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MANDATE_ZER0

                                             November 28, 2006

American Conservatives have spent the Bush Junior
era talking as though they have some sort of
mandate, that the country is moving in their
direction, and Democrats should stop whining
about it and get out of the way, or some such.

There are a number of problems with this.

One is that even if you take the official
election results at face value, Bush has
not been winning an amazing percentage
of the popular vote.  (He didn't have it
at all in 2000, and in 2004 he supposedly
had a 5 point lead).

              And it is unfortunately
              all-too-plausible that the       LAST_EXIT_FOR_DEMOCRACY
              official results may have
              been wrong.  Bush may not
              have really won either
              election.

Even if he did, in fact win, however...

Polls of people who voted reveal that
Bush supporters don't really understand             (( look that up
what they're supporting.                               again ))

For example, they have trouble believing
that they're boy would be against the
Kyoto accord -- everyone's worried about
global warming aren't they?  It's important
to do something about it, so Bush must be
doing something about it, right?


   So, as far as the raging conservatives
   go... they're just outliers: fanatics
   that have something in common -- but not
   necessarily all that much -- with a
   faction that's succeeded in conning (when
   not just hijacking) the electorate.




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