With regard to Kent Southard's readers
(note: you can read Kent Southard's "Whispers" column at: http://www.bushwatch.net/kent.htm)
Sara DeHart (page 24)
February 23, 2002


One writer's comment about Kent Southhard's Whispers: "I have been meeting with a group of white, male, all-American, high 40's (I assume age), affluent businessmen at a country club in a high tech suburb of a major American city. They rate Bush's policy efforts thus far as 8 or 9 out of 10." [Initials withheld]

Given this profile, we can make some assumptions about this group.

1) Although they are most likely college graduates, they never studied civics or history.

2) They most likely saw only political advantage in the December 12, 2000 U.S.S.C. decision rather than a threat to American democracy. They have not read Vincent Bugliosi, "The Betrayal of America." They firmly believe that all who do not agree with them on this issue are "fringe types."

3) They rarely read anything beyond the business section of newspapers and are guided by the Wall Street Journal.

4) They believe the OP-Ed articles printed in the Wall Street Journal, including those written by Peggy Noonan and Rush Limbaugh.

5) They watch the Fox News Channel and believe they are well informed.

6) They are willing to forgive Bush for his misstatements including those made in his address to Japan's Diet: "the great alliance of peace between the United States and Japan for the last century and a half." After all, a History major from Yale shouldn't have to worry about details such as World War II. They understand fully that the White House version that first appeared as initially spoken (and undoubtedly written for the teleprompter) was later corrected to read "for the last half century." Mere details and trivia that only "the fringe" would notice.

7) They believe that Enrongate is a business problem, not a political one that ensnares gwb&co like a snake.

8) They did not process the Nixon or Watergate lessons. Ah, but they were just children when all that was happening. And if you don't study history or civics, then you end up as 40 year old males who believe in supply-side economics and tax refunds for the select few (1%) while a recession looms and we move from a budget surplus to a deficit in about a year with busheconomics.

9) But what I do not understand about a group of business people is that they would not be alarmed by the recession and the growing number of layoffs among the formerly affluent. Lots of affluent people are looking for jobs these days and have to make decisions about whether to pay the mortgage or their health insurance premiums. I also do not understand how they look at their stock portfolios which are most likely heavily laden with technical stocks, see the effect of the bottom dropping out of their holdings, and not wonder about gwb&co's policies.

10) Finally, I do not understand how this group does not have a single quiver of distrust about a president who after 9/11 likens this to winning the triple crown in horse racing and tries to move the country and world into a state of constant, ongoing war.


Sara S. DeHart, Concerned Citizen
Democracy Activist

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