Bush’s World of Make-believe
True or false:
Bush found weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
The majority of the world supported US intervention in Iraq.
Saddam Hussein was indirectly responsible for 9/11.
Clear evidence of the link between Hussein and 9/11 has been found.
Bush supported the creation of an International Criminal Court.
Of course there were no weapons of mass destruction. The majority of international citizens surveyed strongly opposed the invasion of Iraq. There is absolutely no evidence of a link between Saddam Hussein and 9/11. Bush fought the creation of an International Criminal Court tooth and nail. But a majority of Bush supporters answered true to all of the above. Over 70% of Bush supporters actually believe Bush found weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Over 55% believed that the final report of the 9/11 Commission confirmed this, and 60% believed that most experts agreed with this finding. Furthermore only a shade more than 30% of Bush supporters surveyed believes that the majority of the world opposed US intervention into Iraq. A bit more than 50% of Bush supporters surveyed believe that he stands in favor of the International Criminal Court.
What about this one?
The number of blacks voting for Bush in this election will increase.
The truth is, we don’t know yet whether this is true or false. But while the winner of the 2004 election isn’t known yet (as a number of people have voted already, the election has already started) according to the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, the answer is true. They note that Bush, rather than being a Reaganesque bogeyman among black folk, actually had doubled his support among blacks. Whereas in the 2000 election, Bush received a paltry 9% of the black vote —— an extremely small number even for Republicans —— some 18% of those African Americans polled express that they would vote for Bush in a match up between Bush and Senator John Kerry.
Now even though I do survey research, and have been following websites like electoral-vote.com for weeks to see how the Electoral College split will turn out, I don’t hold much faith in the types of polls we see reported on TV everyday. It’s getting harder and harder to get representative samples because with Caller ID folks are able to effectively screen calls, and people who do most of their business on cell phones aren’t even in the samples. But in these two cases I think we’ve got an interesting tale that deserves to be uncovered.
Now some people think that the data is shaky take the rising black Republican quotient. Some of my colleagues have data on their own that suggests that Bush has nowhere near 18% of the black vote locked up come next Tuesday. But while I’m not sure that Bush will get 18%. I don’t know about that, but I am damn near positive that he’ll get a lot more than 9%. I’ve talked to enough people close to me to know that black support for Bush is not a myth. It is very real. And while we need more than one election to talk about “critical shifts†in the electorate, if this ends up panning out this time around, and the next time around, I think we’ve got some interpretive work to do figuring out exactly how this happened.
The first and most obvious explanation is the influence of black churches. Now I don’t actually buy the argument that the black church is inherently political, and is the be-all and end-all of black politics. Nothing is more insulting than showing candidate after candidate appealing to black voters in the middle of the pulpit. It made me sick when it was Bill Clinton. It made me sick when it was Howard Dean. It panders to offensive stereotypes about black decision making ability and about black soul and spirituality. But yet and still, it is clear that black churches (like non-black churches) exert an influence on their worshippers that is difficult to ignore. Furthermore the numbers of conservative mega-churches are on the rise. Given this it should come as no surprise that Bush’s stances against gay marriage and a number of other cultural issues are beginning to resound with black people in large numbers. From discussions with black Bush supporters, the “down-home†way Bush carries himself also strikes a chord.
This isn’t it though.
The Democratic Party’s unwillingness to fight for more than a watered down version of Affirmative Action, the unwillingness of the DNC to stand up for black voters in Florida, and the inability of the Congressional Black Caucus to take the DNC to task is irksome to black people as well. Baltimore is flirting with a 75% drop-out rate, and the best that the Democratic Party can do is say that vouchers aren’t the way?
You’ve got to be kidding me. Looking at it from my vantage point. I think there are a few things going on.
But I think there is another dynamic that looms large. Here is where the first poll comes in. The results of that poll indicate that a growing number of American citizens are literally living in a reality based on a vapid combination of lies, deceit, and deception. Of course there were weapons of mass destruction. We keep finding more all the time! The whole world supports us. Haven’t you been paying attention? The only group that doesn’t support us is the French…and you know how those French are. Bush is all for the International Criminal Court…he just has to work those details out. Now the people I’ve talked to who support Bush are basing their support on him on policy preferences that they’ve researched. To that degree, while I disagree strongly with their decision, I can understand it. You know that Bush does not want to raise the minimum wage and you agree with that? Do your thing. You’ll be on the wrong side of history…but do your thing anyway. Vote for him with a clear mind, and a clear conscience.
But I suspect that just as we live in America we cannot fully evade what it means to be American. And unfortunately part of what being American means is to be ignorant of world affairs. It means not being able to point out the state of New York on a map. It means not knowing the difference between Rosa Parks and Harriet Tubman. It means, in this case, not knowing that the only weapons of mass destruction currently in Iraq are those either brought in by the US or those stolen under the US’s nose by insurgents. So while I don’t think my friends are supporting Bush out of ignorance, I fear a number of black people (along with many other Americans) are.
Black Republicans often get a bad rap because of the argument that they have somehow sold out. Though we have to be clear, sell-outs are real, I don’t agree with this position. A lot of good brothers and sisters are Republicans. I believe that an increased black GOP presence is a good thing for black people and for Americans as a whole. But if voting for Bush in this case means shirking objective reality in favor of a world of make-believe, then I say that is something we can all do without. Perhaps Bush supporters have the luxury to be anti-intellectual, and to base their support on a series of lies. We don’t have that luxury.
