Understanding the 2004 Presidential Election by John Dean

[Jade Fox]

Long but worth it article on the election which avoides Monday morning
quarterbacking and Democrat blaming.

http://writ.news.findlaw.com/dean/20041105.html

A large number of Americans are very unhappy - indeed, many are
extremely depressed - about the 2004 presidential election
returns. Countless supporters of Senator John Kerry are literally
scratching their heads, unable to fathom how seemingly rational
people voted for President George W. Bush to serve a second term.
Given our poor economy, and the disastrous Iraq war -- with its
bogus justification and its thousands of American casualties - Kerry
supporters find it hard to imagine, let alone understand, the case
for casting a Bush vote.

Political pundits explain the election as the result of a deep division
within America. They note that we are a culturally polarized nation,
with the red states and the blue states providing a map of the
divide. Pundits also explain the election as a result of voter
turnout: Conservatives, they say, proved themselves superior at
getting their voters to the polls on November 2nd.

These explanations are
doubtless correct, to some
extent. But they are also
dreadfully incomplete. Books
will be written deconstructing
and biopsying this 2004
contest. Hopefully they will
reach farther than these
surface explanations to
understand what occurred.

[Liberal Gramma]

1. Link?

[Jade Fox]

3. Link is there now. Sorry!

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

2. I'd love to read the rest of it..got a link?

[juliagoolia]

4. He is really good at Unspinning this crap

I like John Dean. He wrote the book

Worse than Watergate too.

Key here is education... These people are getting their information from talk radio and the pulpit and we need to help them hear a new voice.

[susanna]

5. Unfortunately, the article points out that

they do not want to hear a new voice. Literally, these people do not want to see what is really happening - they won't be educated. They would rather trust * blindly.

[Jade Fox]

6. That's why I get so annoyed at Dem-blamers.....

There is no damn way we could have won these people. They almost
literally have their heads in the sand.

[susanna]

7. It's maddening, isn't it?

Maybe they should be called "The Coalition of the Willfully Ignorant."

[shrike]

9. Amen

I honestly believe Jesus Christ could have run as a Democrat and they would have called him an impostor.

[JudyM]

8. Apparently Bush supporters are not 'reality based' nt

[puddycat]

10. I must believe that many people can learn the truth and embrace it

or why go on? And people do change--at least we thinking people do. We change as facts warrant, and our research reveals information previously not known. Although there are a core group of non-thinkers who will never change, I believe that there are many people in the right-wing who have the potential to embrace the decency and morality of liberal thinking. If I didn't believe that it would be just too hard to proceed. We have to teach people better. We have to re-design the paradigm we've been operating from, because obviously trying to compromise on values hasn't worked.

[Richardo]

11. John Dean is a national treasure.

God bless him.

[BlueEyedSon]

12. Kick for the early birds

[salin]

13. I think he misses one major explanation

for the disconnect among some (less tied to the politicized fundie churches) bush voters... Self-protection from severe cognitive dissonance that would throw up in the air those folks view of our government and our system.

We are taught that democracy is good. We are taught that our government is good. We are back in an age where critiquing our government is flagged as "America Hating" which is particular irking to some after the attacks of 911.

Simply said, for many folks they just can not believe that Bush - or ANY president (I think they would have the same reaction were this Clinton) would act in such bad faith, for such shallow and petty reasons (eg - personal, political gain.) Thus they "hear" the news as conspiracy theories... and glom onto the rwing spin that offers explanations that folks WANT because to think otherwise, is for them the unthinkable. Too realize that all they have believed about ourselves as a people (the folks who "saved the world" in WWII) is, to them, unthinkable. One has to wonder what it would take to force these people through their cognitive dissonance (the destabilizing process where reality flies in the face of deeply held beliefs ... the mental process that requires making sense of both the beliefs and the dissonant facts in away to understand both- either by transforming beliefs - or by finding a way to reject the new facts...)

[bklyncowgirl]

14. Good points

In conversation with some of my older relatives of the WWII generation, I find that some of this "it is unpatriotic to question your government" still exists.

My mother (who's not a fundamentalist but is a religious Catholic) once complained that young people weren't flocking to the enlistment offices like they did during World War II. When I said that the reason is that Iraq didn't attack us, she countered with "how do you know that for sure?" I gave various well documented reasons why it is a fact that Saddam Hussein was not involved in 9/11 but it did nothing to dissuade her.

We just have to trust our leaders. she said.

I think if we focus on the fundies, we lose the point. Sure there out there and they're a disciplined voting block--sort of like the Hassic Jews who can swing elections in New York City because they vote as they are told. But there are other people out there who are unable to overcome the disconnect because to accept the truth would be to question alot of their core values as Americans.

I have a feeling that the swing toward Bush seen in some older Americans may have to do with this patriotic disconnect.

What's rather chilling is that of my older relatives, the ones who though in the past have been Republican supporters, have come out firmly against Bush, are my in-laws both of whom grew up in Germany in the 1930s.

[dennis4868]

15. John Dean....

is my hero! I love his articles and books....