[lbo-talk] New CBS Poll: Bad News For Kerry

[Dennis Perrin]

> Kerry is loosing because US is one of the most reactionary countries in
> the developed world, and people tend to like conservative leaders with
> evangelical style, like Bush.  They are afraid of terrorism and think
> that tough-talking Bush will protects them, just like tough looking SUV
> will "protect" them from car crash injuries or death.  They are
> anti-intellectual and philistine - they like down to earth vernacular
> talking guys - and Bush is quite good at this role.  They do not like
> people who are thoughtful and cultured like Kerry because they associate
> that with being indecisive and effeminate.


> Wojtek

At the risk of seeming simplistic, I tend to agree w/Woj. I see this
everyday -- a pocket of liberalism in Ann Arbor surrounded by deer huntin',
truck drivin', rifle totin', white nativists who plaster their yards & rigs
with the biggest "patriotic" displays they can afford, and who cling to the
likes of Bush 'cause he speaks right to them, their fears and their
fantasies of who they imagine themselves to be. ('Course, there's the
GOP-hating ultra-right with their US Out Of The UN bumperstickers, etc, but
that's another crowd entirely.) I still think that Bush will win, perhaps
narrowly, simply because he and Cheney play directly to the basest fears of
average Americans, lie shamelessly, and strike heroic poses with 847 Old
Glories whipping in the breeze behind them. Kerry can't compete on this
front.

DP