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I did a study of issue polls, and found that the American people are way up in the 60% to 90% range in opposition to all major Bush policy, foreign and domestic, except for those two issues (gay marriage and capital punishment). Torture. The war, of course.* Social Security. The deficit. Transparent vote counting. Women's rights. You name it. Great opposition to Bush policy, from way before the 2004 election. It's one of the supporting evidences that he didn't win.
*On the war, 56% of the American people opposed it from the beginning--Feb. '03. (NYT poll; others put it at 54-55%.) 56% is a significant majority. It would be a landslide in a presidential election (and believe me, it was). Now it's a whopping--epochal--antiwar majority of 70%!
And these are almost all corporate news monopoly polls, often weighted toward Republicans and fascist policy.
DU is the MAINSTREAM on MOST policies.
And when you consider how Rove used the gay marriage issue--and the OTHER matters of concern to Americans (grave matters like war, torture, massive debt), you have to wonder if Americans really care, one way or the other, about gay couples marrying. Rove's gig was to create a plausible narrative for stolen elections. So he put gay marriage on ballots as a "wedge" issue, but the outcome, as to Bush and Bushites getting elected, was a foregone conclusion. He created an ILLUSION that people cared a damn about gay marriage. Some do, I don't doubt. But it's not a big deal for most. Most people are concerned about PUTTING FOOD ON THE TABLE. Most people are in a terrible squeeze, what with skyrocketing health care costs, and all costs of living (gas, heating, mortgage, rent, credit card usury, college education), and disappearing jobs, decent jobs with benefits a thing of the past, deteriorating communities and infrastructure, neglect of the poor, safety nets gone, etc.
Without gay marriage, the Bushites had an empty narrative. People were laughing at their silly "terrorist alerts" leading up to the 2004 (s)election. The "soccer mom" vote was a myth that had been exposed. They had lost their justification for their horrendous war on Iraq--no WMDs found. They had been exposed as torturers. (63% of Americans opposed to torture "under any circumstances"--May '04). To WHAT were they to attribute a Bush-Cheney win in '04? They were the WORST REGIME IN U.S. HISTORY for most peoples' pocketbooks, apart from the Coolidge and Hoover regimes. And they are criminals--torturers, warmongers, and master thieves--to boot. They had NOTHING.
So I consider gay marriage to be a largely invented issue--cover for 'TRADE SECRET' code vote counting. And I don't think pollsters pay enough attention, on this issue, as to whether or not people give a damn about it. In having to choose, they may say they are anti. But does it really matter to them?
Capital punishment is somewhat similar, although, as a fascist issue, it is of earlier venue. I think most of its supporters haven't thought about it much in a long time. It has come to be what IS. Kind of like our police state, our draconian laws and sentencing for non-violent crime, our "prison-industrial" complex, and the innumerable cop shows and crime shows on TV, it is part of the wallpaper of our society. Few question it. But it was a hot fascist battle back in the '60s to the '80s, very much related to creation of the police state boondoggle that is such a horrendous drag on taxpayer money today. For a while there, in the '60s, we had the idea of rehabilitating criminals, and were heading toward the widespread view among all other civilized countries today, that state murder is a bad, fascist policy. Very corrupting and corrosive. With the recent scandals about the innocent being convicted, and the scandal about rich vs. poor justice, our view of the police state--and its linchpins, capital punishment and the failed "war on drugs"--is starting to change.
I would say that DU is only a few years in advance of American society on both of these issues. And it is absolutely mainstream on everything else. It is the Bushites and their lapdog corporate news monopolies who are way, way out of step with most Americans, on most issues.
I keep trying to tell people this. WE are the mainstream. But it's hard for people to believe when Bushites (and their Dem clones) keep getting elected (if they haven't yet realized how rigged the elections are). Also, people find it hard to shed the corporate news monopoly brainwashing which is aimed at making members of the true American MAJORITY feel isolated and alone, by promoting the fascist, warmongering views of the few, way out of proportion to their numbers. If your main touchstone on national reality is the fascist media, you are going to get a very screwy view of things--not only consciously, as to policy, but also unconsciously, as to what you feel about your fellow and sister Americans, and what you presume about what they believe and want.
For us activists, it's a very important strategic question, whether Americans have gone fascist, or whether the American mainstream is being FALSELY portrayed, and disenfranchised by stolen elections. I think the latter is true--after much study and thought--and our efforts should therefore be focused on the rigged voting machines and other disenfranchisement crimes.
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