Paradigm Shift: A History Lesson, Why Some Voters Have to be Left Behind

Posted by Greg Allen on 07.10.2007

Even during the height of the Watergate scandal, Nixon enjoyed approval ratings of 39%. There's a reason our country didn't listen to that sizable minority, it's the same reason we should stop letting the current, even smaller, minority control our country now.

There's this great moment in the fantastic movie Thank You for Smoking when Nick Naylor, the head lobbyist for American Big Tobacco, is teaching his son about argument by arguing about the best flavor of ice cream.

Nick Naylor: Well I need more than chocolate, and for that matter I need more than vanilla. I believe that we need freedom. And choice when it comes to our ice-cream, and that Joey Naylor, that is the defintion of liberty.
Joey Naylor: But that's not what we're talking about
Nick Naylor: -Ah! But that's what I'm talking about.
Joey Naylor: ...but you didn't prove that vanilla was the best...
Nick Naylor: I didn't have to. I proved that you're wrong, and if you're wrong I'm right.
Joey Naylor: But you still didn't convince me
Nick Naylor: It's that I'm not after you. I'm after them." ***Points into the crowd***

You know, Nick Naylor is a real scumbag in that movie, but... he's a loveable scumbag, and he has a point: there are plenty of people in this world whose minds are so set in stone, that it's virtually useless to try and persuade them, and since arguing endlessly with them will only ensure nothing is ever accomplished, governments are run in such a way that very steadfast minority opinions don't have to be persuaded in order for a government to take action.

At least... that's the way it's supposed to be in an ideally functioning democracy (majority rule—minority rights). Currently I'd say it's more along the lines of fanatical minority rule—majority impasse.

Think about those approval rating polls for a second. Of course, they're not the end all-be all of politics, but they're just about the best we've got to get a feeling on the nation's democratic will. In the 1970's durng the height of the Watergate Scandal, in which President Richard Nixon was eventually discovered to be wiretapping American citizens without a warrant and for political motives, deploying the bureaucratic machinery of the United States against his domestic political rivals, and ordering his cronies to break into the campaign headquarters of the opposition party. No political scientist or learned person would ever call these acceptable actions by the leader of a democracy, and yet, even at his worst, Nixon still enjoyed the support of 39% of the population.

Stop and think about that for a second. The man used the institutions of a democratic nation to corrupt democratic ideals and four out of every ten Americans thought these sort of actions weren't worthy of "disapproval"?? You know what? Sometimes the citizens of this country can be pretty damn stupid. Thank God that running the those kinds of minorities who endorse the very things that will undo their own rights don't have to be convinced before their policies can be overturned.

Nixon resigned when he counted up the votes in congress and realized he was going to be impeached, but does anyone ever talk about the fact that the votes weren't going to be anywhere near unanimous? Why the hell not? Historical opinion on Nixon's impeachment is unanimous, why wasn't the opinion at the time? Because some people, for whatever reason, can't be convinced by reason, and that's why they have to be left behind.

Currently, President Bush enjoys an approval rating that probably leaves him jealous of Tricky Dick. Between the in-every-way-mismanaged Iraq war, the pathetic response to Hurricane Katrina, the alienation of virtually every US ally, the firing US attorneys (with stark parallels to the days of Nixon) for refusing to utilize the Justice Department for Republican political ends, and worst of all, the refusing to allow members of the executive branch to respond to their congressional subpoenas, which by the way is a crime, one has to wonder: just who are these people who make up the 26% who still "approve" of President Bush?

Today I think I found out. It's the same people who ask, "why be afraid of wiretapping without a warrant if you have nothing to hide?" and the people who still think of the president as the all powerful ruler of the government that they did when they were kids, last it's the people who think—like Mr. Bush does—that God has chosen him to be our President.

There's a million arguments why all those claims and their siblings are terrible ones, but the thing is, those claims were disproved and discarded by thinking people decades (and for some centuries) ago. Those arguments don't need to be had because the other side already lost. The thing to do now is to repair the damage done to American democracy. For me, I've concluded that means one thing only. The President of the United States, George w. Bush, must be impeached and removed from office. The 26% who apparently will support him no matter what, don't need to be in the way of moving forward any longer. It's time to leave them and their obsolete arguments behind.