…comes out of the closet – with great photos of the blogger. Scroll up. Scroll down for a pithy recap of the issues of the current campaign.
PJ Media appreciates your comments that abide by the following guidelines:
1. Avoid profanities or foul language unless it is contained in a necessary quote or is relevant to the comment.
2. Stay on topic.
3. Disagree, but avoid ad hominem attacks.
4. Threats are treated seriously and reported to law enforcement.
5. Spam and advertising are not permitted in the comments area.
These guidelines are very general and cannot cover every possible situation. Please don't assume that PJ Media management agrees with or otherwise endorses any particular comment. We reserve the right to filter or delete comments or to deny posting privileges entirely at our discretion. Please note that comments are reviewed by the editorial staff and may not be posted immediately. If you feel your comment was filtered inappropriately, please email us at story@pjmedia.com.
Roger,
Have you seen this surprising strong Kerry critique/Bush endorsement by Martin Peretz, the editor in chief of The New Republic?http://www.jewishworldreview.com/1004/peretz_2004_10_18.php3 It’s quite amazing.
Roger:
Yet another closet conservative.
Liberals or Democrats [in any event] need to ask themselves why it is that people who don’t happen to share the politics of John Kerry feel compelled to hide their true feelings.
Could it be that a lot of Bush haters are narrow minded and obnoxious?
“Could it be that a lot of Bush haters are narrow minded and obnoxious?”
Yes, in my experience, many (though not all) of them are. What I don’t understand is why this would affect poll results. I understand why somebody might be afraid to display a Bush/Cheny bumper sticker or argue in public, but I don’t understand why this applies to a presumably private response to a poll.
Silicon valley Jim has a point. Another conceivable way for closet Bush-supporters to be underpolled is that itís not just fear but guilt that keeps them from telling the pollster how theyíll vote.
That fellow John who has ìcome out of the closetî on his blog looks like such a total pure Democrat to me. Heíll probably end up shocking his friends out of their wits & beyond anything which he expected.
A Bush Democrat answers his phone. Pollster asks if he’s a registered voter.”Yes.”Pollster asks if he’s a Republican or Democrat.”I’m a Democrat.”Pollster asks if he intends to vote for Kerry or Bush.Man looks around his livingroom. His wife, kids, several neighbors and the pollster hear him say “Kerry”. Man says to himself “I don’t need the aggravation. Thank god for the secret ballot.”
Let me first admit that I’m intolerant, insensitive, boorish, vulgar–you know, a regular guy.
I’m a little mystified by all the closet liberals and conservatives. I certainly understand that discretion can be the better part of valor, but crikey.
All of my friends know exactly where I stand politically, and I, them. We rarely talk politics because it leads to harsh words and bad feelings. They know not to even hint that Bush is Hitler around me, and I return the favor, and I’ll put any damn sign I please in my front yard, thank you very much.
I think we can afford to drop the PC kid gloves and call an idiot and idiot. Let’s recall the immortal words of our beloved VP. The next time a leftie moron get’s in your face, give him or her the old Dick Cheney: “Go eff yourself!”
And while I’m at it, Hillary you can take the politics of personal destruction and shove it up her copious….now that’s a little overboard, but you get my drift.
Old Dad -
I entirely agree! I find these “ideology that dare not speak its name” pieces from allegedly oppressed conservatives rather ridiculous. What do they think is going to happen to them? Calvary?
I always think of the always interesting Stanley Crouch, who lives in the middle of New York’s lefty scene and not only doesn’t knuckle under – he lays the WWF smackdown good and proper.
I lived in gay liberal Chelsea, New York, for the longest time, and never hid my ideas. Why should I? If the truth is on your side, then there’s no reason not to be honest about it. And if the truth isn’t on your side, then change sides.
And if you think someone’s damn fool, call them a damn fool and take the consequences.
One man with courage makes a majority!
/rant
Tact has never been my strong suit and so I have not been all that careful about what I say. But this is Indiana and people don’t talk religion or politcs in polite company.
In truth the only people that have really given me a hard time a few really old friends and family. In other words, the people you would least expect it from.
Roger:
I understand the frustration voiced by many on this thread regarding the reluctance of many to voice their pro-Bush leanings but their are some industries, entertainment,the MSM, and the teaching profession for example, where being honest could ruin ones job prospects. I think they would feel better if they just spoke their minds and damn the consequences but I understand their reluctance.
