Blogs-for-Bush/Conservative Stereotypes
To keep everyone in the know today I signed up to join the Blogs For Bush blogroll. It was a fairly overdue action. Sort of a "might as well get credit for what one does" move. Anyway, their weblink is http://www.blogsforbush.com, so feel free to check it out. Hopefully it will throw a reader or two my way( raising my readership to one or two.)
I was watching Dennis Miller's HBO comedy special the other night. I think it was called Raw Feed or something like that. Am I the only one struck by the total political turn around this guy has made? I remember watching old saturday night live reruns, and he would just tear into Presidents Reagan and Bush (senior). From what I've seen it is a post- 9/11 reaction. Still seeing the change reminded me of the old Winston Churchill quote, "If you're not a liberal at 20, you don't have a heart. If you're not a conservative by 40, you don't have a brain."
After that thought came to me, I was curious as to when exactly conservatism surrendered the intellectual high-ground, or rather the appearance of intellectualism. I don't think that anyone will disagree with me when i say that the current liberal stereotype of conservatives are those who are either heartless or moronic. I think that it explains the personal animosity that a lot of liberals have for the Bush/Cheney ticket. They think that George W. Bush is a fool, and that Cheney is a vicious power-monger. Alec Baldwin called him a "madman" in his interview with O'Reilly. But perhaps Bill Clinton fit many of our stereotypes about liberals, or at least we percieved him to fit them. I donno about you, but my stereotype would be of a idealistic hypocritical moral relativist.
This election is going to come down to a contest of personalities. The fact is that the majority of people are already decided on the issues of terrorism, Iraq, tax cuts and the economy. The presidency is going to go to whichever ticket can divorce itself of its stereotype. Bush/Cheney have to make an effort (even more so than their last election) to appear idealistic and compassionate. Kerry/Edwards have to do everything in their power to appear trustworthy with strong moral centers. I don't think either side is doing a particularly good job with this right now. Kerry's credibility is under constant fire, and I dont' expect the Republicans to let up any time soon. Bush however has four years of preconceptions (false preconceptions in my view, but the electorate will decide ultimately) heavily entrenched in the minds of many of the voters.
I was watching Dennis Miller's HBO comedy special the other night. I think it was called Raw Feed or something like that. Am I the only one struck by the total political turn around this guy has made? I remember watching old saturday night live reruns, and he would just tear into Presidents Reagan and Bush (senior). From what I've seen it is a post- 9/11 reaction. Still seeing the change reminded me of the old Winston Churchill quote, "If you're not a liberal at 20, you don't have a heart. If you're not a conservative by 40, you don't have a brain."
After that thought came to me, I was curious as to when exactly conservatism surrendered the intellectual high-ground, or rather the appearance of intellectualism. I don't think that anyone will disagree with me when i say that the current liberal stereotype of conservatives are those who are either heartless or moronic. I think that it explains the personal animosity that a lot of liberals have for the Bush/Cheney ticket. They think that George W. Bush is a fool, and that Cheney is a vicious power-monger. Alec Baldwin called him a "madman" in his interview with O'Reilly. But perhaps Bill Clinton fit many of our stereotypes about liberals, or at least we percieved him to fit them. I donno about you, but my stereotype would be of a idealistic hypocritical moral relativist.
This election is going to come down to a contest of personalities. The fact is that the majority of people are already decided on the issues of terrorism, Iraq, tax cuts and the economy. The presidency is going to go to whichever ticket can divorce itself of its stereotype. Bush/Cheney have to make an effort (even more so than their last election) to appear idealistic and compassionate. Kerry/Edwards have to do everything in their power to appear trustworthy with strong moral centers. I don't think either side is doing a particularly good job with this right now. Kerry's credibility is under constant fire, and I dont' expect the Republicans to let up any time soon. Bush however has four years of preconceptions (false preconceptions in my view, but the electorate will decide ultimately) heavily entrenched in the minds of many of the voters.
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