Shocker: The Rich Love Bush
Gee, and I thought The Left was s’posed to be filled with out-of-touch elitists. ‘Cause apparently, the opposite is true:
How gloomy Americans are about the direction of the country and President George W. Bush’s leadership depends on how much money they make.
Twenty-three percent of all Americans said the country is on the right track, a 15-year low, according to a new Bloomberg poll. Among those with higher incomes, 43 percent said the country is on the right path. Three-fifths of Americans disapproved of the job Bush is doing, compared with 38 percent who approved. Among those with household income higher than $100,000, the gap is smaller, with 53 percent disapproving and 46 percent approving.
Wealthier Americans also have a more favorable opinion of Bush’s handling of the economy, with 52 percent approving of Bush’s record while just 43 percent of all Americans approve. About 2 in 10 U.S. households have income of more than $100,000.
On the Iraq war, more high earners approved of Bush’s policies and they were significantly more critical of a Democratic plan to withdraw troops by March of next year. Forty- nine percent of high earners oppose the plan, to just 39 percent of all Americans.
Evan Davidson, a 44-year-old financial firm recruiter who participated in the poll, said in a follow-up interview that Bush deserves to be judged on issues other than the war.
“The economy is doing fairly well, the market is doing extremely well,” said Davidson, an independent who lives in Grapevine, Texas. “It’s had a few corrections, which is normal. Overall there’s a lot of money out there for investing.”
I’m sure single moms working at Wal-Mart for 50 hours a week are jumping for joy.
You know, the Right’s successful campaign of inventing their public image as heartland populists while portraying the Left as sissified elitists is one of the most remarkable achievements in all of modern propaganda. It’d be like my goofy white ass convincing y’all that I’m really a beautiful black lesbian lawyer named Foxy Bradrocket. It’d be like Dan Riehl convincing y’all that his parents now allow him to use utensils that don’t have rubber safety tips at the end of them. It’d be like Ann Coulter convincing you that her totally enormous Adam’s apple really isn’t a malevolent leprechaun that lives inside her throat and tells her to call people “faggots.” It’d be like Jamil Hussein and Daffyd ab Hugh convincing you that the giant sandwich they found outside that burned and bombed mosque is really a… no, fuck it, I will simply not go there.
The point is, it’s an amazing feat. They have waged a brilliant information war that has convinced millions of people to believe precisely the opposite of what is true. At some point, you just have to tip your hat.
Well, for the rich, it’s a Faith issue – they worship Mammon, the GOP worship Mammon, it’s a community brotherhood for the advancement of plutocracy.
For poor folks, though, it is damned remarkable. A decades-long process of consolidating the media, seeding the ground with Limbaughs, Hannitys and Coulters, and sloooowly ramping up the hate. Now the Republicans have vast numbers of people voting against their own interests just to spite those e-vile lib’ruls.
Hell of an achievement to be sure, with deep planning and long range goals that would make a Five Year planner envious. Mr. Goebbels must be so proud!
So that’s where the big sammich went!
You’ll always be Foxy to me, Brad.
Modern propaganda to convince people that the opposite of reality is true. It’s a hell of an achievement and it does not bode well for the future.
But dumb ass non-DLC Democrats are stupid for speaking in terms that follow the far right’s framing of the issue. That “framing” term may be overused or gimmicky, but the effective use of political language is very, very important.
Almost all liberal bloggers know precisely how to phrase an issue so that it supports liberal goals without falling into rhetorical traps set by the right. Those agent provocateur Democratic strategists are absolutely terrible at explaining issues in a way that appeals to voters. They just play the mealy-mouthed foil to DC movement conservatives.
Oh that’s an easy one. See, rich socialists don’t care about money because they don’t understand what it is like to not have money. Get it? If they really understood ordinary working joes, they would want every penny that they could get their grubby hands on.
Single moms working three jobs are a lot like billionaire Republicans in that way. They will do anything for just a few more dollars. If you think that’s greedy, well you are a godless, heartless bastard.
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When you screw somebody, you can indeed convince them that their pain is not from the screwing. But then you have to give them something else to blame, and as the screwing continues, the hate naturally increases as well. Our foul political and social landscape is the toxic waste of the Right’s awesome propaganda machine.
