc..now I feel free of that. I don't hold any hope now of world leaders achieving anything regarding renewable energy AIDS or Poverty, as anyone who was encouraged by exit polls on Nov 2 can tell you, there is nothing worse then false hope and I am glad it is gone.
I now must put my hope into things local, my family my community..I find it odd that it took Bush's reelection to make me come to such an obvious conclusion.

[vsp]

Coyne is a bit off.

True, it found the largest single block of voters identified "moral values" as the "most important election issue" -- a much cited factoid -- and that 80% of these respondents voted for Bush. But that hardly makes this election a triumph of theocracy. In the first place, "largest single block" turns out to mean 22%, meaning 78% of voters -- including two-thirds of Bush voters -- named some other issue. Second, the pollsters only managed to elevated "moral values" to number one by dividing up the other issues into subcategories. Thus "Iraq" and "Terrorism" are treated as separate issues, though grouped together as, say, "national security" they would have claimed the top spot, with 34% of the total. Likewise "taxes" and "economy" were named by a combined 25% of voters. Had "moral values" been split into "abortion" and "gay marriage," the spin would have been rather different.

1) Iraq and Terrorism ARE separate issues. Iraq has nothing to do with national security, other than how what we're doing there is increasing anti-American hatred.

There were indeed a lot of Bush voters motivated by terrorphobia and a belief that Bush would be a more competent war leader than Kerry, which is a sad indictment of much of the voting public.

2) Again, taxes and the economy are separate (if related) issues. When I think "economy" I think jobs, the stock market, layoffs, unemployment, etc., not 1040 forms. They're not unrelated, but they are distinct.

3) I'm not suggesting that EVERYBODY who voted for Bush was a raving bible-thumper, not by a long shot.

But what state was the turning point? Ohio. What drew a hell of a lot of religious folk to the polls, helping to counter the major turnout in Ohio's cities? Ohio's anti-gay-marriage proposition. If that's the two-minute drill that won the game, to use your analogy that popped up while I was posting, fine -- but this was a close game until that finish, not some 49-3 blowout where the Democrats are bitching about how the last touchdown scored. In a state that lived up to its billing as being crucial to this election, they made a significant difference.

And regardless of how pivotal a role the religious right truly played, they _are_ lining up to take credit and demand action. We may not feel it quite as much up here, but there are going to be a whooooooole lot of Roy Moore and Santorum sound-alikes making life very uncomfortable in a lot of places, particularly if the Constitution Restoration Act goes through this time. With the newly revised Senate, I wouldn't bet against it, and that scares the shit out of me.