Tuesday, July 19, 2005
Bush's Special Interests Ads
Re: Fact Check's article on Bush attack ads
It seems strange that Bush would attack Kerry on receiving special interest money. First, people don't really get special interest money outside of the political world, and they think all politicians are financed by corporations. Second, it seems strange that the Bush campaign would be the one delivering the message - Kerry, in political circles, has often been seen as standing up to special interests while Bush is popularly to be known as a man tied to special interests, particularly oil. It seems like that would open him up to attack from all sorts of organizations, not just the Kerry campaign, with attacks that he couldn't respond to.
But he has done this throughout his two Presidential campaigns - he campaigned as a compassionate conservative though he served as Governor of a state with the highest number of prisoners sentenced to death, and the highest number wrongly so sentenced. He campaigned as a common-sense environmentalist, though Houston, Dallas, and Austin have air quality at dangerous levels and he is a former oil man.
The problem, I think, is that people are just not familiar enough with policy. For instance, people don't know enough to realize that lobbyist money, while special interest money, is one of the weaker forms of influence, because lobbyists represent many different interests and the contribution limits are so low, where as corporate PAC money, with its higher contribution limit and direct link to corporations, not people, is much more influential. In the environmental battles the Bush Administration has waged, it took an incredible level of resources from leading environmental groups across the country to educate, persuade, and mobilize the American public on how Bush's Orwellian-named policies would really impact the environment.
I often come back to this question - why aren't we taught to think critically, why aren't we taught politics in school?
It seems strange that Bush would attack Kerry on receiving special interest money. First, people don't really get special interest money outside of the political world, and they think all politicians are financed by corporations. Second, it seems strange that the Bush campaign would be the one delivering the message - Kerry, in political circles, has often been seen as standing up to special interests while Bush is popularly to be known as a man tied to special interests, particularly oil. It seems like that would open him up to attack from all sorts of organizations, not just the Kerry campaign, with attacks that he couldn't respond to.
But he has done this throughout his two Presidential campaigns - he campaigned as a compassionate conservative though he served as Governor of a state with the highest number of prisoners sentenced to death, and the highest number wrongly so sentenced. He campaigned as a common-sense environmentalist, though Houston, Dallas, and Austin have air quality at dangerous levels and he is a former oil man.
The problem, I think, is that people are just not familiar enough with policy. For instance, people don't know enough to realize that lobbyist money, while special interest money, is one of the weaker forms of influence, because lobbyists represent many different interests and the contribution limits are so low, where as corporate PAC money, with its higher contribution limit and direct link to corporations, not people, is much more influential. In the environmental battles the Bush Administration has waged, it took an incredible level of resources from leading environmental groups across the country to educate, persuade, and mobilize the American public on how Bush's Orwellian-named policies would really impact the environment.
I often come back to this question - why aren't we taught to think critically, why aren't we taught politics in school?
