From a Gallup Poll: April 1-2
"Do you approve or disapprove of Congress' involvement in the Terri Schiavo case?" N=1,040, MoE ± 3.
Approve 20%
Disapprove 76%
Unsure 4%
"Do you approve or disapprove of the way George W. Bush is handling the Terri Schiavo case?" N=1,040, MoE ± 3.
Approve: 34%
Disapprove: 53%
Unsure: 13%
Gallup Poll 4/08/05:
"Do you think the Bush Administration deliberately misled the American public about whether Iraq has weapons of mass destruction, or not?"
.
Yes,Misled 50%
No,Did Not 48%
Unsure 2%
This is a substantial increase from only 1/3 thinking he misled last summer.
Friday, April 08, 2005
Backlash against Republicans
Posted by The Law Talking Guy at 1:19 PM
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Of course the problem in November was that none of these issues are terribly salient to people who might vote against Democrats. In other words, the 1/5 to 1/3 of conservatives who love the way Congress and Bush have handled both Iraq and the Shiavo case think those are the most salient issues.
However, only a few of the rest of us have realized that an all out Cultural war has been declared against reason itself, democracy itself. And so while large majorities can be spotted in poll numbers against the Shiavo/Iraq type lies and fundamentalism, most people don't think either is a big deal.
If at times I appear frantic and increasingly radical on this blog it is because I'm trying - in my own small way - to get the "reasonable majority" to wake up and smell the inquisition.
Wake up, smell it, and then what? I write my Congressman, but he is a Democrat. I beef on the blog, but this audience doesn't need to be hearing it. I send e-mail news stories around to friends (also like minded people) to help keep the information flowing. But that's it's the choir preaching to the Choir. My vote is nearly useless, although I haven't given up hope.
I don't necessarily agree with the Minutemen Project, but at least they are organized and doing something substantial. They are more sane than the mish mash collection of weirdoes who protested outside of Shiavo's hospice.
And thank your RBR, for pointing to something that I emphasized back in November: the need to get in and really talk about the fundamentals of our democracy and the future. The public discourse in this country is practically non-existent. The media isn't serving us and the airwaves are full of sound bites rather than real discussions.
Say what you will about the Arab world, but the quality of the dialogue that is now being heard on Arab satellite channels is amazing! I am pleased to be able to read so much of it translated for me. Arab civil society is being formed under our noses and it is TV that is doing it. They are really examining and analyzing, and discussing what they want they want their futures to be like. They are trying to find a form of democracy that works for them. They are trying to figure out what role religion will play, how to stop suicide bombings and what is really pushing their youth into doing such things. Arabs who were isolated from each other are now all sharing ideas across nations and dialects. And this is changing them, much faster than we realize.
We really need to be having similar conversations in this country. Do you think we will ever be able to get our own masses to tune into such a big discussion?
No.
I think our country is having just such a nation wide conversation about fundamental issues of democracy and society. The problem is that only the Christian Right is talking.
My right wing relatives are all a twitter about a biography of Alexander Hamilton. Their discussion of it has turned to a series of angry attacks against Jefferson. It used to be that Jefferson was the figure that everyone claimed was on their side. Now, the right is abandonning any pretense of following in the great democrat's tradition...instead they hold up Hamilton - a man with decidedly authoritarian ideas - as the paragon of American political thought.
The country desparately needs the left and the center to start speaking up. And we can't just say the usual, "I'm OK, You're OK" pablum. We need to stand up, point at the right and shout: Fascist!
RBR said, "We need to stand up, point at the right and shout: Fascist!"
Well, they have managed to turn "Liberal" and "feminist" into bad words, so why not call them back. And let's not stop at Fascist. Let's start pointing to how similar they are to Islamic Fundamentalists. After all, it is right wingers who are out terrorizing doctors, bombing clinics and putting the names of abortion practitioners on internet hit lists. Osama should be happy with the U.S. We have a podunk dictatorial regime and we are religiously fundamentalist. So what's his big gripe?
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