Politics Again

I can understand why people are not voting FOR John Kerry. He’s a classic liberal and even to me it sounds like he’ll be expanding the government in healthcare, national security, etc. Some folks simply are not comfortable with that and don’t see the need for more government involvement in those areas. I can respect that viewpoint.

But I can’t understand why people are not voting AGAINST Bush. I just don’t see ANY net positive in voting for him. Indeed, I think he is so bad (worst president ever) that I can’t understand folks not voting for John Kerry simply to get rid of Bush. To me it goes to the ancient medical oath: First Do No Harm.

Any vote that might help George Bush stay in office, by definition (to me), will do harm to the United States of America. Seriously. I’m not kidding.

I was going to put together a list and supply the citations to backtrack to the source of the reasons I feel this way and email it to everyone I know who is voting for Bush, or going for third party candidates. I don’t know any undecided voters except possibly one Limey Bastard in New Mexico (who I miss a great deal). I decided instead to just give money and do what little I could. So, at this point, Laura and I have poured more money than we can really afford into the campaign and each of us has put in probably 20 or 30 volunteer hours. This weekend she spent four hours phonebanking and I spent that time going door to door to GOTV (Get Out The Vote) for Congressman Martin Frost. It is exhausting work, but hell, I need the exercise anyway.

But I don’t understand why folks won’t vote against Bush.

To me, lying about the reasons we are sending out soldiers to war alone is grounds to get rid of him. Can anyone give me a valid reason for the war in Iraq? No, seriously. It was not WMD, we knew he did not have any (more and more it is coming out that the administration actually had no evidence he had any and that they circumvented the weapons inspectors to prevent it coming out that). It was not to bring democracy to the Iraqi people. I honestly don’t even think it was oil, although that was a factor.

Why are we there?

To me this is the central issue of the whole campaign. This is for two reasons; first of all I think that before you commit American troops to combat you must have tried all available diplomatic avenues and be facing an imminent threat. The second reason is, I believed the lies told to us by the Bush administration that there was an imminent threat. My stomach told me I was wrong, but I went against my better instincts and supported President Bush regarding the war in Iraq. Laura was smarter than me. I don’t know, maybe her years of living with me as a hopeless alcoholic gave her the ability to see through the lies.

I remember telling her: the President of the United States would not put our soldiers into combat without a valid reason to do so. She frowned and said, I hope you’re right.

I was in Tampa for a trade show when we rolled into Iraq. I watched journalists play soldier just like everyone else. I got sick to my stomach when CNN caught an ambush under a bridge near Baghdad and I saw and American soldier get shot. But I told myself, we had to go. He had chemical munitions in the hands of the Republican Guard units and they are a half hour away from being used. Permission has been given to use WMD against our soldiers, Goddess be with them, please.

And none of it was true. Not one goddamn thing. I was one stupid sonofabitch for believing any of it.

So how can anyone who knows that they lied and that their lies put our soldiers into combat justify not voting against George Bush? How could any other issue sway your vote? Because in this race, this year, if you are voting third party, you are in effect casting a ballot that this administration is acceptable to you.
You are voting to trust them to not misuse our soldiers again. You are voting to that this was acceptable. Honestly, I would vote for Lyndon LaRouche or Pat Buchanan before I would vote for George Bush. I really would.

If you have any doubts, here’s a quick one hundred reasons to vote AGAINST George Bush.