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single moms working at Wal-Mart for 50 hours a week
Such moms don’t exist. Working 50 hours a week would make them full-time employees and require Wal-Mart to pay them overtime and give them benefits.
Wal-Mart prefers to work them 30 hours a week, which eliminates the need for either benefits or overtime.
Don’t blame me — I voted for Hoover!
Good call, Realist. Those single moms sure are working 50 hour weeks, outside their homes, but it’s maybe 28 hours a week at WalMart and another 22 at the Dollar Store, or Burger King, or the neighborhood convenience store (third shift, natch)
Realist- who said anything about earning overtime?
I’m shocked to see that the mega-rich ♥ Bush…
“This is an impressive crowd – the haves and the have-mores”. “Some people call you the elites; I call you my base”. – George Bush
some numbers i came across for teh thesis show that evangelicals are less likely to vote democrat as their incomes rise – that in effect, class is a more accurate predictor for how ppl vote, even among evangelicals.
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That is nothing. Convincing millions of people that they would like to have a beer with that psychopath and supposedly reformed alchoholic – that is a total mindfuck.
“The economy is doing fairly well, the market is doing extremely well,� said Davidson, an independent who lives in Grapevine, Texas.
Someone needs to tell assholes like Evan Davidson that the market and the economy are NOT the same things; in the context of most people’s daily lives, they aren’t even related at all.
Wait, “Brad Altrocket” isn’t really the nom de plume of beautiful black lesbian lawyer Foxy Bradrocket, host of FX’s new “View” clone, “Foxy’s Henhouse”? Another dream dies.
Actually, the market isn’t doing well. The Dark Wraith (who teaches economics) put some stuff up the other week. If you adjust for inflation, the annualized returns on the S&P 500 and NASDAQ are negative, and the Dow Jones industrial average was a measly 1/2 percent gain a year (before the most recent corrections) for Bushes reign so far. The markets have actually been lackluster at best, and downright shitty at worst.
I WAS NOT DESTROYED!!!
Conservatives fall into two groups — (a) the rich (or wannabe rich) motherfuckers, who are simply evil and ruthless and who will vote for whoever guarantees them the biggest tax cuts and/or defense procurement checks, and the backwoods inbred white folk, full of hate for anyone who ain’t like them, who all yearn to return to the days of yore when white men ruled and non-whites drooled. The whole purpose of the ‘conservative’ movement was to preserve white privileges largely threatened, if not wholesale eliminated, by successful implementation of progressive social policies over the course of the 20th Century.
The Dems have based much of their success by appealing to the downtrodden and the disenfranchised. But when you raise one group to equality, you destroy the privileges of the oppressor class. This is actually pretty cool, but members of the former oppressor class don’t much like it. The Repubs simply decided to try and recruit those folks using Democrat style rhetoric. It’s much nicer for a former slave holder to think of him or herself as being ‘denied basic civil rights’ than it is for them to realize that they simply don’t like having the riffraff treat them as equals. Thus and so, the ‘conservative movement’ has been a big success for swelling the Republican electorate.
But, yeah… the rich are now more inclined to like Republicans than Democrats. It wasn’t always like that; throughout the 19th Century, in fact, Democrats were the party of white privilege. But things change, and nowadays, if you’re rich and you resent progressive taxation, or you’re poor and white and you hate the fact that the jigs can get better jobs than you can now just by, y’know, getting a better education or working harder, well, the Repubs are the party for you.
For more details, see here or here .
From what I’ve understand, Walmart almost never allows an employee to work more than 35 hours per week, unless they’re salaried. The idea is to avoid having to pay benefits and overtime.
I think your single moms might jump at the chance to earn time-and-a-half.
Oh, yeah, and for whatever it’s worth, in my latest, 99 Severed Heads Roll By, I wax a tiny bit rhapsodic on exactly why it is our wingtard brethren all adore 300 so much. And it’s not as simple as “It’s a really retarded movie!”, either… although of course, the lazy analyst can always default to that position and be pretty sure of accuracy in this context, 99% of the time. Still, there’s a little more to it in this specific instance.