Terrye, its old friends and family that most concern those in the political closet such as myself. I’m sure it’s better to be “out” but this doesn’t seem like such a good time to get out there, given the climate. It would be seen as a betrayal.
Terrye-
But this is Indiana and people don’t talk religion or politcs in polite company.
That is a great truth about village and small town life in the American Midwest. Except in a barbershop or veterans hall, people avoid talking about politics (unless it’s some local matter, say, like a school board scandal, etc.) because it usually escalates to hard feelings. And hard feelings in a small town is a bad thing because people never, ever, forget.
Peter:
When we were small choldren visiting my Grandparent’s farm in rural Oklahoma my little brother used to crawl into bed with me and hide his head under the covers as he listened to the coyotes howl. He would say “Don’t let the wolves get me sissy.”
If he can’t let me vote for who I want to now without treating it as a betrayal then I guess we did not have the kind of relationship I thought we had for all these years.
This reminds me of my divorce. Friends I thought were friends were nowhere to be found. It seemed as if they thought dissolution of marriage was an infectious disease. I recognized it as fear. In a way what we see and hear today is fear as well, but I expect the people I love to respect my decisions. They don’t have to like them.
Every single black person I have spoken to- without fail- is voting for Kerry. And they don’t talk about voting for Kerry so much as they are eagerly looking forward to casting their ballots against Bush. I see real passion there. Now I’m sure that there are some Clarence Thomases and Allan Keyes’ types out there who will vote for Bush (maybe even Colin Powell, although I wouldn’t bet on it). But as for regular black people (at every economic level)? Not a single one. Bush won’t get more than 7% in this election, if that much.
So what is it about this election that an entire group of people has no trouble seeing through Bush while others- college graduates among them- have worked so hard to delude themselves that his administration’s obvious failures are somehow translated into victory and some of the more spectacular Bush mishaps have just fallen off the radar screen?
I would love to see a psychological profile of typical college educated Bush voters who, before the 2004 election cycle, formerly thought that the following were negative factors in evaluating a candidate:
failure to capture an international criminal (Osama)who killed over 3,000 Americans in a sneak attack;
taking a surplus bequeathed to him by his predecessor and running up historical deficits ($400 billion at last count);
net loss of jobs (over a million in the private sector);
vastly increasing the size and expense of government (the Dept. of Homeland Security is only the beginning);
making the world less safe (terrorist attacks up);
attempting to build up a foreign country with tens of billions in FOREIGN AID (the old right wing bugaboo);
dissipating the morale and efficiency of the military (see the General Sanchez quote from his December 2003 memo at CNN http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/10/18/prez.iraq/index.html
What is the gymnastic trick intelligent Bush voters (an oxymoron? close, but not quite) are performing in their brains that allows them to do 180 degree turns in their previously most cherished beliefs? Inchoate fear of undefined terrorist attack? I know one older white female who used to be a pot smoking hippy type who was ready to leave for Canada when Reagan was elected- and she’s so freaked by fear of an attack that she’s got Bush-Cheney signs! Of course, maybe it’s all the brain cells she killed in the old days catching up with her, much like Bush, who, amazingly enough, was semi-articulate in old video clips from the Frontline PBS special and the 9-11 movie before all the brain cells killed by alcohol et al. nailed his communication capabilities.
Perfect synchronization: the Sox win in the 134th inning and the Daily Show comes on!
John Clayton -
What is the gymnastic trick intelligent Bush voters (an oxymoron? close, but not quite) are performing in their brains that allows them to do 180 degree turns in their previously most cherished beliefs? Inchoate fear of undefined terrorist attack?
Wars and recessions are expensive, and wars generate bureaucracies. LBJ understood this when he declared his War on Poverty. He also had a war going on in Vietnam, too. Pretty soon you couldn’t throw a rock without a bureaucrat jumpin’ out of the weeds with a knot on his noggin. We still have poverty, and we’ve got more government people, too. And John Kerry still reminds us that he served in Vietnam (and probably in Cambodia, but not during Christmas).
Three thousand people died on September 11, 2001. The men who killed them and the men who sent them declared war on us, Mr. Clayton. On you, too. They hate everything you stand for. They hate socialism, women’s rights, birth control, earth-worship, pornography, the United Nations, Catholics, Protestants, Jews, gays, baby-back ribs, Egg McMuffins, and, oh Lordy, how they hate atheists and Communists.
