What was the "tipping point" for the bush regime?

[The_Casual_Observer]

Cindy?

The public rejection of Social Security "reform"?

Katrina?

???

Because it sure looks it has come and gone.

[Carolab]

1. Cindy, followed immediately by Katrina.

Couple of tough broads.

[Melodybe]

6. Terri Schiavo for sure.

[Up2Late]

20. Another vote for Terri Schiavo fiasco

It was the beginning of the end.

[salin]

48. bingo - the show went too far

and made far too many mainstream folks very uncomfortable. Seemed to take the scales away from many peoples' eyes. After that there was more acceptance when the DSM story broke, more reaction to bush's brusk brush off of Sheehan, sheer disgust - but not surprise - at the Katrina fiasco... etc.

[Dulcinea]

32. Hurricane Katrina will be his undoing.

Too much went terribly wrong, & they can't hide from it.

[bunnywhiskers]

2. When troop casualties hit 3000

Same number killed on 9/11

[The_Casual_Observer]

5. Welcome to DU

Too bad it couldn't be about a more happy subject.

Regards,
T_C_O

[Skink]

7. Tipping point? They're just getting started..

[newyawker99]

31. Hi bunnywhiskers!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[populistdriven]

3. Christmas Tsunami - When Bush did nothing for 5 days then offered 15 m

More people started questioning his integrity.

http://americablog.blogspot.com/archives/2004_12_01_americablog_archive.html

The devastating Tsunami this past weekend, and Bush's reaction to it, prove beyond a doubt that this man is hardly a good Christian.

Bush's first reaction on hearing of the devastation, as leader of the free world, should have been to immediately annonce that the US was taking the lead in coordinating disaster relief. When we've already spent over $200 billion on Iraq, we shouldn't have said we were committing $15m to the relief effort, we should have announced the creation of a billion dollar global fund and called on all the nations and private citizens of the earth to come together and help finance it. He should have called on all the liberal and conservative donors to both presidential campaigns, red state and blue state, to put aside their differences and donate to this worthy cause.

But he didn't.

Bush stayed on vacation and had a deputy press secretary, not even his real press secretary, answer questions on the disaster. Not until 5 days after the disaster struck, and after news reports indicated the death toll was approaching 100,000, AND MOST IMPORTANTLY, not until after the Washington Post ran a story saying that Bush was being criticized for ignoring the humanitarian crisis did Bush finally speak publicly on this matter.

[me b zola]

4. It's hard to say

The public's refusal to accept the the destruction of social security got people's attention. The DSMs began the ball rolling. Cindy was a huge shift, people really didn't like the way the repuke smear maching attacked her. Katrina pushed it all over the edge.


edited to add:

Yeah. There was a lot building up to it, a growing awareness. But watching the criminal neglect (at the very least) of how the people of New Orleans were/are treated I would have to say is the flood that broke the camel's back.

[nadinbrzezinski]

8. I think we will need some time to build

before we can accurately say what was it? My gut Katrina...

that is when they finally made the connection, Iraq, NG over there, Katrina, we don't have them troops

Of course it did not help that brownie did a heck of a job either

[longship]

9. I think Cindy.

The measure is not the troubles themselves. It's the public's reaction to the troubles. Iraq has been a problem for * for some time. But it took the tenacity of Cindy Sheehan, turning *'s words against him that made the measureable change in the public.

All the rest. Rove/Plame. Iraq. *'s incredible fuck up of Katrina. Playing the blame game while at the same time accusing the opposition of playing the blame game didn't help. Drownie Brownie has done nothing to help. And then * rehires the idiot. Gas prices. Soft economy.

Okay, now comes the indictments of principles. First, Delay. Frist looks like an eventual goner. Fitzgerald has *got* to have something, otherwise he would have dropped Rove/Plame a long time ago. Just the fact that he hasn't says that the DC grand jury will probably have a little Halloween horror story for the West Wing.

With the majority leaders of both houses of Congress and the bulk of the West Wing under indictment, things are going to fall completely to pieces.

The adults are in charge. They fucked up everything they touched. And everybody knows it. Look for 30% approval ratings by next month.

[Dogmudgeon]

10. I don't think it's a point

I think the Bush regime is riding a big social "catastrophe" in the mathematical sense of the word (which originally just meant "downstroke"). The change won't be a point, but an entire topology, which is why we see different kinds of losses and gains at different times which are often inexplicable.

We have come to the end of an age. The "deluge" which will follow will sweep Team Bush away, but it will also transform our world, as much as WW2 or the Age of Reason did.

