I'm sorry if this is off the

discussion as I didn't read this whole thread (being lazy), but in regards to politics and emotion...

I think

that Michael Douglas summed it up in The American President:

For the last several months

Senator Rumson has suggested that being president of this country was to a certain extent about character. And while

I have been unwilling to engage in his attacks on me, I have been here three years and three days and I can say

without hesitation that being president of this country is entirely about character. For the record, yes, I am a

card carrying member of the ACLU ... but the more important questions is why aren't you Bob. Now this is an

organization whose sole purpose is to defend the bill of rights ... so it naturally begs the question why would a

Senator, his party's most powerful spokesman and a candidate for president choose to reject upholding the

constitution. Now, if you can answer that question folks than you're smarter than I am ... because I didn't

understand it until a few hours ago. America isn't easy. America, is advanced citizenship ... you've got to want

it bad ... because its gonna put up a fight. Its gonna say you want free speech? Then lets see you acknowledge a man

whose words make your blood boil who's standing center stage and advocating at the top of his lungs that which you

would spend a lifetime opposing at the top of yours. Its gonna say you want to claim this land is the land of the

free? Then the symbol of your country cannot just be a flag. The symbol also has to be one of its citizens

exercising his right to burn that flag in protest. Now show me that; defend that; celebrate that in your classrooms

... then you can stand up here and claim that this is the land of the free. I've known Bob Rumson for years and

I've been acting under the assumption that the reason Bob devoted so much time and energy shouting at the rain was

because he simply didn't get it. Well, I was wrong, Bob's problem isn't that he doesn't get it, Bob's

problem is that he can't sell it. He is interested in two things and two things only ... making you afraid

of it and telling you whose to blame for it ... that ladies and gentlemen is how you win elections. You gather a

group of middle aged, middle class, middle income voters who remember with longing an easier time and to preach to

them about American values and character. And then you flash an old photo of the presidents girlfriend and you

tell them she's to blame for their rotten lives ... and you go on television and you call her a whore. Sidney Ellen

Wade has done nothing to you Bob. She has done nothing but put herself through school, protect the interests of

American school teachers and lobby for the safety of our natural resources. You want a character debate Bob, then

you'd better stick with me ... because Sidney Ellen Wade is way out of your league. I've loved two women in my

life. I lost one to cancer ... and I lost the other because I was so busy keeping my job, that I forgot to do my

job. Well that end right now. Tomorrow the White House is sending a bill to Congress for its consideration ... House

Resolution 455, an energy bill, calling for a twenty percent reduction in the emissions of fossil fuels over the

next ten years. It is by far, the most aggressive stride ever taken to attempt to reverse the affects of global

warming. The other piece of legislation is the crime bill. As of today, it no longer exists. I'm throwing it out.

I'm throwing it out and writing a law that makes sense. You cannot address crime prevention without getting rid of

assault weapons and handguns. I consider them a threat to national security and I will go door to door if I have to

but I'm gonna convince Americans that I'm right and I'm gonna get the guns. We've got serious problems and we

need serious people. And if you want to talk about character and American values Bob, fine ... but you'd better

come at me with more than a burning flag and a membership card, you just tell me where and when and I'll show up.

This is a time for serious people Bob and your fifteen minutes are up. My name is Andrew Shepherd and I am the

President.

Creating a campaign is easy. You tell the country what

the problems are and you say that you're the person to solve them. Winning is hard because you have to blame the

other person for all of the problems or say that their solution is dumb and yours is better.

Now I'm

going really off topic...

People complain that politicians lie. Well, I thought about this, and they have to,

basically. Bush was honest, and he got fried and later retracted his statement.

"We may never win the war on

terror..."

Wow, truth for once. You can win this just like you can't win the war on drugs...you can't prevent

individuals from doing chaotic things when you give them the freedom and liberty that incidentally extends to having

the capability to do them. If you have the right to bear arms, you automatically have the capability to cause harm

to many people. That's the reality of the situation...but politicians can't admit to that. No one will vote for

a guy who admits that the system is fallible and that you can't prevent every bad thing from happening. Kerry

comes right back and says that he will fight the war better and win...and then, naturally, Bush must retract his

statement or Kerry will look stronger than him despite the fact that Kerry can't 100% prevent random horrible acts

from happening, either.

I was thinking about this, and I may be wrong because this was a recent thought, but any

politician that started preaching the truth would lose. Therefore, it is actually by our voting that keeps liars in

office because they tell us what we want to hear, not the truth. We want to hear that we are strong, safe,

economically growing, creating jobs, etc...no one wants to hear the President admit that we're in a recession...and

if he did, the stock market would take a 1,000-point shot. Yet everyone complains that politicians lie. Who votes

in the liars, and who needs the liars to lie to sleep soundly at night? Hmmm...

The scapegoat is created with

the sole purpose of putting a face to the fear and making people safe. The war in Iraq, oil, special interests,

etc. aside, is a way to show citizens that the government is taking action and being proactive in fighting

terror...who would vote for a President who said, "Well, individuals did this, and there's not much we can do about

it. All we can do is strengthen our defenses and prevent further catastrophes in the future. However, since the

people who did this are dead from the crashes, there's not much else we can do to punish them, is there?" (again, I

know these people are part of bigger groups with leaders, but I am taking major liberties to make a point)

It's

sad, but the government is an interesting result of the human psyche.

What a psychological field day one could

have analyzing this...

Please no one take this as the start of a political debate for one side or the other...I

was just taking this as a partial psychological analysis...just brainstorming.