Firstly: <mod hat="on">Thanks for keeping it civil. Thank you.</mod>
Now: If we're going to discuss the finer points of voting against Kerry, let's not leave out the finer points of voting against Bush.
- The PATRIOT Act has begun the unravelling of the very civil liberties our prior commanders-in-chief and their armies and soldiers died to guarantee for us. Don't invoke their honor when dismissing a decorated veteran who saw wrong in a policy and practice then tried to correct it.
- 1.3 million (1,300,000) more people this year than last live below the line of poverty. The economy is up? Home ownership is up because homes are effectively cheaper: incentive-providing interest rates, "creative" accounting, and sub-standard construction materials and practices allowed for more people to buy homes as investments to dump in the short term. Also, 25 percent of our population is without healthcare of any kind (I join those ranks in a couple weeks, unfortunately) and nearly 6% of us are unemployed. It's better than many countries around the world, but none as developed as we purport to be.
- The No Child Left Behind legislation has arguably left more children behind than it has salvaged. Test scores have not markedly improved, and "teacher accountability" has stressed the budgets of elementary and secondary public schools to the point where overcrowding and out-of-date texts (though being fought) are revealed as the greatest cause of failure. There is such a thing as "environmental accountability" which has yet to be explored.
- Though America and the world may be safer since Hussein was ousted, it must be admitted that our current President had - and this is a biggie - absolutely no legitimate cause to invade Iraq. Doing so eliminated the international support we were granted after the Sep.11 tragedy, and doing so with such poor intelligence information eroded the faith our people require in our administration, our intelligence services, and our armed forces. One order from Bush would have pre-empted the entire issue: "Tell me where in Iraq the WMDs are."
- The prescription drug plan delivered by this administration falls so far short of that promised and needed by our poor, disabled, and senior citizens it can be argued that it leaves each of them off in a worse place. People that could barely afford their medicine previously now can't afford anything but.
- Social Security is gone. Oh, people will still be able to collect for the next few years, but by the time those of us who put in more money for social security per capita than anyone else in its history are eligible to collect it, it won't be there. There was a solution, and a damned good one, but it belonged to the guy who never actually claimed to invent the internet.
- The demeanor and behavior of the administration and their party as a whole has from the start been one of deceit, destruction, and dementia. Okay, not dementia necessarily, but it sure reads well, doesn't it? Cheney's Halliburton back pay for one. Bush's brother's crony and henchfolk barring legally allowed voters from exercising their right, for another. The illegal connection to the Swiftboat group. The revenge on Saddam for an assassination attempt on W's daddy. I could go on, but I just done typed a whole bunch already.
This: I'm self-employed, have been for a month. The wife and I are trying to get our personal chef service off the ground (
check our site!) and I've been delivering lunches and marketing to offices, which entails a lot of driving. In the morning, I listen to conservative talk radio (Glenn Beck, Laura Ingram, Rush, Prager) and in the afternoon I listen to moderate talk radio (NPR). I read the New York Times by email and watch the local Fox affiliate news. I avoid cable news like the plague. I do these things to get an all-around view of every issue I can (I'm a Libra, it takes me a lot of information and digestion to make a decision, except from a menu at a restaurant). I claim no party, and probably never will. In this election I'm supporting Kerry, because I know that he'll begin to right the wrongs incurred by George W. Bush and his employees at the White House. He may not finish the job in even two terms, because it's a hell of a task he's got to undertake, and if you don't understand that, well, I don't think I even want to know you.
Edited to add (I know, I know, enough already): That last line was cribbed from a TV show. Sorry. I don't care who you vote for -- well, I do, a little, but I'm only trying to sway, not force, you to do that -- just go vote. Don't throw away a national right, a human right, and a global governmental privilege for which so many have yearned and fought and still yearn and fight.
Author
Topic: I'm thinking about not voting in this election. (Read 12753 times)