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for myself, i look at this "flipflop" idiocy as indicative of how rove-adverts operate: like shampoo--lather rinse repeat.
they stick because they are short and they are repeated.
they stick because they provide the illusion of movement--here is an "issue"--repeat claims about the "issue" for a while, move on to the next element.
what i cant figure out about it is:
let us assume that a politician has to deal with a complex shifting environment, one that more often than not slips outside of a previous frame of reference and which therefore requires some effort to interpret.
you would think that being able to shift along with that would be indicative of thinking, wouldnt you?
so how does it work, this claim that adjustments, reversals, reconsiderations are indicative of weakness?
what seems to be happening is that the adverts, the slogan, package the refusal to interact with complexity as a good thing.
which is insane.
underneath this is a more troubling question of what exact attributes people would prefer to see in a president?
are people looking for a kind of father-figure, someone to whom they can attribute omniscience?
how would this not be adopting an infant's view of a parental figure?
this relation is more authoritarian than democratic.
j.g. ballard's argued in his book "the atrocity exhibition" that america has become a kind of super-monarchy mediated by television in which the image of the president (not the actually existing president) is central.
does this attribution of omniscience to the image of the president function best when the signifier is emptiest? are folk more drawn to this fantasy when they know it is a fantasy?
it sometimes seems that the bush people have not only worked this out, but are more than fine with it.
they use it to their advantage.
they embrace it.
you want to be dominated?
well here you go...
lather rinse repeat
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a gramophone its corrugated trumpet silver handle
spinning dog. such faithfulness it hear
it make you sick.
-kamau brathwaite
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