Protests and Accepting the New Normal.

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Earlier today I was talking to a friend of mine, who posts on DailyKOS as LithiumCola, and the topic turned to whether Americans in general have come to accept the various shenanigans of the Bush administration as being the new normal.  While my friend was convinced that Americans are upset with a government that has routinely undermined civil liberties, seem to have an wanton disregard for the environment, and apparently has very little regard for the well being of the average American, I thought that for the most part people really have accepted everything that has changed in the last 8 years.  

Now, I have to grant that currently approval ratings of the sitting president and the congress are at an all time low.  However, it is less clear to me that those have anything to do with what the Bush administration has done and more to do with a stagnant economy (which granted might be in some part the fault of the current administration), high gas and food prices, and a general decrease in purchasing power.

I mean, consider the fact that, if poll numbers are to be believed, John McCain actually has a chance of winning the upcoming election.  McCain, while historically might have had a decent record fighting for electoral reform and for addressing environmental issues, lately has shifted his rhetoric to one that could be taken out of the Bush playbook.  Also, his numbers improved after he chose Palin as his running mate (and really, Palin is just Bush in lipstick and apparently cool glasses).

It seems that Americans clearly have accepted what the Bush administration has done.  Consider for example the recent protests at Miami University in Oxford, OH.  Over 3000 students were present to protest the failure by the university to cancel classes after the storm hit us this past weekend.  I haven't seen any similar protests regarding the war, the state of healthcare in this country, environmental issues, or anything related to this government.  

3000 people were there to express anger about going to class.  If something as minor as sitting in a classroom after it got kinda windy is something that was enough to bring out 3000 students, you would think that if people really disapproved of what the Bush administration has done, you would find at least a couple dozen students protesting from time to time.  However, in the two years that I've been in Cincinnati, I've only seen one protest, which had about 30 people at it.  Well, two if you count the time the hippies asked me to paint to fight the war.  

Stupid hippies.