Surprising Feedback

01/30/2006

Paul Munnis

We were somewhat surprised at the number of people who tell us they do not plan to watch the State of the Union address tomorrow night. They cite a universal complaint: “The sight of G.W. Bush on TV makes them sick and as they reach for the channel control unit the first button pressed is: MUTE.” That is the net of it - people are sick of Bush.

When I press them and ask why they feel sick at the sight of Mr. Bush, all give the same or very similar reasons. He lies so much and is so devious that he can’t be trusted. He is seen as a threat to America and people want to continue to oppose him even as they seek to blot him out of their personal lives. I have never seen a politician so reviled as Mr. Bush is. As he goes into the last three years of his second term of office this is bad news for him and for America.

Trying another tack, I say: “Bush is going to offer a health care proposal – Don’t you want to hear and see what he has to say?” The answer comes back that anything the GOP is proposing for Health Care must be bad for America. After all—just look at their track record of destroying American social programs.

Are these people all Democrats? No, and this is surprising to me. Many are Republicans. Not just your moderates who have found an ally with centrist Democrats, but some are dyed in the wool GOP people who up till now have spoken to me as nationalists: “My country right or wrong.” Even this base of Bush supporters is getting disgusted with a man whom they cannot any longer trust.

Mine is not a scientific poll run by Harvard trained statisticians, instead its just feedback from people whom I rub elbows with. Yet somehow I am more influenced by it than if Zoogby ran an official poll and I was posting the findings. Probably this is because I see and hear the intensity and revulsion with which the message is delivered. The attitude seems capable of turning ugly.

Well, I asked and so now I understand at least one small piece of the State of the Union. People in my orbit are sickened by the man whom they elected for a second time to lead America. The issue is “values,” the same issue that the GOP cites as their strength at the polls. This issue is destroying the GOP.