They hate constitutions, representitive government, liquor, pot, LSD, strip clubs, and bikini-clad supermodels.
Mr. Clayton, about anything we like, those Islamist nutcakes are agin’ ‘em. You’d think that every Lefty and progressive in the USA would be on the street demanding the demolition of every madrassah between Casablanca and Islamabad, but that doesn’t appear to be the case, does it?
I know one older white female who used to be a pot smoking hippy type who was ready to leave for Canada when Reagan was elected- and she’s so freaked by fear of an attack that she’s got Bush-Cheney signs!
Imagine how freaked those people on the upper twenty floors of the Twin Towers felt when they couldn’t find an open stairwell exit.
How freaky was it for the passengers on American Airlines Flight 63 as they watched Richard Reid repeatedly attempt to ignite the fuse portruding from his Semtex-ladened shoe?
Richard Reid was willing to die for his beliefs. One of them being that by killing X number of infidels, the Dar al-Islam will prevail.
George W. Bush ordered and accomplished the liberation of two Muslim countries that were under the thumb of tyrants. Fifty million people now have the opportunity to live in freedom. Meanwhile, 75% of al Qaeda’s command structure has been eliminated. We, the people of the United States of American, can destroy Saddam’s regime and the Taliban at the same time – without a ‘global test’.
Gray-haired former hippie chicks know a thing or two about life and livin, Mr. Clayton. Talk to her; you might learn something.
John:
I will tell you why I changed: people like you.
In the nineties the Democrats said Saddam had wmd and that he was going to use them and made regime change in Iraq our national policy. Now they say Bush came out of Texas and made all that up and they had nothing to do with it. They show no sense of responsiblity and they revise history to suit themselves.
In the nineties the Democrats made Arafat a frequent guest in the White House and pandered to him while they got more concessions from the Israelis than any administration in history. Now they say that there would be peace in the ME if not for Bush. Their shameless pandering emboldened terrorists and did nothing to bring peace to the region. The Democrats show no sense of responsiblity for their failures.
In the nineties The Democrats ignored the growing corruption among the corporate elites who were their supporters often as not. Now they act as if Bush is personally responsible for Enron and the dot com crash that helped lead to huge revenue shortfalls in both federal and state tax revenues. Once again the Democrats show no responsibility.
In the nineties the Democrats did nothing to deal with the Iranian mullahs or the North Koreans. Now they act as if any problems in this area are soley Bush’s fault and they will fix things. No responmibility.
In the nineties the Democrats continued to demagogue issues like Social security and keep their hold on the elderly through fear. At no time did the Dems offer any suggestions as to how we would deal with the future and Social security. No responsibility, not for the older people of today or those who will need these benefits in the future. Just rank oppurtunism.
In the nineties the Democrats allowed our intelligence agencies to fall apart, relying on outdated methods and means and fewer resources. And now they act as if the problems Bush had were strictly his own. The truth is the intelligence community was suffering when Bush was still the Governor of Texas and Clinton and the rest of them showed no responsibility.
In the nineties the Democrats continued to use race to hold and keep power among minorities by telling them that the state was their only salvation and offering them no hope for the future outside of expanding government programs. The Democrats did not allow any minority people to have real positions of power while at the same time black institutions like the NAACP became more partisan and less responsive to the problems of the black community. The ad the NAACP ran in the 2000 election equating Bush with a hate crime was so disgusting it caused me to cut all ties with them. Calling people like Condi Rice and Colin Powell oreos is shameful. The black people you know maybe partisan but more and more black people are interested in things like school vouchers and faith based intitiatives. So the demagoguery of the black community may not continue forever.
John, it is insulting to minorities for you to keep telling us that you don’t know any black people voting for Bush. It sounds like something Al Sharpton would say.
I don’t know any military people voting for Kerry. And they have to serve under him. How many of them will opt to leave the military if he is elected? Does the same mindset hold for the military as does for the minority vote?
For years I have been listening to Democrats treat Repbulicans like they are the bad guys. Well this crap should end at the waters edge and I am voting for Bush because there is not room enough for me and Michael Moore in the same party. So the hatemongering may work with the minorities, and the scare tactics may work with the old people and the self righteous do goodery may work with impressionable people who have not been around politics as long as I have but you can’t fool me with that crap John. I am onto you.