Who voted for Bush this election? Inquiring minds want to know, and different opinions prevail. In an early piece after the election, Jane Smiley wrote that it was the "unteachable ignorance of the red states." Others said the same-sex marriage issue brought out the vote, and once it was out, it went to Bush. My cybercrush Laura Kipnis doesn't pull any punches:
What it [corporate America] requires is a passive work force narrowly trained to perform specific occupations for decreasing wages, who will then overconsume lavishly in their leisure hours. It all works out rather well: Job dissatisfaction is placated by an endless succession of consumer crap (creating new jobs—though probably overseas—making more crap); intellectual boredom is assuaged by a steady diet of media crap (thanks to media deregulation); and any remaining critical stirrings are mollified by supersize portions of tasteless crappy food (thanks to an unregulated food industry). The result: a stupefied, overstuffed citizenry glued to pricey entertainment centers, whose national hobby is ridiculing Europeans for wanting shorter work weeks, resisting American imports, and denouncing the disastrous American policy in Iraq.
I have to admit, Laura connects the dots rather well, though I'm not sure "corporate America" is quite as monolithic or conspiratorial as she might assume. (I'll probably write more on this later.)
These explanations are all based on the premise that close to 60 million Americans succumbed to gross misjudgment, going against their collective and individual self-interest. To understand why Bush won, we have to understand what went wrong among so many people.
As far as I can tell, there are several segments that make up the 59.742,442. Among these are:
- Intellectual conservatives, such as the Buckleys, Kristols, and Scalias of the world. This is undoubtedly a very small number, and they were probably somewhat ambivalent about their vote.
- Single-issue voters on:
- Tax relief. Driven purely by self-interest, these people will always vote for the Republican who promises to give them tax cuts. Not a large number, but a powerful group.
- Abortion. These are people hoping for Roe v. Wade to be overturned, allowing states to ban abortion
- Gun control. Happy to again use assault weapons for squirrel hunting.
- Israel. Encouraged by Bush's laissez-faire handling of Sharon and principled rhetoric against terrorism, they viewed Bush as the only choice.
- Religious conservatives. These include a large percentage of born-again Christians, Mormons, and Orthodox Jews. These may share the views of many single-issue voters but have other views as well.
- Libertarians leaning that way. Probably the most ambivalent of all the groups and as small as the intellectual conservatives.
- Moderates who want continuity for the war effort. Probably the largest single group, and the one all my friends who voted for Bush belonged to. (OK, maybe a few single-issue tax people, too).
Because each of these groups have different reasons for their vote, they did not confer on Bush any single, unified mandate. He risks losing any one of them if he runs too far with his own convictions. Then again, it's not as if he can run for president again.
Kerry wouldn't have had one if he had won, either. He also would have had to contend with libertarians leaning his way, religious people who are more liberal than conservative, near-Socialists, and a whole bunch of argumentative moderates.
In the end, there probably is a sizeable (and most likely decisive) percentage of voters that voted for Bush for all the wrong reasons. Then again, they'd vote for Kerry for the wrong reasons, too, because that just may be their disposition.
But the issue ought to be why the Democrats failed to convince voters who at least want to be reasonable that Kerry was a better choice.
I agree wit hwhat I have read so far. Isn't there a book of some sort called the Dumbing Down of America? If there isn't there should be. I will read the rest right now.
Posted by: dr pants | November 11, 2004 at 06:42 PM