A Kerry Endorsement

Four years ago, I represented the republicans and wrote the pro-Bush opinion piece for my high school newspaper. Today, with most of a college career behind me, my ideology is somewhat more refined but not vastly different than it was in high school. However, as a moderate conservative, I will be voting not for Bush, but for John Kerry this November.

My posts on this blog from the past year or so help to explain my evolution from a Bush supporter to a Kerry supporter. Overall, the war in Iraq was just too big a blunder for this administration. I'm not saying what we did was wrong, it was how we did it. The terrorists committed a grave mistake on 9/11. Their destruction rallied the world around America like never before. Instead of 9/11 resulting in a United States vs. Al Qaeda construct, the terrorists were faced with a unified world determined to eradicate the haters of freedom and democracy. Our country was reaffirmed as the beacon of hope and liberty. The world sympathized with us when we were grieving, and proved its allegiance to our cause when we lead a truly multilateral force into Afghanistan. Today, Afghanistan is on the road to democracy, having just completed their first ever popular elections. The terrorists in Afghanistan have been routed.

But George W. Bush didn't stop here. Sensing an opportunity long awaited, Bush heeded the words of his most extremist neoconservative advisers and hastily pushed for war in Iraq. Under false justifications, the president lead our country into a devastating conflict that has squandered the support of the world and turned many of our newest friends into new enemies. Two years later, over 1,000 of our soldiers are dead, 100,000 civilians in Iraq have been killed as a result of the war, suicide bombers and ever-increasing ranks of terrorists wreak daily havoc in Iraq, a recent stockpile of powerful Iraqi weaponry has gone missing, our once invincible military has been stretched so thin that rumors of the draft have entered into public discourse, and the UN and most of the world refuses to support Bush in our grand Iraqi experiment for freedom, mush less the global war on terrorism.

On the global scale, George W. Bush is a divider. As Thomas Friedman said today, "When U.S. policy makes such a profound lurch to the right, when we start exporting fear instead of hope, the whole center of gravity of the world is affected." Right now, the enormous costs we are single-handedly bearing to keep Iraq afloat are negatively affecting our ability to pay for other important programs here at home...like homeland security efforts. With that said, the Iraqi effort must not be abandoned. We must get the job done, but to do that, we need a president who is a uniter in world affairs. We need a president who can bring our allies back to the table and help us with the enormous burden in Iraq. We need a president who will recast the war on terrorism as a global war rather than a U.S. vs. the terrorists struggle.

John Kerry is not a perfect candidate. On domestic issues such as the economy, I have major problems with John Kerry's liberal ideology. But I know that the Republican congress will keep Kerry in check and maintain moderate policy for the next four years. On the other hand, with a Republican majority in Congress and a fresh new mandate, George W. Bush can only be expected to become more extreme should he win this election. In today's interconnected world, John Kerry will better understand that in order to survive and prosper, one must be a uniter and not a divider. It is for that reason that I’ll be voting for John Kerry on November 2nd.

Comments

[GOP Response]

From the Wed 06 Oct 2004 issue of the Ellensburg Daily Record (Ellensburg, Washington)... written by Mathew Manweller... Central Washington University political science professor...