The wealth gap keeps growing. The top 1% had 14% more income between 2004-2005. The bottom 99% had 1%.
But, all the mouth breathers can be sure that although they won’t get a raise that matches inflation, at least bush is protecting them from the homos and the brown skins.
You want to admire some perverse, mind-bogglingly successful propaganda? I’ve got two words for you: “Death Tax.”
A lot of this utter madness can be laid at the feet of the right-wing christian movement. Originally, christians became politically active in the abortion fight. Once motivated, they became completely foaming rabid over so-called social issues – abortion, gay rights, stem cell research, prayer in schools etc. By now the indoctrination is so complete that regardless of the status of their pocketbook, there is a large percentage that will vote against their own interests just to make sure that specific rights are denied to specific groups of politically demonized boogeymen. This serves to benefit the republican party, so a feedback loop developed between the christian leaders and the party machine, with money and a certain amount of power being exchanged for a dependable voting bloc.
The interesting parallel here is in the health insurance debate. Many businesses are truly strugling with the cost of employee health benefits, and those costs keep rising. The best thing in the world for the bottom line at corporations from the fortune 1000 down to Ed’s Used Cars would be if government took over the cost of employee health benefits under some universal single-payer solution. And yet, these very profit focused organizations continuously support politicians who block every attempt at universal health care. Something there is more important to them than that ol’ pocketbook too…
mikey
It’s too early to think coherently, but I should have included a point recognizing how these same operatives have changed the meanings of the words “Liberal” and “Conservative” to the point where one means “evil terrorist-loving communist anti-american traitor” and the other means “america loving red blooded gun toting troop loving homeland protecting manly man”. And these both can so easily be disproved and established as nothing but false propaganda, but the indoctrination is complete, the words have taken on a visceral, gut-level meaning outside of all observable conditions. Just look at the way Marie Jon’ uses the terms to see what I mean…
mikey
And another reason to tip your hat to the President: I know the mantra is that George W Bush has destroyed everything he touches, but it’s time we gave him credit for competence in his handling of the economy. He didn’t screw it up; on the contrary, it’s working exactly how he’d like it to. All of the benefits and growth are at the extreme top. Exactly how it was envisioned.
It may be evil and terrible, but it does appear that in this one area, everything is working according to plan.
Sorry, this is completely OT but it is too f-ing funny:
http://tinyurl.com/2zoajf
I always assumed that Annie’s Adam’s apple was a miniature copy of the Cheney cyborg. bush, of course, had to have his glued to his back during the debates.
Christians and Wal-Mart and a 15-year low in the percentage of Americans who think the country is on the right track, oh my!
1. Absolutely, mikey, you nailed it.
2. It isn’t that Wal-Mart doesn’t let people work more than 35 hours a week; they just can’t be paid for any hours over 35. It’s a great system: that single mom may very well put in close to 50 hours a week, but she only clocks in for 35, see? Genius!
3. Hm. I’m having a memory lapse . . . whose single term in the White House was ending 15 years ago when Americans last had such a pessimistic view of the direction their country was headed in? It’s on the tip of my tongue . . . Nope. It’s gone.
53% of folks making over $100k disapprove of Bush’s job performance, 48% disapprove of his handling of the economy… Sounds to me like a pretty large portion aren’t buying it even though they are more able to afford it.
The theme of Tom Frank’s “What’s the Matter with Kansas?”.
…two words for you: “Death Tax.â€?
Wait a minute…I pay extra when I die?
Fuck that shit – I’m not dyin’!
PS – I’m with George (the George in this thread, not the other one): redistributing income was the plan, along with opening up the spigot and filling up the trough (I can just hear them planning – “Lookit all that fucking money just lying around…”) – which coincidentally served the purpose of redistributing the income.
Simple, eh?
Republicans: Terrific at winning elections, and that’s about it.
Or, to put it another way; Republicans’ aren’t interested in leading, they’re interested in being in charge.
“53% of folks making over $100k disapprove of Bush’s job performance, 48% disapprove of his handling of the economy… Sounds to me like a pretty large portion aren’t buying it even though they are more able to afford it.”
