My usual preoccupation is with Bush’s downward drift after we gave him the moon after 9/11. But the reason I looked this up was a question that jumped in my mind – Why are his numbers so high? Looking at this, it’s clear. Republicans are unbelievablely attached to George Bush or they are amazingly loyal to the Republican Party. Bush still holds an 70-80% Approval Rating among Republicans. This graph doesn’t discriminate between these two options, but my hunch is that it’s the latter.
I, of course, have no understanding of this from the inside. Liberal is in my DNA, though Democrat is not. So, I can’t even trust my hunch that it’s not Party loyalty that trumps here, it’s Conservativism – whatever that means anymore. My guess is that it’s a mindset that there’s a right way to be, a right way for things to be, some sense of privilege , and the driving force in this cosmology is fear of those who would disturb this quaisi-utopian vision. I understand the other side better. There’s no right way to be, no right way for things to be, no special people. The fear is the opposite, of something akin to a Myanmar-like world.
So I tend to see this 70-80% Approval Rating for an obviously incompetent and misguided Administration as driven by fear of people like you and me. But there’s another dimension that separates the green line from the gray line. It’s about power. I think those loyal Republicans believe that the only route to success is through power. Not Approving of Bush is equated with giving up power. The gray-liners are certainly not oblivious to power, but see it as dangerous. They’re more interested in the other side not having power than in grabbing it for themselves. It’s unlikely that the gray-line people will ever achieve the homogeneity of the other side.
I’ve always thought it was remarkable that many of the Right’s Talking Points like "flip-flop" are actually seen as virtues on the other side. Certainly, the cry that Liberals are big spenders or big government advocates is laughable in light of recent history. George W. Bush, like Reagan, like his father have had the most unbalanced budgets in history. Lower taxes, increase spending – how that makes sense to anyone is beyond me. But back to the point of this post, I expect this is about where things will stay, barring some cataclysmic event. Bush is a terrible President. That’s a given. But I expect his loyal followers will hold on for dear life, hoping for that utopian [unattainable] state maintained by their accumulated power. And if they lose it, they’ll fight the Ken Starr fight to get it back. nIXon, reAGAn, bUsh, bUsh – over and over…
I have an identical twin who is a diehard Bush supporter. Her husband is a nice guy who has his Masters degree, was very successful in sales in computer software, lost his job at the magic age of 57. They have struggled financially for the last 5 years and have gone through their life savings. My Mom lives with them and she has been paying for the majority of bills and taxes which are a lot. I love my sister dearly so I don’t dare bring up Bush. Did I mention that my brother in law listens to Rush? You have to know where I’m coming when I write my comments. It drives me nuts when my sister listens to Bush adoringly. Maybe the Bush WH has them hypnotized or something.