Friday, April 07, 2006

New Lows

As the Bush administration and Republicans on the Hill continue to show us that they haven’t sunk as low as is possible when it comes to political retribution, regressive tax policy and infringements on the constitutional rights of citizens, their poll numbers show no signs that they’ve quite hit their low point yet either.

An AP-Ipsos poll out today shows Bush’s job approval rating at 36%.  The AP article announcing these numbers also gives the comparison of 47% approval rating for the President just before the 2004 election, and that still burns me up.  How is it possible for the AP to continue to gloss over that glaring inconsistency?  There has never been a President reelected whose job approval numbers were below 50%, yet we are still supposed to believe that George W. Bush, a guy who was only given the benefit of the doubt that he could handle the job of President in the first place because people thought he was likable, was able to win the Presidency a second time after a majority of voters realized he was in over his head?  What, are we stupid?  Call me a sore loser, but I’ll never buy that load of crap no matter how many times they shovel it out.

My big fear with these poll numbers is that Democrats will start to believe them.  It’s one thing to recognize that the Republicans are self-destructing, but it’s quite another not to take full advantage of the situation.  The failed leadership and failed policy of Republican rule will continue to facilitate their fall, but in order to put them down, if not permanently at least for a very long time, Democrats must return to their roots and provide a vision of this country that appeals to working people who are feeling the pain and want a way out.  Most of the country now agrees that Democrats are better, so stop gloating and show us the money!

If Democrats can do what Bush promised to do, unite the country with a common vision of how to stop the slide and start bringing us back up to where we want to be, a leader in education, innovation, production and world stability, the country will be eternally grateful.  Our swing to the right is over, but we’d rather swing back facing the other direction, instead of freefalling with our backs to the future.  Democrats must open their eyes and see that all eyes are on them, failing now is not an option.

4 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Digby has a particularly pointed post today castigating the professional media for acting offended whenever the lowly bloggers call them on their abject failure over the last decade and a half, including this highlight:

"For my part, I waited for more than a decade for the press to report what I could see with my own eyes: a powerful political party had morphed into a criminal enterprise that was bent on permanently altering our fundamental system of government. This is not hyperbole. The Republicans wrote about their dreams of empire and executive infallibility. They advertised their plan to dominate Washington. The information was available to those who had the time and patience to wade through the cacophony of media static to find it. But the media itself behaved like a flock of birds, startling to every rightwing noise and flying off together into whatever direction the Republicans wanted them to go."

I feel the exact same way, with one addition: nearly every place in Digby's post you can replace the words "media" or "the press" with "Democratic Party", and "journalist" with "national-level Democratic politician", and the sentence would remain exactly as true as before. Try it with the quote above -- see what I mean?

If anything I blame the Democrats and the establishment press for our current mess even more than I blame the Rethuglicans. The Rethugs are only doing what is in their nature; the Dems and the supposedly responsible press are the ones who saw the warning signs and ignored them, who could've prevented it and didn't.

So why, again, should I believe that "our swing to the right is over"?

4:14 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

G-Crackr~

Good points, all. I like adding 'Rethugs' to 'Repugs' and, of course my favorite, 'Wingnutistanians'!

5:05 PM  
Blogger The (liberal)Girl Next Door said...

geocrackr--I think the swing to the right is over for the people, we've had enough, even those who tend to the right, but you're right, whether or not the Democrats actually follow our lead and stop the onslaught of right-wing legislation and policy initiatives is yet to be seen. I agree with Digby as well, they haven't done right by us so far, why should we believe that they will now? But I have to hope that there is still some chance, however slight.

Dale--That's my favorite too.

5:28 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I have been extremely busy helping people with the quicksand pain of credit card debt. In particular I recently served this woman who is almost 80 and she has a story that is truly tragic. I negotiated with a number of her creditors to accept $.50 cents on the dollar as settlement and it went smoothly enough. But, Bank of America was a pain in the butt in that they had bought her Target account and the collection agency was ruthless. I finally wrote a scathing letter to the CEO, President of BofA and used his own quote which I found on their website to remind him of his "commitment to serving" . . yadda, yadda.

A representative at the Bank of America called me to negotiate the settlement for this poor woman and he informed me, after I said that for them to get $.50 cents on a dollar that is worth only about $.04 cents is an adequate amount, that "any material about our US economy communicated to the Bank is immediately turned over to the Pentagon as an act of terrorism."

I asked the representative if this would include information from our own Congressman Ron Paul, the only political in government who understands economics. The Bank of America representative said "Yes, all material sent to the Bank about our United States Dollar and our economy is considered 'internet terrorism,' from terrorists and sent directly to the Government, the Pentagon."

It prompted me to call Congressman Paul's office to speak with him about it. Penny told me what I needed to know and here is why we cannot seem to get anywhere with respect to OUR US Government ~

CFR ~ The Council of Foreign Relations. It is the Neo-Con think tank and they run the US along with the UN, WTO, IMF, WB and the Global Elite (multi-nationals, international banks, mega-conglomerate corporations, etc.).

Do not vote for anyone involved in the CFR and we can take our country back but until this Neo-Con power broker is dismantled, we are in serious trouble.

Note that although governments may change, Republican, Democrat, conservative, liberal, the government affiliations in the CFR remain THE SAME and practically every Super Rich American is involved with the CFR and this includes almost all the media, thus, no real news!

A nuclear attack on Iran appears to be imminet, therefore, plan for what it means to be involved in a nuclear holocaust because Iran is not Iraq and they are ready for US.

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, however, forewarned is forearmed.

The "One World Government" has been an ongoing plan for almost 100 years now. They are not going to just give up their life goal because the "lesser people" do not want to be food or fodder.

The Neo-Con Agenda includes specific plans for population control.

Russia, China, Central and South America have no intention to roll over and play dead for the select few Global Elite to dominate the planet.

My best to you Mollie, et al. and I shall return.

11:05 AM  

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