David Brooks reads Balloon Juice.
Brooks nails it with this graf:
Why is he doing this? First, because in the insular Democratic world, George Bush is presumed to be guilty of everything, so the more vicious you can be about him, the better everybody feels.
But there is a deeper assumption, which has marred Democratic politics for years. Some Democrats have been unable to face the reality that people have been voting for Republicans because they agree with them. So these Democrats have invented the comforting theory that they’ve been losing because they are too virtuous for the country.
According to this theory, Republicans – or usually some omniscient, omnipotent and malevolent strategists, like Lee Atwater or Karl Rove – have been tricking the American people into voting against their true interests. This year, many Democrats decided, we’ll be vicious in return.
The truth, however, is that voters are not idiots. They are capable of independent thought. If you attack your opponent wildly, ruthlessly, they will come to their own conclusions.
Last nigth when I wrotethat post, it wasn’t because I had received a bunch of talking points from Unka Karl. Brooks is simply right- the voters, me included, are not idiots. We are capable of independent thought, and we can recognize when someone is being a sleazy asshole.
Dean Esmay
I’ve kind of noted the same thing–the simple assumption that Republicans can’t possibly win elections based on their ideas, so they must be tricking people into voting for them.
It’s just bizarre how far this mentality seems to go with some people.
S.W. Anderson
“. . . voters are not idiots. They are capable of independent thought. If you attack your opponent wildly, ruthlessly, they will come to their own conclusions.”
I’m tempted to say this revelation should have George W. Bush squirming in his seat, Karl Rove uttering a big “Uh-oh” and the rest of the Perpetual Spin Cycle operation saying aw sh–t all over the place.
But Bush doesn’t read newspapers, as we all know, and I doubt Rove and the rest are into introspection, much less sharing a discouraging word with the self-satisfied prevaricator in charge.
Uh . . . . . . well, uh . . . I know the buck stops somewhere, and with all the pressure here . . . I’m sure it’ll come to me. I, I, uh . . . just can’t tell you where the buck stops right now.