big bad wolf wrote;
"This Mencken quote allows me to segue into the point that GWB wasn't just elected but re-elected -- and he won the re-election fair and square. The fact that about half the voters (i.e. those who bothered voting in this best of all possible democracies) voted for this clod reveals much about the USA. Writers and scholars have theorised as to why so much of the electorate voted this way -- "
It is a fact that the average attention span for the broad demographic american TV program audience is 17seconds. I think that tells one alot about how easy it was to pull the hood over the eyes of the greater North American public.. Also the biggest disadvantage we have of having lived in a democracy for as far as we can remember is that we can not quite believe that our leaders would lterally "screw us". The Argentines and similar peoples are much more distrusting of its leaders because thay have seen at close hand exactly how greed, power and ambition affects their daily lives and how its a case of"each for his own". You want to know why Argentines dont invite you in their homes? because we forget that the majority of our Argentine friends grew up in a dictatorship. Curfews, night raids, executions. We in the US and the UK have never seen that kind of thing since the inquisition.
Who remembers playing cowboys and indians, when we grew up, or "gerries and Brits" in my case? We were always the "goodies" and the enemy was the "baddie". The germans were all S.S and the japs were torture experts, my brother's taught me to be a dab hand at giving "chinese burns". Sadly we have lots of baddies in our midst and it just takes a while longer for the wider trusting public to catch on.
I also believe here is an element of denial. Its just too scary to think that our leaders/carers would deliberately, could deliberately put us in the firing line and worse be involved in plots and propaganda designed to draw us into their self-serving macabre plans.
Let me tell you that we, having this discussion, whether right or wrong and taking the time to disect the information made available and debate are a MINORITY group. The minority did not succeed in keeping the baddies out! Or should I say, the innocent (not all stupid) and trusting majority voted the baddies in!
It really is not nuclear physics!
