Secret Op
Just caught Michael Moore on TV blathering about how evil everyone but Democrats are. I really wonder if he’s a mole placed by the GOP to get people to think Democrats are all moonbats. His speech was about one part righteous criticism of the press and the establishment and three parts moonbat, coo coo for CoCo puffs. His rantings are good at riling the party faithful but those middle of the road folks (you know, the one’s whose votes people need to get elected?) will likely be unimpressed.
Update: Oh yeah, he said that polls prove that most Americans are liberal (he used the codespeak term progressive), favoring gun control (no code speak here), women’s rights (code speak for abortion), and pro-labor (codespeak for liking unions). I’d like to see some of these polls. If people really are these things, why the codespeak?
Oh, and he said Republicans get up at six in the morning and decide which minority they’re going to screw that day. That goes over well with moderates.
July 28th, 2004 at 2:35 pm
Abortion is more of a toss-up, but otherwise, he’s right:
Labor
Guns
As for codespeak, “pro-labor” is virtually synonymous with “pro-union” so I fail to see how this is veiled, and “women’s rights” is a pretty standard term for a woman’s right to choose, since very few would be “pro-abortion” in the literal sense.
July 28th, 2004 at 3:26 pm
It’s something I’ve been meaning to do some research on. I think he’s mostly right about what the polls indicate. Most Americans self-identify as “conservaitves,” but this is largely because of the recent vilification of the term “liberal.” When questioned on specific issues, I think most Americans actually do more closely resemble “liberals,” at least on social policy, than “conservatives.”
On the issue of abortion, he’s got a point. Most polls indicate that better than 3/4 of Americans think abortion should be legal in at least some cases, and that more than half believe abortion should be legal in “most cases.” He seems to have a similar point on gun control. And I’m at my link limit now. 🙂
July 28th, 2004 at 4:23 pm
To pick a nit, those polls all (except the union one) have margins of error that do not denote a true majority.
And, as was Moore’s point, if people are progressive, why are the races so close?
Mind you, i’m pro union, think abortion should be legal, but think there should be fewer gun laws.
July 28th, 2004 at 6:04 pm
The gun poll question “Would you like to see gun laws in this country made more strict, less strict, or remain as they are?” is worthless, as it presupposes that each respondent knows what the gun laws are. So what if the average person thinks we need stricter gun laws than the average person thinks we have?
July 28th, 2004 at 10:31 pm
I once read about someone who said that his boss was generally liberal (i.e. pro women’s rights, environoment, etc.), but always voted Republican because of national defense. Personally, I think that spreading fear is a decent chunk of Republican support.
Case in point, when Kerry was nominated, a lot of conservatives said that they were afraid of Kerry winning the Presidency because he would be ineffective in the war on terror based on IMHO quite little. He said that he would treat terror as a law enforcement issue, which Bush is doing too and he would work to mend relations with our allies. Let’s face it, we can disagree with our allies and not turn it into the production that Bush did.
July 29th, 2004 at 9:24 am
The gun poll question “Would you like to see gun laws in this country made more strict, less strict, or remain as they are?” is worthless, as it presupposes that each respondent knows what the gun laws are.
Exactly. Of course, if the average citizen gets his knowledge of guns and gun laws from, say, newspapers like the St. Petersburg Times, I guess it shouldn’t shock us.