Nice pictures. Because they really seem like experts in global matters right? That's the thing with you guys. It's the friggin' "MTV" wisdom.
The idea that Bush was elected because of Iraq isn't quite right. Actually plenty of Republicans felt that war was a huge mistake. But why did they vote Republican then? Some may be party loyalty. But it goes further. Because of the high charged atmosphere of the run up to the election, the noisy and the most extreme of the left came to the spotlight and they were simply seemingly against the most important American traditions. Among them, Christianity. News of kids being punished for making any patriotic or religious gesture in school I think probably shocked most people. Basically they felt that the Democatic party wasn't going to defend their traditions and were going to buy into the extreme left philosophies. Kerry obviously knew the extreme left stuff was nuts, but was afraid of losing his Democratic support. But on the flip side he didn't want to lose the rest of the Americans by seeming almost... well Anti-American.
But the Republican party made it clear who's side they were on in this case and when the elections came, democracy did speak but the rest of the world didn't get it. We didn't get it because most of us were not in America to see the culture war brewing. The only thing we saw was Iraq. Had this election been SOLEY about Iraq, Bush would have lost. On almost every poll the majority or slight majority of people felt the Iraq war was a mistake.
So you see. It wasn't a question about millions of people being stupid. It was a story of the extreme left making too much noise, giving the Democatic party an almost extremist, anti-American, anti-Christian image.
On top of this, there were us, the arrogant foreigners telling them who to vote for, knocking on Bush etc. Now imagine the flip side. Every country has something wrong with itself. And the citizens of those countries protest about them too. But the atmosphere changes when some foreigners start knocking on it. The response is "piss off and mind your own business."
And that is the story of the 2004 elections. I was there to see the whole thing happen. Bush didn't win because of Iraq. He won on the war within America.
