Ford for Kerry?

[The Duke]

I'm thinking of voting for John Kerry to punish George W. Bush.  I'll post why when I get home.  I'm also going to try on a red avatar.

[The Duke]

Now that I am home from work, I have the time to explain myself.  Yes, this is actually me, States.

No, I am not leaving the Party.  I think the Democratic party is beset by a series of problems and is long gone from their Truman-Kennedy roots, I'd like to tell every one of the moderate Democrat posters on this board that if they think they can affect change in the party from the inside, you are nuts.

No, I don't like John Kerry.  I think he is a borderline traitor.  His involvement in the Winter Soldier investigation makes him as bad as Michael Moore.  His views on policy are as wrong as wrong can be, from social policy, to defense policy, to economic policy.  

If he were to win this election, the country would be in mortal peril, as would our allies.  The course we would take would put nuclear arms in the hands of Iran, would likely result in Israel being wiped off the map, and could result in countless deaths of Americans right here in our homeland.  But how would that be different than what we have right now?

There are two categories of reasons for my consideration of voting for Kerry.  The first, is the failure of George Bush to fulfill the promises he made four years ago, the second is the failure of George Bush to resolve problems that have arisen in the period between his election and today.

There were three reasons I voted for Bush in 2000, and he has failed in all three regards, though to varying degree.  He promised income tax cuts and social security reform, which I saw as a large part of the solution to a recession I foresaw coming.  The second was his promise to restore honor and dignity to the White House, after the disgusting Clinton years.  The third was his promise to rebuild the military.  The last was the most important by far.

He did cut income taxes; I'll give him that.  And for a while, the economy seemed to be recovering.  But he has done nothing to modernize the US government or reform its often times wasteful operations.  He has done nothing about a spendthrift congress.  He has no energy policy, no trade policy, and no labor policy.  He has failed to sufficiently augment his primary economic policy with corollary policies that will make it workable.  Now, with rising deficits and energy costs and a trade deficit that is growing at a remarkable rate, the economy is falling back into recession.  I wanted Bush because he would improve the economy.  At the end of his first term, he has left it just as he found it when he started: on the verge of full-blown recession.

He did avoid the sex scandals that plagued the Clinton White House; I'll give him that.  But the crony capitalism he embodies cannot be forgiven lightly.  The no-bid contracts to Halliburton, the cutting of safety regulations, and most of all the appointment of one CEO and lobbyist to a high position after another.  Don Evans, John Snow, Paul O'Neil, Donald Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney, Mel Martinez, and more.  The lineup of CEOs and lobbyists, the embracing of the revolving door, and the serving of special interests over national interests is disgraceful.  What would Teddy Roosevelt say?  What would Reagan say?  What would Lincoln say?  This is not the Republican Party I joined.

The unforgivable sin is the failure to rebuild the military.  I said in 2000 that Clinton's irresponsible policies were resulting in a military that was too small to perform its missions and was faced with too many commitments overseas.  Today, the military is smaller than it was four years ago (In fact, reducing the size of the military has been official US policy for Donald Rumsfeld's Pentagon) and has infinitely more missions.  We are going in the wrong direction on both counts.

Some Presidents fail to fulfill their promises but achieve great things by dealing with crises along the way to completing their term.  Has Bush done this?  Not really.

Since December of 2001, when the Taliban fell, US foreign policy in response to 9/11 has been one disaster after another.  The prime example of this bumbling is the conduct of the Bush administration on Iraq.  I supported and still support the Iraq War.  They sponsored terrorism, they had weapons of mass destruction and programs to build more, and they were run by a genocidal lunatic.  But the way Bush went about the invasion was ham handed and frighteningly irresponsible.

In the run up to war, the administration failed.  They spent 15 months between the Axis of Evil Speech and the actual invasion.  Then, they used a force that was too small and too light for the job.  This is not Monday morning quarterbacking, I said this at the time.  We now know that Saddam and Al Qaeda (Zarqawi in particular) used that time to organize the insurgency.  Soldiers died because Bush hesitated.  There's no way around it.

In the aftermath of the war, the Bush policy has rewarded our enemies and punished our friends.  Ahmad Chalabi has been persecuted, as it turns out with no justification, and his brother charged with murder, in spite of there being no actual evidence of his involvement.  Ali Sistani has bee snubbed and insulted.  The Kurds have been ignored.  Our election plan gives special favors to the Sunnis, the one group most hostile to the US.  We have coddled Sadr, put a Saddamite general in charge of Fallujah, and have left $18 billion in aid money unspent.  Iraq's unemployment rate is now near 70% according to some estimates, and jobless Iraqis means a happy Osama.

