navwin » Discussion » The Alley » Conservatives on the move!
The Alley
Post A Reply Post New Topic Conservatives on the move! Go to Previous / Newer Topic Back to Topic List Go to Next / Older Topic
Krawdad
Member Elite
since 2001-01-03
Posts 2597


0 posted 2004-11-01 01:49 AM


I knew there were some thinking conservatives out there.
Join the move.
Better late than never.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Vote For A Man, Not A Puppet
Orlando Sentinel
Charlie Reese

************

Americans should realize that if they vote for President Bush's re-election, they are really voting for the architects of war - Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz and the rest of that cabal of neoconservative ideologues and their corporate backers. I have sadly come to the conclusion that President Bush is merely a front man, an empty suit, who is manipulated by the people in his administration. Bush has the most dangerously simplistic view of the world of any president in my memory.

It's no wonder the president avoids press conferences like the plague. Take away his cue cards and he can barely talk. Americans should be embarrassed that an Arab King (Abdullah of Jordan) spoke more fluently and articulately in English than our own President at their joint press conference recently.

John Kerry is at least an educated man, well-read, who knows how to think and who knows that the world is a great deal more complex than Bush's comic-book world of American heroes and foreign evildoers. It's unfortunate that in our poorly educated country, Kerry's very intelligence and refusal to adopt simplistic slogans might doom his presidential election efforts.

But Thomas Jefferson said it well, as he did so often, when he observed that people who expect to be ignorant and free expect what never was and never will be.

People who think of themselves as conservatives will really display their stupidity, as I did in the last election, by voting for Bush. Bush is as far from being a conservative as you can get. Well, he fooled me once, but he won't fool me twice.

It is not at all conservative to balloon government spending, to vastly increase the power of government, to show contempt for the Constitution and the rule of law, or to tell people that foreign outsourcing of American jobs is good for them, that giant fiscal and trade deficits don't matter, and that people should not know what their government is doing. Bush is the most prone-to-classify, the most secretive president in the 20th century. His administration leans dangerously toward the authoritarian.

It's no wonder that the Justice Department has convicted a few Arab-Americans of supporting terrorism. What would you do if you found yourself arrested and a federal prosecutor whispers in your ear that either you can plea-bargain this or the President will designate you an enemy combatant and you'll be held incommunicado for the duration ?

This election really is important, not only for domestic reasons, but because Bush's foreign policy has been a dangerous disaster. He's almost restarted the Cold War with Russia and the nuclear arms race. America is not only hated in the Middle East, but it has few friends anywhere in the world thanks to the arrogance and ineptness of the Bush administration.

Don't forget, a scientific poll of Europeans found us, Israel, North Korea and Iran as the greatest threats to world peace.

I will swallow a lot of petty policy differences with Kerry to get a man in the White House with brains enough not to blow up the world and us with it.

Go to Kerry's Web site (http://johnkerry.com) and read some of the magazine profiles on him. You'll find that there is a great deal more to Kerry than the GOP attack dogs would have you believe.

Besides, it would be fun to have a president who plays hockey, windsurfs, ride motorcycles, plays the guitar, writes poetry and speaks French. And . . it would be good to have a man in the White House who has killed people face to face. Killing people has a sobering effect on a man and dispels all illusions about war.

----------------------------------------------------------------

C 2004 by King Features Syndicate, Inc



© Copyright 2004 Krawdad - All Rights Reserved
Huan Yi
Member Ascendant
since 2004-10-12
Posts 6688
Waukegan
1 posted 2004-11-01 01:59 AM


“Bush has the most dangerously simplistic view of the world of any president in my memory.”

I agree Bush is a flag pole, from which fly colors he not the best to articulate,
but those under and around those colors are competent and capable men and
women.

Kerry stands for Kerry, first, last, and always.

I heard sometime ago a Frenchman opine
on United State’s view by saying that Americans
live in a church. France I think has a more
sophisticated view of the world,
to the point of impotence.

Some time ago there was a thirty year commemoration
of the massacre of Jewish athletes at the Olympic Games
on ABC.  I was surprised to learn from it that it was
commonly understood that the subsequent airplane
hijacking which led to the release of the surviving
captured terrorists involved in that massacre
occurred with the knowledge and collusion
of the German government in exchange for
a promise that no more terrorist attacks
would again be inflicted on German soil.

Russia?  They warned us of terrorist attacks being
planned by Iraq on the United States, but
opposed our military action.  Now I hear shortly
before that action, they had their special forces
in Iraq trying to retrieve or destroy all evidence
of their dealing with Iraq during the sanctions
including the sale of weaponry, ( even that
they may have made off with the missing
explosives which were their products).

I’m not sure simple is not more right.

John


Aenimal
Member Rara Avis
since 2002-11-18
Posts 7350
the ass-end of space
2 posted 2004-11-01 08:22 AM


Kraw there are quite a few out there http://www.republicansforkerry.org/


Midnitesun
Deputy Moderator 1 Tour
Member Empyrean
since 2001-05-18
Posts 28647
Gaia
3 posted 2004-11-01 10:41 AM


Thanks Kraw, that is very interesting.
Let's hope there are millions more thinking similar thoughts, and voting accordingly.

Post A Reply Post New Topic ⇧ top of page ⇧ Go to Previous / Newer Topic Back to Topic List Go to Next / Older Topic
All times are ET (US). All dates are in Year-Month-Day format.
navwin » Discussion » The Alley » Conservatives on the move!

Passions in Poetry | pipTalk Home Page | Main Poetry Forums | 100 Best Poems

How to Join | Member's Area / Help | Private Library | Search | Contact Us | Login
Discussion | Tech Talk | Archives | Sanctuary