[Dialogue] Bemused by Bush Supporters

[David L. Thomas]

Many years ago, I was bemused by the behavior of my son of several years old when I took him to the zoo.  In spite of my prodding, he showed no interest in the animals.  He was only fascinated by the water fountains, wanting me to lift him up so he could drink and play with the water.

I am similarly bemused by Bush supporters who care little about the diversity of Americans as shown by the Democratic convention or the social programs which would provide them opportunities.  They seem to only care about people like themselves, who they apparently think don't need any additional opportunities.  Either they don't care about compassion or somehow see Bush as compassionate in spite of his administration's reduction of many compassionate activities of our government instead of increasing them.

These Bush supporters believe their income is their own and care about even small tax cuts that they receive.  They don't appear to believe that US government debt is theirs and is increasing enormously due to large tax cuts that go to people with large incomes.  They don't care that larger debt will result in pressures to cut social security and other programs which serve them and will have to be paid for by higher taxes upon them or their descendents.

These Bush supporters believe that a vision and determination is enough, with little need for identification of obstacles and complex choices concerning strategies and tactics.  They recognize Bush administration successes, but blame failures and high costs solely on his enemies.

Above all, they credit Bush with integrity, apparently able to ignore his many lies, subterfuges and flip flops, such as when he embraces creation of the Homeland Security Department and the 9/11 report while initially opposing them.  They view Bush as conservative, even though he chosen a foreign policy markedly as odds with that of all our Democratic and Republican presidents since World War II.

They appear to believe that many policies and measures which threaten the principles expressed in our Declaration of Independence and Constitution are necessary to protect us from terrorists, when there is little evidence that these are effective.  Yet they still believe that we are threatened by judges who supposedly depart from our Constitution.

I suspect that these Bush supporters live in a smaller world like my son did and hope that they will grow up as he did.  Dave Thomas