It is not Bush - it is Republican voters and Republican politicians.

[kentuck]

Bush will be gone in 2008. Unfortunately, it cannot be sooner. But, we will still have to cope with the uninformed, gullible, innocent but ignorant, Republican voters and those assholes they put in charge of the Senate and the House. Their unrequited love of their leaders cannot be defeated with Democratic hate so how do you communicate with them? Do we try to talk to them in a rational and sensible way? Will they then change their minds about Democrats and "liberals"? Will they then see the error of their ways? Don't hold your breath. Your naivete may kill you.

[catnhatnh]

1. No Kentuck....I think not....

It's a pendulum swing and always has been.In my youth it meant a period of responsible social reform followed by a period of strong economic stewardship.No thinking republican can look at the past eight years and not be as appalled as you and I...That means a strong leftward swing until at least this insanity is mostly undone.For real republicans, the Emperor not only has no clothes-they found him to not even have been of royal blood.I predict 8-12 years of cleaning house and burning out the heretics-and their next REAL candidate may even be a REAL American....

[DURHAM D]

3. I normally would agree with the pendulum swing theory but

that was before the repugs took over complete control of the national dialogue through ownership of the mass media. I think it is important to point the finger at the party this time.

[catnhatnh]

6. The media is changing...

...there are only so many times the alchemist can promise gold and produce the same old lead.We stand at the nexus of the continuum and all the talismans and omens tell of great change....Nah-not really-but bullshit IS starting to smell like it's component parts...

[DURHAM D]

8. The consolidated ownership has not changed. eom

[MichiganVote]

2. Bush symbolizes all the bad actors in a nutshell

[msmcghee]

4. You can not communicate opposing worldviews.

There is no education that can overcome this. It requires a life-changing event - something to make you re-examine the meaning of your whole life. If things get bad enough a very few might do that. But the vast majority would protect their fallacious worldview to the death - as humans societies have done throughout history.

The conservatives who have taken over the Repuke Party have done so by skillfully inserting their memes into the minds of many voters including many centrist/moderates.

These include "Dems tax and spend" - "Dems are weak pussies on national defense", "Dems coddle criminals", etc.

They probably had no idea their 30 year multi-million dollar effort would work as well as it did. They learned from the fall of the Soviet Union that outspending your opponents pays off very well in the end.

Of course, they were wise enough to jump on 9/11 like flies on a garbage truck - and use the very strong emotions generated by that attack to drive home their message. Without 9/11 Bush would have been a one term mistake - and most voters were already on their way to seeing that.

But, after 9/11, while the Dems were busy helping Bush by supporting the idea of "One America" united against terrorism - Rove was branding us (successfully in many minds) as terrorist appeasers - and by extension, driving home all their other insidious memes as well.

These have now become part of those voters' worldview. There is no amount of reason that can overcome a meme that's been attached emotionally to one's worldview in that way.

I overheard a guy on the light rail in Portland yesterday telling another guy how Bush did the right thing to go into Iraq - just to let anybody else over there know what to expect if they fucked with us. Basically he's saying it's OK to kill tens of thousands of innocent people - and spend hundreds of billions of dollars of taxpayers' money, put the nation into hock for decades - and kill several thousand US troops - just to tell some terrorist that they better look out.

See? It's way beyond communication and /or education and or reason. They believe deep down that Bush is right and we are wrong. That's their worldview. Reason, communication and education only work before they anchor those memes deep down into the neurons that record their notion of how the world really works.

After that, it becomes a part of their identity. And nobody gives that up without a fight. It will take a violent revolution or at least a new generation that kills off those memes by adopting completely new ones - like what happened in the the sixties.

But, they are resting easy because they know that they have the key to understanding this process. They are playing at the mind control level - while we Dems just continue to play politics.

[bahrbearian]

5. It will be sooner , if we Hammer real hard..

[OnionPatch]

7. Well we certainly must get more media

I am firmly in the camp that believes right-wing takeover of the radio is a big part of the reason we are in this national nightmare. Almost every rightie I know listens to this crap and repeats the talking points verbatim. Unfortunately they don't seem to go anywhere else to verify the information they get there. Thank God for Air America, Thom Hartmann, Ed Schultz....may there be many, many more voices from the left out there ASAP! I believe that the pendulum is swinging back partly because we finally have some air time to counter all their lies and spin.

[msmcghee]

9. Radio is a business . .

To make money in the radio business you find a target market and feed them stories, information and entertainment that reinforces their worldview.

As evidence that the RW has control of the worldview of millions of Americans - see Rush Limbaugh, Saun Hannity, etc.

They make money reinforcing the worldviews of their target audience. That process feels very good to their audience. Their audience recieves a flood of dopamine in their bloodstream and pleasure centers in their brains. If Limbaugh and Hannity, et al stop doing that they will lose listeners and dollars.

This has absolutely nothing to do with education or reason. It is dope addiction of the worst kind. It has killed millions and will kill millions more - because to love that Rush is to be human.

The question is will man evolve beyond that addictive need before we destroy life on earth.

If you are part of the reality based community - you are particpating in an epic battle for the future of the human race.