the failings of representative democracy
If you're a Bush supporter, odds are he doesn't stand for what you think he stands for. That's not because he isn't open and honest about where he stands on the issues, but because, more than likely, you are a sheep that'd vote for him no matter waht for whatever reason. Do I sound harsh? Look at this survey.
As it turns out, 84% of Bush supporters thought that Bush supported labor and environmental standards included in trade agreements...an idea that, for those of us who are politically astute, is a fucking hilarious joke. According to the survey, 69% of Bush supporters think he's for the Comprehenisive Test Ban treaty (ha!), 66% believe him to be for the International Criminal Court (do you read newspapers?), and 72% think he's for the banning of landmines (which, considering our extensive use of the even more inhumane cluster bombs -- not to mention Bush's seemingly unquenchable thirst for blood and destruction -- is quite possibly the most laughable idea of all). To be fair, a majority (57%) knew he wanted to increase defense spending (but begs the question as to what planet the 43% who thought the opposite was true are from) and that Bush wanted the US to be in charge of the rebuilding of Iraq, not the UN (70%).
Reading this story reminded me of this story I read a few weeks ago where a teacher in a very republican school district had her class vote for the candidates in an anonymous-issues-related poll and that came out with a 26-4 Kerry victory. Kids (and parents) booed their own vote when it was announced because they're supposed to have wanted Bush to win.
The problem I see here is that people are voting for all the wrong reasons. We have a representative government here and it's obvious from polls and studies like these that people are voting for representatives that they have no clue about. I mean, how can you want someone to represent you when you think he's one thing and he's actually the other? Really? Seriously. This is scary to me. The idea that 84% of a candidate's support could be wrong about his position on an issue is unacceptable in our system of government. It's just plain unacceptable. I can't repeat that enough times to stress how unacceptable it is.
I would love to blame Bush for this failing, but I can't. He isn't hiding his positions on any of these issues (to be fair, I don't think I've heard him state an opinion on the banning of landmies, though it isn't hard to extrapolate his position there). That means that it's the people that are just plain ignorant as hell. His supporters. People who are "supporting" a guy that they know nothing about. Sheep, lemmings... baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
God Bless America.
For the record, Kerry supporters were right most of the time on Kerry's position (though only 43% were correct in believing that Kerry wanted to keep defense spending level). Also, as a hypothetical campaign manager, I would read the 84% thinking that Bush supports labor and environmental standards as a weakness to exploit since it would seem that such standards seem relatively common sensical to many Bush voters. But then, I'm not a big enough retard to run a democratic presidential candidate's campaign it seems.
As it turns out, 84% of Bush supporters thought that Bush supported labor and environmental standards included in trade agreements...an idea that, for those of us who are politically astute, is a fucking hilarious joke. According to the survey, 69% of Bush supporters think he's for the Comprehenisive Test Ban treaty (ha!), 66% believe him to be for the International Criminal Court (do you read newspapers?), and 72% think he's for the banning of landmines (which, considering our extensive use of the even more inhumane cluster bombs -- not to mention Bush's seemingly unquenchable thirst for blood and destruction -- is quite possibly the most laughable idea of all). To be fair, a majority (57%) knew he wanted to increase defense spending (but begs the question as to what planet the 43% who thought the opposite was true are from) and that Bush wanted the US to be in charge of the rebuilding of Iraq, not the UN (70%).
Reading this story reminded me of this story I read a few weeks ago where a teacher in a very republican school district had her class vote for the candidates in an anonymous-issues-related poll and that came out with a 26-4 Kerry victory. Kids (and parents) booed their own vote when it was announced because they're supposed to have wanted Bush to win.
The problem I see here is that people are voting for all the wrong reasons. We have a representative government here and it's obvious from polls and studies like these that people are voting for representatives that they have no clue about. I mean, how can you want someone to represent you when you think he's one thing and he's actually the other? Really? Seriously. This is scary to me. The idea that 84% of a candidate's support could be wrong about his position on an issue is unacceptable in our system of government. It's just plain unacceptable. I can't repeat that enough times to stress how unacceptable it is.
I would love to blame Bush for this failing, but I can't. He isn't hiding his positions on any of these issues (to be fair, I don't think I've heard him state an opinion on the banning of landmies, though it isn't hard to extrapolate his position there). That means that it's the people that are just plain ignorant as hell. His supporters. People who are "supporting" a guy that they know nothing about. Sheep, lemmings... baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
God Bless America.
For the record, Kerry supporters were right most of the time on Kerry's position (though only 43% were correct in believing that Kerry wanted to keep defense spending level). Also, as a hypothetical campaign manager, I would read the 84% thinking that Bush supports labor and environmental standards as a weakness to exploit since it would seem that such standards seem relatively common sensical to many Bush voters. But then, I'm not a big enough retard to run a democratic presidential candidate's campaign it seems.
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