Vote for Bush or against liberalism?

2 Blowhards (via Spitbull) make an excellent point, something I'd kind of tossed around in my head for a while, but hadn't yet been able to put into words: A post-election point that seemed to me to be overlooked was that perhaps many of those who pulled the Bush lever weren't really voting for Bush. After all, who really likes what he's done to the economy, let alone his stance on immigration? Perhaps what many Bush voters were doing instead was voting against Kerry's backers, many of whom have been fantastically abusive and snide towards Red America. As far as I can tell, it almost never occurs to the left that the other half of America might not like being ridiculed, being called stupid, and being put down for what they believe in. I recall that while watching the Republican convention the cameras did two quick cuts to a couple random demonstrators who snuck in that caused a momentary ruckus in the crowd, but were quickly removed from the arena. At the time I couldn't help thinking that I dislike Kerry almost as much as they oppose Bush, but I wouldn't hurl myself into their convention and get my dumb ass arrested. My second thought was what would America think? Do most Americans want these nuts inspired by the likes of Michael Moore running the country? It's generally accepted that the two things you don't discuss (especially with family at Thanksgiving. That's a food fight waiting to happen) are politics and religion because everyone has firm beliefs in both subjects. But the average Joe doens't want extremist moonbats running the nation calling them morons because they believe in God or think abortion is wrong or think the death penalty is a good thing, etc. So the question is did the anarchist protesters (who are now hysterically apologizing to the rest of the world via the internet) do more harm than good? In my case they didn't change my mind, they just confirmed my principles and strengthened my resolve. But I'm sure that there were people out there offended at their blatant disregard for authority and figured four more years of Bush couldn't be that bad. And if it pisses off some of the lunatic fringe, even better.