I don't buy into the mysticism and the 2012 hype, but I do think the mystics are responding to the same pressures and signals. I don't forsee any great psychic change, but change is coming. Flesh and blood remains constant, but the bricks and mortar may be replaced. The simultaneously-occurring events of Peak Oil, climate change, political upheaval, and ecological die-off may all be parts of this ... and I may be wrong, too.

It seems frightening, but there is no reason why we can't muddle through in good shape. We have only our stupidity to fear. But if I was a member of Bush's coterie, I'd turn my fear into defection from the camp and adoption of a new frame of mind.

--p!

[marions ghost]

41. agree

it's not a point, it's a downhill slide of various boulders building to an avalanche...

pigwidgeon said "we have come to the end of an age"...this is not an exaggeration IMO. Finally the used and abused People are waking to a new dawn and many will leave the poppy field forever. The kool-aid barrel is running out. This is Hugh.

[Hissyspit]

11. Not finding WMD coupled with the continuing violence in Iraq

despite the 'handover of sovereignty'

I think we have to admit that there hasn't been any specific tipping point. It has been a cumulative effect.

[The_Casual_Observer]

14. "It has been a cumulative effect."

I agree, but until recently it seemed that the talk was of a "tipping point", and it occurred to me that we must have blown right by it already without noticing it.

[Hatalles]

15. I think it was the missing WMD also...

[kster]

12. All of the above + the DU

and all the other websites dedicated to the election theft of 2004 we are bringing up the rear, because we refuse to let our votes be counted in secret any longer. Lets just say we know way to much to let it go.

[enigmatic]

13. Terri Shiavo

Followed by Social Security. Since then, it's been a runaway train.

[charlie]

16. I don't think we're there yet

But I think, sadly, that gasoline price shock is a major cause of Bush's dwindling fortunes.

[Protagoras]

34. I sadly agree

I was reflecting on "popular revolutions" that radically reversed or altered the political landscape of various cultures.

It seemed to me that in the vast majority of cases people are too scared of change to act until it gets so bad that it literally sits on top of their kids and beats them in front of the parents.

Which is why I don't think we're there yet.

In a country like oh...Nicaragua or the Phillipines the people were already down so low that the fall in their lifestyle (while significant) wasn't all that large on a socioeconomic scale.

But in the US..we are, in fact, rich. We have a long way we can fall on a SES before we hit that breaking point...and since we are correspondingly richer, we can, in effect, absorb relatively more corruption before we hit that point.

That leads me to believe that in the US our politicians and government actually gets to be MORE corrupt than the French or the Phillipines or the Ukraine or whatever...because they have a lot more cushion between what causes us "discomfort" and what actually breaks the camels back.

I think it is quite curious that what many identify as the most likely cause of a real political rebellion in this country would be paying for gas like the rest of the world...not the scandals...not the cronyism...not the lies...but simply paying what the rest of the world pays for a few miles of comfort in our SUVs.

Wonder how the history books will treat that and us.

Looking forward to the change...not looking forward to what it'll take for us to get there.

[Lindsay]

17. Seems to me it's been more of a cascade effect

than a single point.

OTOH, I think Katrina ripped the blindfolds off a whole lot of people. You can't leave thousands of Americans stranded without food or water for days on end, and show it on television, and not have it affect people.

[Melodybe]

18. No kidding

[file83]

28. I agree, but why hasn't it fallen over yet?

It's like the Bush Administration is leaning waaaaaaaay over past the tipping point with nothing supporting it except for a few pieces of string Karl Rove has rigged up...I'm just amazed it hasn't fallen over yet. I think the Fitzgerald/Plame investigation will be the final "snip" of that string...

[Lexingtonian]

19. I see their decline as linear

but the Schiavo stuff opened the gates for so many people ready to leave them and it put them completely out of reach of majority support.

They'll always come up with excuses for all the other events that made people say "That's it. I'm not for these idiots ever again." The Schiavo affair was so stupid on their end that you can tell Republicans it disqualified the Bush people from governance and they have no retort. There's the classic unanswerable question/insult about it to massacre them with from now to the end of time- 'Which part of 'braindead' didn't you guys understand?'

[nonconformist]

21. Social security.

It was the first thing that they did that really, really sat bad with the working/middle class southerners. Once that happened, many started viewing everything with a more skeptical eye.

Katrina was the catalyst... it seems that it unleashed what was becoming a quiet unrest with the Bush administration by many. It was the final straw of ineptitude and reminded everyone that everything they touch turns to absolute shit.