I think this survey needed more differentiation among the wealth lines. That’s a household income of +$100k, not individual income. Maybe I’m jaded by NoVA’s insane cost of living and housing standards, but $100k will get you maybe a starter home out here, so I wouldn’t consider that as a “wealthy” household.
On Jan. 20, 1992, the Dow Jones Industrial Average stood at 3310.
On Jan. 20, 2001, the DJIA stood at 10887.
Today, the DJIA is at ~12120.
For President Clinton’s 8 years in office, the DJIA grew at an annual rate of 16.5%.
For President Bush’s 6+ years in office, the DJIA has grown at an annual rate of 1.7%.
When Evan Davidson describes the market under Bush as: “The economy is doing fairly well, the market is doing extremely well,â€? I would like to hear his description of how the market and economy did under Clinton. It looks to me that it was nearly one order of magnitude better. That is, to say, a great deal better. What vocabulary would Mr. Davidson use to describe a market one order of magnitude better than one doing “extremely well.”
Some Guy – out here in California, $100K will get you a down payment on a starter home.
milo – the answer would be that the DJIA grew so well under Clinton as a delayed reaction to policies enacted by St. Ronnie Reagan. Amen. Conversely , the market doing not so well under Bush is because of policies enacted by Clinton. oh, and 9/11!!!!!
My portfolio is prospering nicely, losers. Cotto and priscutto futures are through the roof!
EAT FRESH, MOTHERFUCKERS!!!
$100k isn’t “rich.” I’d be more interested to learn what the top 1% of income earners think of W. I bet the gap is even greater, with the super rich overwhelmingly favoring Bush.
Shorter Heidi Przybyla — “Four out of five eaters of shit sandwiches agree: the more bread you have the less shit you have to eat.”
I love it when you guys start to sound like socialists.
Brings a little tear to the eye, it does.
The markets are doing great meme really bugs the crap out of me. As Milo laid out abve, the markets hav grown at an anemic rate under Bush. Indeed, if you take the high water mark for the major indices around March 1, 2000, you will find the Dow at 12276, the S&P 500 at 1402, and the NASDAQ at 5048. As of yesterday they were at 12228, 1395, and 2382 respectively. In other words, seven years after they reached their peak, all three major indices are below where they were, with the NASDAQ less than half of what it was.
Do I blame Bush for this — not really, but I sure as hell don’t want him getting credit for great markets, which in real terms are still down by at least 20% from their peak.
celticgirl, that was gorgeous. “Cleanup on Aisle Wingnut”. Classic.
celticgirl, that was gorgeous. “Cleanup on Aisle Wingnut�. Classic.
Why, thank you. I rather liked it myself. 🙂
The market IS doing great, but you loosrers with no money wouldn’t know it, you havent reeped the huge profits from investments I have from smart investing hard work. Shut up and pay attention, this is America, with lots of oppertunity, you can’t grab the brass ring if you sit and whine about how unfair everything is to gays all day.
“Shut up and pay attention, this is America, with lots of oppertunity, you can’t grab the brass ring if you sit and whine about how unfair everything is to gays all day.”
How about we complain how hard the Christians have it here? That’d sure make me feel a whole lot better…
The market IS doing great, but you loosrers with no money wouldn’t know it, you havent reeped the huge profits from investments I have from smart investing hard work.
This is a promising start, but where is the invitation to the Shoelimpy Money Consciousness Seminars, for only $500? Where is the advertisement for Shoelimpy Sharemarket Software, 400% profit guaranteed or your money back? It is as if the comment was cut off halfway through.
The market IS doing great, but you loosrers with no money wouldn’t know it, you havent reeped the huge profits from investments I have from smart investing hard work. Shut up and pay attention, this is America, with lots of oppertunity, you can’t grab the brass ring if you sit and whine about how unfair everything is to gays all day.
Reepity, reepity, reepity, lo
The market is surging
But I’ve got to go
Reepity reepity reepity lan
Shoelimpy’s a fake
As poster and man.
Who wants brass rings? Or brass monkeys? Or, come to think of it, limp shoes? What is the deal with this git, anyway? Are all conservatards really this stupid, or is it some cunning ruse to put us off our guard?
Brass Monkey is great
And, yes, I’m drunk