"In that this will be my last column before the presidential election, there will be no sarcasm, no attempts at witty repartee. The topic is too serious, and the stakes are too high. This November we will vote in the only election during our lifetime that will truly matter. Because America is at a once-in-a-generation crossroads, more than an election hangs in the balance. Down one path lies retreat,abdication and a reign of ambivalence. Down the other lies a nation that is aware of its past and accepts the daunting obligation its future demands. Ifwe choose poorly, the consequences will echo through the next 50 years of history. If we, in a spasm of frustration, turn out the current occupant of the White House, the message to the world and ourselves will be two-fold. First, we will reject the notion that America can do big things. Once a nation that tamed a frontier, stood down the Nazis and stood upon the moon, we will announce to the world that bringing democracy to the Middle East is too big of a task for us. But more significantly, we will signal to future presidents that as voters, we are unwilling to tackle difficult challenges, preferring caution to boldness, embracing the mediocrity that has characterized other civilizations. The defeat of President Bush will send a chilling message to future presidents who may need to make difficult, yet unpopular decisions. America has always been a nation that rises to the demands of history regardless of the costs or appeal. If we turn away from that legacy, we turn away from who we are. Second, we inform every terrorist organization on the globe that the lesson of Somalia was well learned. In Somalia we showed terrorists that you don't need to defeat America on the battlefield when you can defeat them in the newsroom. They learned that a wounded America can become a defeated America Twenty-four-hour news stations and daily tracing polls will do the heavy lifting, turning a cut into a fatal blow. Except that Iraq is Somalia times 10. The election of John Kerry will serve notice to every terrorist in every cave that the soft underbelly of American power is the timidity of American voters. Terrorists will know that a steady stream of grizzly photos for CNN is all you need to break the will of the American people. Our own self-doubt will take it from there. Bin Laden will recognize that he can topple any American administration without setting foot on the homeland. It is said that America's W.W.II generation is its 'greatest generation.' But my greatest fear is that it will become known as America's 'last generation.' Born in the bleakness of the Great Depression and hardened in the fire of WW II, they may be the last American generation that understands the meaning of duty, honor and sacrifice. It is difficult to admit, but I know these terms are spoken with only hollow detachment by many (but not all) in my generation. Too many citizens today mistake 'living in America' as 'being an American.' But America has always been more of an idea than a place. When you sign on, you do more than buy real estate. You accept a set of values and responsibilities. This November, my generation, which has been absent too long, must grasp the obligation that comes with being an American, or fade into the oblivion they may deserve. I believe that 100 years from now historians will look back at the election of 2004 and see it as the decisive election of our century. Depending on the outcome, they will describe it as the moment America joined the ranks of ordinary nations; or they will describe it as the moment the prodigal sons and daughters of the greatest generation accepted their burden as caretakers of the City on the Hill." Mathew Manweller

[Skop]

Zach is my hero

[bush]

zach is a misinformed idiot

[Dave Crow]

I'm so glad to see that Zach has not only made the right decision in this crucial election, but that he has done so for reasons I largely agree with.

I think the greatest tragedy over the last four years was the way that Bush has completely squandered the worldwide unity present after 9/11. Remember how the British played the Start Spangled Banner, or how the French newspaper La Monde proclaimed in its headline "We are all Americans." Can you imagine that happening now?

Bush had an oppurtunity like never before in our history to unite the world and use that unity to help crush the terrorist networks all around the world. Instead he has created more resentment of the U.S. than at any time in our history.

Furthermore, Bush's policies both in Iraq and at home have made us significantly less safe, not more safe. First, by going into Iraq Bush not only diverted attention from Bin Laden and Al Queda, but he also has created an entirely new generation of terrorists. I admit that the neocon inside me does think that getting rid of Saddam was the right thing to do. However, the way we went about it was completely wrong. There are tens of thousands of Iraqis who have died because of the U.S. invasion, and many more who are now living miserable and chaotic lives due to our mishandling of the war. Those people all hate the U.S. and will serve as a base for Al Queda recruitment for generations to come.

Also, Bush has made virtually no effort to secure the nuclear material that could be used by terrorists to blow up a city like New York or Washington. I'm from New York and there's not a day that goes by that I don't somehow fear that I will turn on CNN to find the entire city destroyed by some terrorist nuke. It's a scary and very real possibility. However, under Bush's watch, N. Korea has increased the number of nuclear bombs they have and Russia's nuclear material has not been secured. The latest information about these weapons suddenly disapearing from Iraq is just more proof that the Bush administration does not have its priorities staight when it comes to preventing another major terrorist attack,

At home Bush's policies have also made us less safe. As much as he claims to have significantly increased homeland security funding, hte way he has done so has been both insuficient incorrect. Today, states like Montana are getting significantly more homeland security funding per capita than states like New York or California. Not only is this causing huge budget deficits in these states, it is also causing fire houses to close and policemen to be laid off. If there was another major terrorist attack we would be significantly worse off today than we were on 9/11 due to Bush's lack of sufficient funding for first responders.

The recent tape released by Bin Laden is just another reminder to me that Bush has failed in his mission as commander in chief since 9/11. He has not only failed to capture the man who attacked us, he has also claimed that he doesn't even worry too much about Bin Laden. Bush is a president who has his priorities so out of wack that he can't even tell who the true enemies are.

In contrast, John Kerry is someone who I know will target our enemies who pose the greatest threat to our country, and he will do so in a way that does not isolate our allies. And although he would inherit one of the worst global situations since Vietnam, I truly believe that John Kerry is the best person to reunite the world behind us and to truly create a safer, stronger America. That is why I join Zach in supporting John Kerry for President.

[liberals suck]

How can u say Bush has failed, when he hasnt had an attack since 9/11?