While watching recent news coverage of rioting in Venezuela, I heard a local reporter make an interesting comment in response to Keith Olbermann noting that Bush’s disapproval rating was at about 60% in the U.S. She said “Well, his disapproval rating is 70% over here, and look what’s happening!”
So 10 percentage points is the difference between controlled anger and harsh criticism in the U.S., and rioting in Venezuela? With the long list of scandals that threaten to further erode Bush's support in the U.S, 10 percentage points doesn't seem like much of a cushion!
Admittedly, most of the 70 percent who disapprove of Bush in Venezuela are extremely poor and desperate, while many in the U.S. are firmly in the middle to upper middle class. However, if the U.S. is allowed to follow the road of the neocon agenda to it’s logical conclusion, there will be a whole lot more poor, desperate and angry Americans, and a much smaller number of extremely wealthy ones. That, as we are seeing elsewhere in the world, is a volatile mixture that leads to violence.
According to the Bush administration and its supporters, we are spending billions of dollars to “fight terrorism over there, so we don’t have to fight it over here.” At the same time, we are slowly creating the same environment over here that spawns violence and terrorism elsewhere in the world. Watching the rioting over the last few days, and the inability of the police to control it, makes me wonder if Bush's supporters really want what they are asking for!
If people become poor enough, hopeless enough, angry enough, and hungry enough, I’m afraid the rich will start tasting pretty good!
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