A Gallup poll released on Friday gives George Bush a 45 percent approval rating, the lowest rating for any president at this point in a second term. The second lowest was Ronald Reagan, in March 1985, with 56 percent. Of course there’s a very simple explanation for these lousy numbers: George Bush didn’t win the election. On a good day, when Karl Rove is doing some very heavy lifting and really sweating, Bush hits 48 percent, pre- and post-election. But obviously Bush won the right 48 percent: white, Christian, living in a red state. John Kerry’s quick and easy concession of the election admitted as much. It was tantamount to shoveling truckloads of minority votes into a roaring furnace. When Kerry bowed out quietly, it became not only possible but virtually mandatory for the media to lock down the voter fraud story and certify Bush’s second election as a clean win. Given the order to stand down -- from the Democrat -- the media has drifted into a strange state of mind where the actual, irrefutable theft of the first election becomes convincing evidence that it couldn’t possibly have happened a second time. Tortured analysis refuting the exit polls -- which showed Bush losing in Ohio, New Mexico, and Iowa -- became a cottage industry. Again and again, as this increasingly radical Republican Party has crossed the line, the Democratic Party has accepted it as normal political hardball. Bill Clinton calmly presided over his own impeachment and the theft of the 2000 election with unflagging optimism. John Kerry followed his example in 2004. As a result, we have gone from a government that “rewards the person who works hard and plays by the rules” to a government that is imposing the will of a tiny, ferociously committed minority -- be it the top one percent economically, the 20 to 30 percent of zealous evangelicals religiously, or the CEOs of a handful of multinational corporations -- on the vast majority of the people. Democratic compliance has been and remains invaluable to the Republican project. It is now obvious that the goal for Bush’s second term is to continue to distract and splinter opposition to prevent mass resistance while simultaneously installing the legal mechanisms of a police state to be used when and if needed. [more]
- Pictured above: Top Republican leader, Congressman Tom Delay last week at a National Rifle Asscociation fundraising event