corrente

The biggest disconnect in politics is between people who "get" George W. Bush and those of us who don't. I'm not talking about those who are in it for the money or the (perceived) power or the simple joy of winning a pissing contest (yeah, trolls, I'm talkin' to YOU here.)

I mean those otherwise good people, often our own families and friends, but those who still maintain that they're going to vote for Bush. They can never quite articulate why, except to mouth some talking point like "He's keeping us safe" or "I just trust him."

(via New Yorker magazine)

When Bush appeared in person, moments later, he seemed surprisingly ordinary. “I’m here to ask for the vote,” he told the audience. “I believe it’s important to get out and ask for the vote. I believe it’s important to travel this great state and the country, talkin’ about where I intend to lead the country.” He made this sound like an original idea, and perhaps a controversial one, and the way he repeated the words “I believe” carried an air of defiant conviction: I’m not here offering myself to you because that’s how it’s done in a democracy but because that’s just how I am, and I don’t give a damn who says different.

He wore no tie, and his sleeves were rolled up, and the simplicity of the proposition, the easy conversational forthrightness, seemed so natural, so obvious and reassuring, that it was easy to forget, as he wound on through his stump speech, that he had promised to lay out a plan for the future. He offered no such plan, or even any new initiatives. He just declared the past four years a success, and said that more and better was to come.

This is quite a long article and somewhat icky in places (anything that includes a mention of "how comfortable [he] is in his body" requires a strong stomach) but it explains an awful lot. Come back when you've got an hour or so, first to read and then to think.

That great disconnect? We here deal in words, written words specifically. Bushspeak is not meant to be read but performed.