.
: When the US dollar falls off a cliff and the monetary enconomy
: collapses from under the Bush administration, the funde
: Protestants and reactionary Catholics and denial-of-reality
: info/edu-tainment folks who voted for Bush are going to
: turn to (on?) him, expecting they can somehow keep the
: somewhat comfortable ol' lifestyle.
: Now, that will be interesting.
: -------------
"VOTE YOUR FEELINGS"
Preston became a Republican after college, she says, because she is a fiscal conservative and "it just made sense to me."
She supported the president for simple reasons: "I trust him. I admire his integrity. And I very much admire someone who does what he believes in, even if it's not popular politically."
This is, basically, what one hears over and over in the suburbs of this city. They trust the guy, know where he stands. They like his values. And by "values," they do not mean his views on gay marriage and abortion. They cite the president's stance on terrorism and Iraq, his passion for lower taxes.
***
Here, as in other Republican counties of the state, there's no getting away from one simple perception: The president seems like a normal guy, and by inference, his rival did not.
"People feel comfortable and trust this president," Willey says.
"They identify with the fact that he is more comfortable in jeans and cowboy boots than a suit. We all saw a side of him post-Sept. 11, that warmth and compassion, and trustworthiness and steadfastness."
Willey and others interviewed last weekend don't think it's important to agree with the president on every issue.
"People just realize they have faith and trust in this president to make the right decisions," Willey says.
.
It sounds like they're saying they just like him, and that means no matter what, he'll do the right thing. Faith based voting.
I remember the 2000 campaign, in which Bush insisted he wasn't one of those politicians who read polls and then changed "with the wind." In interview after interview, I'd hear his supporters say, "I like that he doesn't care about polls, he just does what he thinks is right. Over and over again.
Oh, yeah. How'd that one turn out? No problem, now we simply switch tracks to the "normal guy" meme.
It's my observation (not just about politics, but life in general) that people aren't all that comfortable with thinking. They believe they are but what they mean is, they're more comfortable with the idea that they simply have to choose a belief system from a variety of options, adopt it and live happily ever after. They don't really have to think, someone else has done it for them.
Part of that mindset is an easy acceptance of the superficial; people find it reassuring. It's really a kind of mental shorthand. You go into a building marked "School" and come out "educated"; you go into one marked "Hospital" and you come out "well," you drop into one marked "Church" and it makes you "religious," you stroll into one labled "Courthouse" and you come out with "justice."
Any tale you hear that deviates from that perception is... well, deviant. There must be something wrong with you because after all, it works for me.
And to me, that's really what this election is about: A collision of realities. If these deviations, these abnormalities never happened to me, it's because I adopted the right belief system and you picked the wrong one. So tough noogies.
If I say George Bush is a nice, normal guy and there's nothing of the fanatic to him, I must be right. Because after all, my world is still nice and normal. And if yours isn't, you must have done something wrong.
So there you go.
Thanks to suburbanguerrilla
Serving Freedom
and Liberty
