Think, believe, want

Back in May, Ron Fournier wrote an article in the Chicago Sun-Times about Bush having filed for re-election. As part of his reporting, Fournier included the following statement:

Democrats, who are fielding nine candidates in search of the presidential nomination, think continued economic woes, problems in postwar Iraq, or even another terrorist strike on U.S. soil could change Bush's political fortunes.

Bill Hobbs of Hobbs Online and the Nashville City Paper responded by posting a mildly tweeked version of the quote (changing "thinks" to "believes that"), and used that as a launch pad to claim that:

Democrats don't want the economy to improve and will do anything to try to make sure it doesn't, including working to block or slim down the president's vital tax cut proposal. Democrats don't want postwar Iraq to become peaceful and democratic any time soon. Democrats wouldn't mind a terrorist strike before the election because they think it will hurt the president's poll numbers.

Disgusting. No, worse than that.

South Knox Bubba was understandably outraged by Hobbs comments, and posted his own reply:

An illegal war waged to rid Iraq of weapons of mass destruction that were a clear and present danger to the U.S. but now cannot be found. Thousands dead and a country in chaos. Three million people out of work in the last two years. Forty million people without health insurance. A Jackpot Congress deconstructing our environment and lining the pockets of their wealthy benefactors while borrowing against the hard work of future generations to pay for it.

And although Republicans are in control of the Administration, Congress, and the Supreme Court, Bill Hobbs contends it's the Democrats who are the problem

Recently, the subject came up again, and Bubba reposted his entry, which has brought up further discussion of the subject. I posted my thoughts to that comment thread, and decided to crosspost them here as well.

---

The article is clear in saying that Democrats "think" that if things stay bad or get worse it could reverse Bush's political fortunes. Well, duh! I'm sure Republicans think the same thing. Even using Hobbs' paraphrase that Democrats "believe that" if things keep going bad, it may be better for them politically, I think we can safely say that many Republicans also believe the same thing. From a purely logical standpoint, it only makes sense. If things go badly for those currently in power - in any situation - it stands to reason that things will go better for those who oppose them.

It's getting from there to the idea that Democrats WANT bad things to happen - that we want to see unemployment numbers stay high, or for the economy to stay weak, or for the Iraqi situation to worsen or for there to be another terrorist attack - that is more difficult. It is an illogical leap that is not supported by the initial statement at all.

I may "think" that if my parents die, I'll get a nice inheiritance. I may believe that. Hell, I may even know that beyond a shadow of a doubt. Does this, however, mean that I want my folks to die? Hell no!

Or I may think, believe or even know, that if one of the companies that competes in the same industry that my husband works in were to go out of buisness, the company he works for would be able to pick up some of their customers, and he might not get laid off in a few months. Now, even though I would LOVE for my husband to not get laid off, does that mean I want a different company to go out of business, with all those other people losing their jobs, just so he can keep his? No! I'd rather he get to keep his job because the company he works for is able to attract new business or something of that nature that doesn't involve the displacement of who knows how many others.

In other words, it is perfectly possible - and even permissible - to acknowledge that bad things happening to other people might have positive benefits for yourself or your cause, without also wanting for those bad things to happen.

I must say, however, that it should be remembered who it was that made a joke out of our bad economy, the 9/11 attacks and our entry into war. In speech after speech, over a period of several months, Bush frequently commented on how he'd said that he would not engage in deficit spending unless we were at war, in an economic downturn, or in the face of a national disaster or tragedy - and how could have have known that he'd "hit the trifecta" (laughter). Personally, I don't find people out of work, retirement savings disappearing and businesses failing, 3000 people dying in the worst terrorist attack in recent memory or our soldiers off risking their lives in an ill-planned war with no exit strategy (something that applies equally to both Afghanistan and Iraq) should be a joking matter, but our President and many of his supporters obviously think otherwise. (In a great bit of irony, despite claiming that the "trifecta" was part of a campaign promise to not engage in deficit spending unless at least one of those specific conditions were met, no one has found any evidence that Bush, himself, ever made such a promise. There is, however, evidence that Al Gore, did.)

Posted by thorswitch at July 6, 2003 01:58 AM | TrackBack