Bush or Kerry

[bjf]

__________________________________________________ _

[ToBeOrNotToBe]

I can't understand how

Bush managed to *win* the previous elections! :blink:

:run:

I'm not from the USA, for those who don't

know. This is just my opinion, but I think you have to be *out of your minds* if Bush is elected again!

[DCW]

I sincerely believe the election was

rigged, just my gut feeling by what I heard.
Bush's campaign strategy is lets scare the #$$%^8 out of them so

they'll be pro war despite no WMD or 911 connection. It sound unbelievable but it is working here in the gun

loving, SUV, pickup truck driving South.
The war on terror is like the war on drugs, have you ever heard of a

shortage of weed or blow? I don’t see anyone running around asking “where the weed where is the weed”!!??

The

truth is most American don’t have a clue what’s going on in the country must less the world, we are more interested

in the color of Paris Hilton’s panties than the decisions that are affecting our lives.

IMHO


DCW

[DrSmellThis]

So far Nader is doing as well

as Bush here. Hear that, Ralph? Come get some lovin with your pheromones! I wish he could have made himself into a

more credible candidate. He understands corporations extremely well, and seems very good on the environment. Maybe

someone else will come along in four years.

[Pancho1188]

The results are what I

expected to see out of this forum.

[Elk Dreamer]

:LOL: The GREAT STATES OF

MICHIGAN AND OHIO ARE GOING FOR KERRY! AND SO DID I! :rofl: ELK

[einstein]

There is no "undecided" on that

poll.
Right now I'm pretty in demand. The undecided voter in a battleground state who is definitely going to

vote.
All the people on TV imply you have to be ignorant or dumb to not have made a decision by now. I just

haven't seen any candidates to get excited about. It seems like the moderates can't make it out of the primaries.

And McCain doesn't plan on running again :(

[bjf]

Einstein, since you can't vote

"undecided" in the voting booth, I left it out. :)

[a.k.a.]

I can't

understand how Bush managed to *win* the previous elections! :blink:

:run:

I'm not from the USA,

for those who don't know. This is just my opinion, but I think you have to be *out of your minds* if Bush is

elected again!

The hard core of Bush’s popular base is evangelical (or “born again”) Christians.

Something like 40% of Americans identify themselves as belonging to this group.
This is a very faith based

constituency (to put it diplomatically). They’re not so much concerned with facts and analysis as with a special

type of certainty that can only be gained through the “born again” experience.
This hard core strongly

identifies with Bush because he is very much one of them. Back in the day, Bush used to be a party animal and a

heavy alcoholic. His daddy got fed up and arranged for Jr. to spend a long retreat with the popular evangelist Billy

Graham. This apparently did the trick and Bush has been a praying fool ever since. The White House now hosts a

morning prayer group. And apparently Bush is thoroughly convinced of the justness of the invasion of Iraq because

he’s prayed over it.
Even among non-evangelicals, Bush’s strong conviction is seen as strength.



The hard core of Bush’s elite base is equally dogmatic when it comes to certain “fundamentals” of capitalism:

privatization good, taxes bad, military spending good, social spending bad, and etc. (These guys are the “brains”

behind Iraq’s disastrous “reconstruction”.)
Even among non-elites, these core “values” carry a lot of currency

with people that identify with the interests of their masters.

In other words, America is suffering from a

deep, cultural decay and Bush is just one small symptom.

[DrSmellThis]

You've put your finger on

part of it, AKA. Information control would be another.

[Pancho1188]

Nader was taken off the ballot

in PA!

[a.k.a.]

You've put your

finger on part of it, AKA. Information control would be another.

This is an admittedly one

sided analysis. I should have mentioned the decline of the Democratic party (especially during the Reagan years),

the anemic, over intellectualized Left (thank God for Michael Moore), and the lack of a meaningful opposition.



Information control is more of a secondary issue. There’s still a wealth of information for anybody that

wants to actively seek it out. It’s just that most people would rather veg out in front of their TV sets for 6 hours

a day.
Which brings us back to the issue of cultural decay.

[DrSmellThis]

Good points. Info control is

more secondary, theoretically; and is not absolutely prohibitive; though the historic secrecy and information

control in this administration is a deterrant to truth for everyone.

(

http://www.tompaine.com/articles/an_eye_on_power.php (http://www.tompaine.com/articles/an_eye_on_power.php) ) None of us knows what we should. But practically it's

happening big time, given where most get their news.

[Friendly1]

No one was in a position to rig

the 2000 Presidential Election, but it does look like some fringe Republican elements are trying their darndest to

rig this one. I wouldn't be surprised to learn, a year from now, that they were really Democrats in Republican

clothing.

Election scandals go back almost all the way to the beginning of this country. Things were at their

utmost lowest level of integrity (to date) in the late 1800s, early 1900s, when local elections in New York and

other cities were pretty much rigged by political bosses.

Presidential elections are almost impossible to rig,

and I cannot think of any that have been proven to be so.

The foopas with Bush and Gore in Florida was not due

to forethought, but mostly to stupidity (on the part of local officials) and Gore's over-inflated ego.

It is

entirely possible (and reasonable) to win the popular vote but lose the electoral vote, and it is ONLY the electoral

vote which counts. It has happened a couple of times before.

I saw a headline earlier, though, which said that

more PAC money was backing Kerry than Bush. That's interesting.

[deepblue]

Vote Communist!