Let's Say It Accurately

I'm guilty of doing it and I vow to stop. We really need to stop and correct ourselves when we use it, because it's factually inaccurate and makes us accomplices to the distortion machine. We shouldn't talk about the Bush voters as 51% of the public. They ain't. It implies a mandate that doesn't exist, and Rove et al. have jumped on it and are trumpeting it - and like so many other "facts" we've been fed, it's wrong, but if they keep repeating it, it will become part of the folklore on which they operate. It's already being accepted as a fact among those who hear "Saddam Hussein" and think "911" and "war on terror." They've been trained by repetition to make mental associations that are factually false.

The voter turnout was 60%. Bush got 51% of the 60%. That simply is not the same as "51% of the American people," and a 1% victory isn't a mandate. Most votes for president ever? Uh, well, sort of - the number of votes cast was astounding, but Kerry got the "second most" - the number of votes cast also do not grant a mandate. It just shows that a whole lot of people in this very polarized nation turned out to vote.

My real question: What's going on with the 40% who didn't vote? In such a critical election, when the direction of our country was at stake, who are these people who sat it out?

My hit counter went insane yesterday. I logged on after 9, after a very long but productive road trip, and my daily hit count was several hundred more than usual. Normally it runs somewhere in the low hundreds, depending on how snarky and off topic I've been lately. (Yes, it's true and you know it, you don't read it for the knitting, you read it for the ranting.) It took me a minute to figure out where all these people had come from - then I found it. Kerstin had mentioned me on her blog. Boy, talk about my 15 minutes of fame! She remains fired up and on a roll. Follow the first link in her post of November 8, and ask yourself how you would feel if the roles were reversed and we were the invaded, rather than the "crusaders." Kinda puts the anger and violent resistance in another light, doesn't it?

Let me say as a Catholic Christian I have absolutely no problem with any soldier praying before battle, or seeking baptism before putting his life on the line. Getting your soul in order and feeling like you are right with God is a good thing. Using God to work yourself up to kill people who are "different" and therefore "evil" is wrong and terrible, but these guys didn't invent it - it's a technique that is, sadly, as old as war itself.

Okay, maybe they'll say they're just using these images to get "fired up," and it's a Marine thing and we just don't understand, but is there anyone out there in charge? Is there anyone with a damn clue about how this plays in the Muslim world, who understands the impact on our relations with an enormous portion of the planet? This undermines any superficial message we may parrot about caring about and respecting the culture of the Iraqi people. And then we shake our heads at the fury of the resistance, and earnestly ask why these people don't appreciate our "liberation."