Has The “Silent Majority” Become The “Misinformed Minority” Almost 40 Years Later…

Let us all understand that the question before us is not whether some Americans are for peace and some Americans are against peace. The question at issue is not whether Johnson’s war becomes Nixon’s war.

The great question is: How can we win America’s peace?

It’s interesting to think that on this day, 39 years ago Richard Nixon delivered his famous Silent Majority speech, urging this group he believed to be marginalized by their activist counterparts, to overlook what would appear to be growing dissent towards the Vietnam War, and rally behind the country. (Ahhh, Country First I see..)

Fast forward to today, and you essentially have John McCain asking what I would probably coin the misinformed minority, to do the same, but not only with respect to the military, but in regards to the economy as well.

The difference between trust in ones military, and trust in ones economy is stark.

With the economy, there is no “out of sight, out of mind” sense of security that the government can use to make something appear one way while it is in fact going counter to that belief.

In layman’s terms, if Bush/McCain tells you we are winning the war in Iraq, there is no tangible proof if that is true or not while you sit in your living room in Manhattan.

Where as in the case of the economy, you feel it first hand.

When economy suffers, we suffer, immediately.

It only takes but so long to realize your spending power has decreased in a matter of months.

Now I was born in 1982, so its hard for me to judge the Vietnam War, but the War in Iraq has engulfed the majority of my voting career. So I am not foreign to the idea of a nation leading a group of people into territory they don’t agree with.

Fortunately for us, technology has given us some sort of checks and balances on government and politics. The internet, and thus the blogosphere, has put information into millions and millions of viewers within minutes of it materializing.

Now, take that with a grain of salt, we are all aware that everything in print isn’t credible. But that’s the nature of the beast. I’m sure if hippies had a chance to have Google, they wouldn’t have turned it down on a technicality.

I truly think if this was 1969, John McCain would have this silent majority in his corner enabling him to continue a war that shouldn’t have been waged in the first place. Fear mongering works hand in hand with ignorance. Which is why it doesn’t appear to be working for the most part in this current election.

Love it or hate it, but the media today is a powerful force. While it is proven that many (ignorant) Americans believe Barack Obama is a terrorist Muslim, there are many of those same Americans who believe in Big Foot, and shit like that. So looking past the extremes, I would say on the whole the vast majority has access to, and utilizes, more information than generations before.

No one knows what is going to happen Tuesday. Some conservative blog could be using this exact post on Wednesday morning as banter. I could see the headline already, “The Maverick Prevailed With His Back Against The Wall….”

I personally would like to think that instead, Wednesday will give way to numerous finger pointing from the GOP, a sense of deflation amongst the nation’s racists, and an overwhelming sense of defeat for John McCain…all while Cindy McCain pops pills and guzzles Budweiser at around 10am on a Wednesday morning…

Let’s just hope we should be that lucky.

Logical

D.Smith