The Reality Mandate: Although Reality Is a Mere Commodity in the Faith-Based Universe of George W. Bush, A Truly Reality-Based Majority Must Prevail in the Next Two Years (Cover Story‪)‬

On January 20, 2005, George W. Bush will inaugurate his second term as president of the United States, and the nation is still divided. In its first four years, his administration failed to protect the country from the attacks of September 11, 2001, and invaded and occupied Iraq, where tens of thousands--even as many as l00,000--of that nation's people have been killed. This president led the country into a net loss of 1.2 million jobs, and 45 million Americans have been left without health care, many of whom are children. His administration's policies have also hacked away at civil liberties, hugely benefited the rich, and drastically lowered the image of the United States abroad. But on November 2, 2004, more than half of U.S. voters chose not to hold him accountable, prompting many across the globe to wonder, as was reflected on the cover of London's November 4, 2004, Daily Mirror, "How can 59,054,087 people be so DUMB?" But it isn't a matter of simple stupidity. It's the triumph of a huge campaign of carefully targeted, dissent-squelching, blame-evading, truth-denying propaganda. This administration has managed to convince large segments of the voting public of some astounding things: that Saddam Hussein had been stockpiling weapons of mass destruction and was somehow responsible for al-Qaida attacks on U.S. soil, that government surveillance is keeping America safe without sacrificing important constitutional liberties, that "tort reform" is necessary to improve the healthcare system--when in fact it limits the ability of citizens to fight for their own welfare in court against big pharmaceutical companies, that outsourcing is good for the economy, and that over a thousand U.S. troops killed in Iraq and a growing insurgency mean "mission accomplished," Tax cuts for the rich? We're giving you your money back! It was as though by continually repeating these things they somehow became true.