The refusal to transfer power to Iraqis and insist on a US led occupation made things worse.  Paul Bremer was a disaster, and everything he did was wrong.  Now that we have transferred power to Iraqis, the Iraq we chose (actually he was chosen by the anti-American UN and the anti-American envoy Lakhdar Brahimi, who we handed that job over to) is Iyad Allawi.  Allawi is an undemocratic former Ba'athist.  The leadership and institutions we have set up in Iraq do not in any way resemble democracy.  Nearly 1000 American soldiers died to bring democracy to Iraq, and George Bush has established a perfect setup for a new dictatorship, this time under Iyad Alalwi.  If this turns out to be true, those kids died for almost nothing.  This makes me physically ill.

If anyone can talk me out of my mood, please do.  I have never been this pessimistic about the future of my country.  I don't want to believe the worst about Bush, but I think he has sold us (the party) out.  Supersoulty, StateRights, MarkDel, talk me out of this if you can.  This isn't meant to be a conversion to the Democrats, its an exorcism of the Republicans.

[The Duke]

States,

Its Bush that doesn't understand that we're in a war.  He goes out and signs a Dividend tax cut and a Medicare drug benefit, extremely expensive things, at a time when they are more needed for national defense than at any time since the early 80s.  Where is the action on Iran?  On Syria?  On Sudan?  Its nowhere.  We got bamboozled into thinking this guy was serious.

[The Duke]

Call at 5:45.

I hope you can get me off the fence, because I don't like Kerry.  But I'm so tired of having to defend Bush.

[The Duke]

I agree that the national security situation would be a disaster.  We may need a disaster to relearn the cost of appeasement.  We'll get one no matter who wins, at least this way its not blamed on us.

How easily we forget the hard truths.

[The Duke]

I wouldn't go so far as to say that the economic policy sucks, but I think it is badly lacking in a number of areas.

[The Duke]

Soulty,

I hope I change my mind too.  But it won't be something Bush says or something any poster says.  I'm tired of the words.  I want action.

Do something about Sadr.
Do something about Fallujah.
Do something about Sudan.
Do anything!

I am an undecided voter.  I am leaving open the possibility that I vote for John Kerry.  I want the Bush family out of Republican politics, and if W wins than we might nominate Jeb in '08, and that is as frightening as another four years of having Bush's failures reflected on the party.

[The Duke]

With or without Jeb, my primary concerns still remain.

[The Duke]

Soulty,

I'm tired of these excuses.  Take Social Security for example.  He hasn't tried.  You can't say its impossible if you're not willing to try.  Maybe social security reform would be blocked.  So waht?  Let the democrats block it, and let them answer to a generation of young voters who see this as their #1 economic concern.

[The Duke]

Muon and Supersoulty have brought me back in line.  They were very persuasive, and plus I watched a Kerry speech today, and I realized something important.

John Kerry is a vagina.

He is a big, blubbering, walking, talking, piece of female genitalia.  No Republican is incompetent enough to make me vote for that prick.  Lieberman, maybe.  But not Kerry.

Kerry wants you to vote for him because he's not Bush.

Well, I'm voting Bush because he's not John Kerry.

[The Duke]

This posting made me laugh JF.  Not because its wrong, because its funny.  You have a great sense of humor (for a Republican).  

I do what I can.

[The Duke]

To all the old timers,

Anyone here who is thinking about leaving because the quality of debate has dropped a little, don't.  You never fix something by walking away.  You should never leave a room full of people who disagree with you.

[The Duke]

To all the old timers,

Anyone here who is thinking about leaving because the quality of debate has dropped a little, don't.  You never fix something by walking away.  You should never leave a room full of people who disagree with you.

I hope I have been part of the solution, and not part of the problem.

I don't want anyone to leave on account of my personal style, which can be grating for many.

No.  I was referring to the sudden tide of libertarian trolls and people like jfern and raggage.

[The Duke]

I was referring to the sudden tide of libertarian trolls...

Could you be more specific? I find most of the Libertarians to have logical and appropriate posts. I cannot think of a flamer at the moment. Please advise.

Johngalt comes to mind.  Long posts about the gold standard and all.  badnarik04 a little bit, too.

[The Duke]

I'm thinking of voting for John Kerry to punish George W. Bush.  I'll post why when I get home.  I'm also going to try on a red avatar.

We neither need nor want you on our side.

Tweed,

Nobody likes you.