Wonky Muse

July 17, 2004

Pandering

Although age-old campaign rules dictate that the general-election candidate must emphasize moderate "swing" voters and political independents, Bush strategists are predicting that this election, more than previous ones, will be determined by the turnout of each side's partisans. Although not discounting swing voters, Bush is placing unusual emphasis so far on rallying the faithful.

...

Democrats say Bush's approach is novel. "It's a new way to run for president," said James Carville, the strategist behind Bill Clinton's 1992 victory. Whereas "usually you quietly shore up your base and aggressively court the swing voter, Bush is aggressively shoring up his base and quietly courting the swing voter."

I didn't write an entry about the gay marriage amendment not because I thought the issue of gay marriage is irrelevant but because I refuse to be distracted.

There was no way it would have passed. The proponents of the amendment knew this. Even as they were spewing rhetoric from their pulpits they knew it was a losing proposition. They were pushing the amendment for two reasons: to rev up their extreme right wing base and to divide the country along partisan lines.

The moderates and the undecided who get spooked by the world "liberal" should think again. This Administration is the most radical and extreme of its kind we've seen in years. Even though they are parading the moderates of the party--e.g. Arnold Schwarzenegger, John McCain--at this year's Republican Convention and have adopted the theme "Compassion Across America", make no mistake, George Bush is neither a compassionate nor moderate conservative, and Karl Rove's strategy is to pander to the extreme right wing members of their party.

You don't have to take my word for it. Just take a close look at the policies they have pursued; amending the constitution to ban gay marriage is only one of them.

What about the pursuit of a preemptive/preventive war in Iraq based on conjecture? What about the Patriot Act, which is a direct assault on our civil liberties? What about its fiscal irresponsibility that erased the surplus built up by the Clinton Administration and plunged us into a huge deficit? What about its tax cuts that only favor the wealthy? What about its business/industry-friendly policies that gut our environment and our pocketbooks? Do any of these sound like moderate policies to you?

The thing is, we haven't even seen the worst of it. Not if we get four more years of George Bush.

posted at 9:57 PM by Wonky Muse

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