The Bush Effect, Part II

President George W. Bush didn't simply win the 2004 US General Election because his opponent was an unattractive, untelegenic, and flip-flopping candidate. The President of the United States won because he embodies what no Democrat is willing or even capable of being; the personification of the average, "ugly" American.

Even though both Mr. Bush and John Kerry, his opponent, come from the same Patrician class that has bred almost every President except Abraham Lincoln and Ulysses S. Grant (a personal hero of mine, along with General Robert E. Lee, Lincoln, and even Jefferson Davis), Mr. Bush never appeared to really belong there.

That's what differentiates Mr. Bush from Mr. Kerry and is the thing that most people, especially the leftist Hollywood elite, cannot (or would not) understand. When the President speaks, he speaks the language of the common person, unrefined, a bit awkward, crude at times, but very, very down to earth. It's also what makes him so appealing to his countrymen.

Despite Mr. Bush's pedigree, he truly represents the quintessential "ugly American," something that many Americans actually take great pride in. Like actor Bill Murray said in the movie, Stripes, George W. Bush hails from the very people who were "kicked out over every decent country in the world." Mr. Kerry, on the other hand, seems to hail from an alien race that has somehow been engrafted into American life; and though he may pretend to belong to the mainstream public, his words and actions reveal, all to plainly, that he really isn't one of them.

Mr. Bush, on the other hand, is. While he would bomb a country into the Stone Age to kill a fly that dared to fly into the hair of the most insignifcant American, Mr. Kerry, instead, would try to negotiate with the fly and find ways to come to terms with it. While the President comes accross as a strong, forceful and menacing presence to some, Mr. Kerry strikes people as weak and vacillating; a wooden Howdy-Doody on rocking horse. Moreover, the Democratic nominee also appeared artificial, like many liberals do, spouting high-minded ideas and half-truths instead of staying focussed on issues that were truly important to those people whose support he sought.

Mr. Bush, however, never had that problem. While he might not have understand the subtleties of macroeconomic policy, or the ecological need to save some species of wild elk, one did get the feeling that if he could give himself a tax cut, he'd do what most Americans would; spend it on beer, a new car, or take the family out for pizza. What he wouldn't do is waste it on some high-minded baloney like "wind power" or social programs that benefit only a few, but whose primary purpose was to make people, like Mr. Kerry, more appealling to the left-wing intellectuals who like to think they know better than the average American.

This is the secret behind the President's appeal. It is, as I said in an earlier article, the Bush Effect brought down to the average guy, and the average guy buys into it because it is not very far from where he or she is. If Americans see their presidents not so much as political leaders as they do modern-day cavaliers, rushing to the rescue of the oppressed and the enslaved, it is because that's how they see themselves too. And whereas Canadians may "pride" themselves on being "tolerant" and open-minded (the "nice guys" of the western world), Americans pride themselves on being John Wayne, rushing to rescue damsels in distress.

Mr. Kerry, however, doesn't fit that bill. He's too slick, too liberal, and too elite, even among an elite group. Because of this, Americans saw this man, with his elongated features and botox injections, his rich wife and high-brow bearing, as somehow less "American" (and, by extension, less patriotic) than they do the genuine article. Despite his genuine warmth and obvious concern for everyones well-being, not to mention his intellectual credentials, Mr. Kerry lacked the common touch and that mysterious quality that enables other people, like his opponent, to connect with their own constituency in ways he could only dream of.

President Bush, on the other hand, does and can. Although he may not appear to be the brightest bulb on the tree, he does come across as being genuinely genuine. Sure, he might shoot first and ask questions later but then that's what Americans expect from the leader of their country. He's also from Texas, the land of cowboys, and when he rides a horse or chops wood, he's not pretending to be anything other than what some people say he is; "the hick from the sticks," predigree and all.

Ironically, that's the thing that makes him so appealing and what many people, among them the leftist idealists and the niave, fail to give him credit for. It's also why Mr. Kerry failed and why Mr. Bush was re-elected. Oblivious to how hollow their promises and high-minded baloney rings in the ears of the average "ugly" American (the ones whose taxes have to pay for those promises) the Democrats have apparently learned nothing from either the events of 9/11 or the congressional elections in 2002.

Because of that lack of understanding, or some stubborn belief in their own propoganda, they have paid a huge price, losing not only the presidency, but even more seats in the House and Senate. Determined to promote and push through an agenda completely out of touch with the common people, promising to bring substance to nebulous "high minded ideals" that no one can relate too, and then running as if these were representative of the "real" America, the Democrats, like left-wingers everywhere, tripped over the reality gap and faced-planted into the pool of irrelevancy. Now, it seems, they have done one better; sinking even further into the bottomless pit of electoral oblivion which their high-brow, left-wing, Michael Moore-inspired rhetoric have dug for them.

As a Canadian, I don't think we have anything to fear from Mr. Bush; in fact, I think we have something to learn. And that is that while we, up hear, love to say "we're not Americans" our friends to the south, especially after this election, are equally adamant that they are not "like y'all either."

Sincerely,
I. M. Ulysses