[QUOTE=C Elegans]ROFL @your spam alert, I really hope it isn't as bad.
This again touches upon the question what people actually vote for. Obviously not for actual political issues, but for other factors - but what factors? I can understand if people vote by the "proximity principle", for what they perceive will lead to a better life situation for themselves regarding taxes, wages, education, etc rather than their country's stance in foreign policy. But I honestly don't understand what the Bush supporters vote for.[/QUOTE]
I saw your post in the thread about education in which you said that you're acquainted with a select group of Americans who share some of your own values and characteristics. (Well, that's not exactly what you said, but I hope I'm close.) As a result, your perceptions of Americans are bound to be different than mine. I socialize with a lot of rural Texans, many of whom are elderly, and they represent what you might call "heartland values". Look at a
map of the "red states" and "blue states". How many of your American friends live in "red states"?
When I visit people in rural Texas, I dress conservatively, and I thicken my Texas accent and use small words and short sentences. Otherwise, people look at me funny. Intellectuals turn them off. It's okay for a preacher to use big, fancy words in an "inspirational" way, but not anybody else. They already think I'm eccentric, and I'm not even French. When they ask me (for the trillionth time) why I don't get married and have kids, I politely change the subject.
I don't know a single person besides myself who likes, much less admires, Teresa Heinz Kerry. She has money, she has a funny accent, and she speaks her mind--all of which make her antithetical to someone like Laura Bush. I think that Teresa's candor to the press is one of the things that hurt Kerry at the polls.
Another thing that hurt Kerry at the polls was his disdain for a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage. Even most of the Democrats I know would support such an amendment. But here's what's funny--when Kerry mentioned in the debate that Dlck Cheney's daughter is a lesbian, that also hurt Kerry in the election. Calling Mary Cheney by the "forbidden" term "lesbian" and pointing a finger at the Cheney family's "shame" angered a lot of people, despite the fact that Kerry was saying something positive about Mary Cheney. In fact, saying something positive about homosexuality also got Kerry into trouble. It's not easy to understand all of the conflicting impulses that lead to such a reaction, but that's what you need to do if you want to understand the conservative mindset.
So, what do Bush supporters actually vote for? Well, first of all, forget the notion that people in the "red states" voted to promote their own economic interests. Actually, they voted against their own economic interests, although in their, uh, "defense", they don't realize that. They voted for Bush because they think he represents their "values".
You and I see Bush a lot differently than his supporters do. But to understand American politics, you need to understand an important double standard. If a Republican candidate dodged the draft, abused drugs, took his girlfriend to get an abortion, or violated SEC regulations, that's okay as long as he's the candidate who will defeat the Democrats and "serve God's will". (Bush is living proof.) Republicans represent "decent, hardworking Americans". Republicans are good people, and good people never do bad things, so no matter what a Republican does, it's never wrong. But Democrats and liberals represent minorities, homosexuals, welfare mothers, and atheists, so it doesn't matter whether they have lived clean lives or served their country with honor; Democrats and liberals are always "lazy and immoral", and they will be criticized for everything they do.
My grandfather used to say, "The damn Democrats are teaching children not to work," since they invented the "welfare state". Since liberals also oppose spanking and other forms of corporal punishment, my grandfather also added, "They're teaching children not to mind their parents." I was amused by that, because in the same conversation, my grandfather also argued that it's okay to cheat the government, so obviously children don't need to respect ALL authority. But it shows that "the family" is the central concern of people like my grandfather.
Bush supporters (including self-proclaimed Democrats) voted for a Republican (not a "damn, liberal Democrat") who didn't act like he went to some northeast university like Yale (cough, cough) but claimed to be "born-again" and said he would sponsor a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage, said he would fight to protect school prayer and the Pledge of Allegiance, said he would fight against gun control, said he would appoint judges who would ban abortion, said he would never let other countries prevent us from defending ourselves, and said he would kick Saddam Hussein's ass again even though it has been proven that Iraq posed no threat to the United States. THAT's what people in this country voted for.
Now, you probably know as well as I do what Bush and other Republican party leaders
really stand for. But if you try to explain that to people like my grandfather, they can't hear you. My grandfather, who used to be a Democrat before John Kennedy was elected, used to say, "I'm not a Democrat because I'm not black, I'm not on welfare, and I'm not gay." Actually, he used different words for "black" and "gay", but I don't want to repeat them here. I asked him why he was a Republican. Was it because he and his friends are millionaires or CEOs who make most of their income from stock options or people who own offshore oil companies or companies that need looser safety and environmental regulations to make more money, or what? His answer: "I'm a Republican because I'm not a Democrat." That's a great piece of evidence to show that Bush supporters voted AGAINST certain things as much as FOR certain things.
