I view Bill Clinton as the natural result of "The Republican Revolution"
beginning with good old Ronnie Ray-Gun. If you want to talk about feelings
over logic look at how badly the American people let themselves get
financially screwed in the eighties. Two sources you may find interesting
are the first chapter of Haynes Johnson's SleepWalking Through History that
offers an explanation of the zeitgeist for the genesis of Ronnie's first
term. Follow this by Bartle <sp?> and Steele's America: What Went Wrong
and America: Who Pays the Taxes. I agree that elections get won or lost in
America's gut ... but I would ask you how George Bush managed to squander
his popularity from the Gulf War? During the Gulf War I remember walking
my dog around my lower-middle class <houses in the 35 to 70 k range>
neighborhood wanting to puke because every house for entire blocks had
American Flags on display. I contend that Clinton got elected in '92
because the country was waking up to how badly it was getting screwed by
the political machine ... Clinton won because he was an outsider .... In my
mind the image that brings this home the best was George Bush going to
KMart to buy white socks for XMas. He was amazed by the laser scanner ...
technology that the rest of us had become acclimated to during his first
term as vice pres. Likewise in '96 I don't think Clinton was reelected on
his merits as much as he was more palatable then Bob Dole.
I offer the above comments not as fodder for discussion, but to show that
perhaps Bill Clinton could be seen as a "logical" choice when you don't
wear ideological blinders. Frontline did an excellent overview of the
candidates in '96 ... it might still be up on their web site. Both
candidates were stinking shit covered pigs ... but that shit was from the
anuses of the other pigs that bought the candidates their primaries. <OK,
that was a bit much ... sorry>.
If you look at any of the seminal issues of our age: Defense Spending, Gun
Control, Abortion, School Vouchers, Universal Health Insurance, Drunk
Driving Alcohol Limits, .... You will find that logic is useless for
resolving the issues since your take on the issue is dependent on how you
weight the principles that compose the sides of the issue. By constantly
painting issues as Black and White the conservative republicans have first
of all sown the seeds for their own downfall ala Karl Marx. America is not
made up of entrepreneurs and captialists ... And second off they have
removed politics from the realm of "business" to the realm of
"advertising". Spin Doctoring was something that the republican's invented
in the eighties and now the democrats have caught on. I see the end result
of this being the end of the two party system .... it used to be that the
parties would co-opt third party agendas to strengthen their support ... by
painting politics as black and white issues rather than as a series of
compromises the parties are forcing people to initially not choose ... and
the when turnout in elections is small enough for a third party to make a
difference to choose that party.
Of course your mileage may vary
> The Nateman
The Man Who is Nate