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Keeping America Dumb, Docile, and Democrat

By Justin Darr (08/23/04)

Books of Interest

The Grand Canyon served as an appropriate backdrop symbolizing the chasm that separates John Kerry from reality as he stated his new position on the Iraq War. Yes, friends, Senator Kerry is once again the strong on defense war veteran of September 2001, and no longer the self-proclaimed "anti-war candidate" of October 2003. The Kerry Camp claims that the debate on the War has "never been whether we were right to hold Saddam accountable. the issue is that we went to war without our allies." Oh really? Could have fooled me. And, no allies? I guess the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Poland, and South Korea do not count. In fact, with the exception of a few moral cowards, all of our traditional allies are assisting us in the effort in Iraq. You see, in Kerry's latest reinvention of himself, he has never opposed the War; just Bush's lack of sensitivity to the needs of the French to protect their financial interests gained through abuses in the UN Oil for Food Program. Well, actually, Kerry might support the War a bit, just not enough to pay for it. Oh, wait! I forgot! He voted for the $87 billion before he voted against it. My mistake. Oh brother, John Kerry's Presidential Campaign disaster control specialists are really earning their paychecks this week.

The central question in the 2004 Election race is not the differences in the handling of the War on Terror between Bush and Kerry, but how in the world Kerry has managed to maintain 50% support of the voting public in light of his history of policy flip flops, blatant pandering to special interest groups, and flat out inability to make any sense. The answer is, unfortunately, thanks to our public education system, large numbers of Americans lack the basic critical thinking skills and interest in citizenship necessary to understand and form opinions on the complex issues of our day.

In 1999-2000, According to Laubach Literary Action, an international nonprofit literacy corporation, the US Department of Labor, and the US Department of Education: 50% of American adults could not read at an eight grade level, 20% were functionally illiterate, 34% had only marginal reading skills, 80% of 21-25 year olds could not read a bus schedule and 73% could not interpret a newspaper story. In terms of geographic dispersion: 51% of illiterate adults live in small towns and suburbs, 44% in cities, and 5% in rural areas. Hmm. There seems to be a pattern forming. Could it be that the areas where John Kerry and Liberals draw their highest levels of support be the same areas with the highest levels of poorly educated adults? Plot these statistics onto a map and voila! You will find an 80% correlation between Al Gore's "blue" states and high levels of adult functional illiteracy.

No wonder the Democratic Party is in the pocket of the teachers' unions! They are churning out legions of undecided voters whose intellectual curiosity does not extend past the "Greenpeace" and "Mom's Bus" bumper stickers on their SUV's.

This is not a question of intelligence. Obviously, people who vote for Democrats are not a bunch of idiots. Most voters do try to research issues and conscientiously weigh out their opinions. However, we have to ask if they have been taught the skills and inclination to sort through the torrents of propaganda from all political parties and separate fact from spin. Statistics suggest they have not. Suddenly, it is much easier to understand how so many people can believe in UFO's, alternative religions, and Michael Moore movies.

While many Democrats and Liberals truly understand and hold to their values, John Kerry is not one of them. When he felt that the political climate was pro-defense, he voted for the use of force in Iraq. When our enemies decided to not roll over, play dead, and fought a little harder than the far Left could stomach, Kerry voted against funding the War and stole Howard Dean's anti-war message, sweeping himself to victory in the Primaries. Now, Kerry has a national election to win and wants to be pro-defense again. He is counting on you not remembering what he said a year ago. He is counting on you not paying attention. He hopes that you do not realize that he cannot have it both ways.

The choice is up to you. Are you willing to turn the television off long enough to become a functional member of our Republic? Or on Election Day, you are content being dumb, docile, and Democrat?

justindarr@juno.com