[hvn_nbr_2]

22. Whatever it was, it was after June 7, 2005...

because in this thread, started June 7, 2005:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x1835968
I predicted that the Chimp & Cheney wouldn't finish their term in office, and everyone thought I was out of my mind.

[greenman3610]

23. visual representation of Bush Free fall (flash)

http://www.planetdan.net/pics/misc/georgie.htm

[The_Casual_Observer]

24. Jesus! Who thought of making that figure into bush!

What a world!

[Theduckno2]

25. Being reelected (using the term loosely) as POTUS.

I have little doubt that had he lost the election, the right wing media would have set about spinning an impressive legacy for him. Just look at the excellent job they did for President Reagan by overlooking PATCO strike, as well as Iran/Contra and implying he singlehandedly ended the Cold War!

His reelection (again loosely) magnified his hubris, leading to political overreach and a belief that Bushco could spin their way out of every situation. A second term granted everyone the opportunity to see the sorry excuse of this man behind the curtain. No offense to the Wizard of OZ intended.

I liked a lot of the other reasons posted so far!

[Brother Buzz]

30. That was the 'Mandate' madness we saw, no?

And I guess his mandate (loosely ;)) vaporized when his Social Security scam fizzled out.

[Theduckno2]

44. Yep, Bush went ahead and spent "political capital" he didn't have.

And Republican controlled Congress seems to enjoy spending money we don't have. Coincidence? You be the judge. :)

[Historic NY]

26. His 5 week vacation......and

When the media finally got some balls and finally decided to lambast him over Cindy & Katrina. It confirmed what people were thinking for a long time.

[readmylips]

27. Black Eye to the Nation from Abu Gra(?) Hitler Prison....

Administration tried to hide the photos and stop investigation. The world hated little bush and the US even more. Bunch of bastard criminals.

[Helga Scow Stern]

29. Although a host of factors had stacked up, Cindy, Cindy, Cindy tipped it..

It was slight, but enough to tip.

[banana republican]

33. The Perfect Storm

Katrina; Cindy; & Delay

[deminks]

35. Election night 2000. and when the Supremes intevened.

These things should never have happened.

[0007]

36. The day junior was sworn in as CIC

[Walt Starr]

37. Terry Shiavo

They were doomed after that fiasco.

[nomaco-10]

38. Abu Grahib, Terri Schiavo and ....

pretty much anything that's going on in the news when they raise the color coded terror level or claim to have captured the number 2 guy in Al Qaeda for the twentieth time.

[rasputin1952]

39. His first innauguration...

The general public is just realizing it now.

[npincus]

40. the London Bombings in July

that shattered the ONLY advantage B*sh ever had, which was that they felt he had made them safe. After all the propaganda and promises of his 2004 campaign- we were as vulnerable as ever. After the London bombings, people realized they were not safer now than before 9/11, the Iraq war had NOT made them safer- probably the opposite- and that it was only a matter of time until it would happen here.

This is my opinion. I think that was when the underpinnings of B*sh's facade started to crumble.

yeah, Schiavo was bad, but I think Congress's intervention got the brunt of the attention for that sad episode.

[KittyWampus]

42. Richard Clarke was the tall oak that lodged itself between the riverbanks

and provided the necessary stability of character to allow the rest of the logs to build up into a sizable logjam.

AFter that, I'd say Mrs. Schiavo's death. That beautiful woman didn't suffer all those years in vain. It exposed the maggots for what they are.

[lectrobyte]

43. Social Security seemed to get a lot of die-hard republican's attention

from what I see here in red-state land. Seemed like he was quacking after that, whatever political captital and mandate he thought he had was used up way before Katrina.

[Kickin_Donkey]

45. When he tipped his elbow to tipple again.

Seriously, I don't know if we're past the tipping point. I won't believe it till he's out of office on January 20, 2008 -- and that's an iffy proposition.

[CJCRANE]

46. Galloway at the Senate was a "turning point".

He was prob the first person to get a national/global platform and actually say what a lot of people were thinking.

[Jawja]

47. Katrina.

Definitely Katrina. People needlessly suffered and DIED right here at home due to his criminal negligence. TV "news" personalities lost their poise on camera, and this occurred in the living rooms of America. All the spin in the world cannot make up for the images coming out of New Orleans in the first few days after Katrina hit.

Cindy gave light to his uncaring arrogance; Katrina exposed his mythological "strength," which was presented as "keeping us safe," as his glaring weakness.

[cassiepriam]

49. Women named Katrina and Cindy.... eom