rock bottom

[piranha]

so i've been wondering just what is wrong with the 33% (or however many it is in the latest polls) who still support bush. how could he possibly convince people who're not convinced by now that he is incompetent to run this country? how low would he have to sink? i mean, i don't expect him to suck the blood from christian babies on national television, so it's gotta be something realistic. and it's not like bush is the only case where even at their lowest, the person still had considerable support (i count 20% as considerable). some of the comments in james' LJ are also interesting, regarding people getting elected about whom the voters know almost nothing.

turns out i am of course not the only person pondering that. others have done so.

i don't really agree with some of the conclusions. batshit crazy? i don't think so. really stupid, now, that i could believe. i mean, not just ignorant, but stupid, not possessed of sufficient critical thinking skills to actually know what they're voting for. which is a more hopeful thing to believe, since lots of stupid people could still be taught, if one cared to do so (which the public education system in the US isn't up for).

Comments

[necturus.livejournal.com]

so i've been wondering just what is wrong with the 33% (or however many it is in the latest polls) who still support bush.

IMHO, they have been convinced beyond all reason of the rightness of Bush's cause. They are fanatics.

Long after it became clear to anyone with a brain in Germany and Japan that those nations were going to lose World War II, their peoples continued to rally behind their leaders almost to a man. While the Japanese army sacked Tojo in 1944 and the German army tried to assassinate Hitler, the rank and file never wavered. Unlike in 1918, there was no revolution, no mutiny, no mass desertions. The Germans fought to the bitter end, and the Japanese only surrendered on the orders of the emperor in whose name they fought.

I don't know what makes people behave like that, if not sheer stupidity. It is much akin, I think, to the stupidity that seems to hold sway over so much of the Muslim world.

[wcg.livejournal.com]

Some of them are hard right wingers who support him because they can't vote for George Wallace. Some are religious fundamentalists who support him because he's all they've got. They know that there's no chance at all of anyone coming along who's any closer to their beliefs. They don't really agree with him on a lot of details, but he's their guy and they're standing by him.

Others who are standing by him are people who voted for him and think that they must stand by their president in time of war. Privately they may have doubts, but they figure that they're going to dance with the one what brung 'em.

Others are people who've become very politicized. If you gave them a choice between GWB and his father right now, they'd probably take his father. But they're absolutely convinced that the president must be a Republican or America will go to hell in a New York minute. These are the folks who'll say "But what other choice is there? Kerry? Clinton?" with a disgusted laugh.

[snippy]

How hard would it be to find out for real, instead of just speculating? There's all this money available for polls...would it be that hard to design one to survey people who are still supporting Bush and find out their reasons?