Vorlon Whispers

Cindy Sheehan is Helping Bush

Cindy Sheehan had many Bush supporters worried. I think their time of worry is over. Aside from her leaving the scene of the battle her rhetoric has passed the point of making a difference. She is quoted in a speech she gave as calling Bush the biggest terrorist in the world and that the United States is not worth dying for.

I know a little something about human persuasion. One of the things I know is how hard it is to get anyone to change their mind. It’s not impossible, but it’s nearly so.

I view the U.S. population into three groups. The president’s supporters, his detractors, and those that aren’t certain if he’s doing the right thing or not. When she says the president is the biggest terrorist in the world, the president’s detractors all stand up and cheer. However, they’ve already decided that in the first place. All she’s doing is re-enforcing their firmly held beliefs.

When the presidents defenders here that, they get angry. She makes no converts there.

When those in the middle hear her words, she sounds like a kook. They may know she’s lost her son to the war and she has a right to grieve. But they don’t believe the president is a terrorist and certainly not the biggest in the world.

When she might have had a chance to sway these people with an emotional reasonable plea, she has elected to go for the extremist position and thus discredit herself.

She reminds me of the quote from Shakespeare, “a poor player, that struts and frets his hour upon the stage, and then is heard no more; it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.”

Posted by The Vorlon at August 19, 2005 9:30 PM