Just Tell Me Whycomments
john posted in politics & culture on September 27th, 2007
To a colleague and friend who is going to vote Republican:
You are a good Grandfather and a responsible citizen and all-around nice guy, you aren’t especially ideological or partisan, and you have a healthy skepticism about politics and politicians. Your self-characterization is centrist Republican, a stance I’d call Gerry Ford or Nelson Rockefeller Republican.
When we bemoan the state of the nation at the water cooler you agree that:
The Bush administration is incompetent and crooked and untrustworthy.
That religious zealotry has no place in politics.
The war in Iraq is a disaster with no positive outcome.
The war on terrorism is a front, created mostly to fund greedy opportunists and a hungry bureaucracy.
That the civilian work in Iraq is mostly war profiteering and waste.
That the Patriot Act invades the privacy of Americans illegally.
That the government cannot be trusted to obey the law.
That three-branch checks and balances are not functioning.
That the federal government utterly failed to do its job in the Katrina disaster
That the Bush administration is wildly over-spending.
That infrastructure spending has been wrongly ignored, and that it is inherently better for the economy than military spending.
That the Bush administration has put political flacks in government where professionals used to be.
You are not as keen on environmentalism and global warming matters as I.
You think schools ought to be better, but aren’t fond of “welfare:” that non-specific pack of programs for low-income people.
You think social security has been robbed to pay into the general fund.
You aren’t fond of unions, though you think they were needed at one time.
You have no desire to roll back the New Deal, and you know it was a Democratic initiative fought bitterly by Republicans.
So basically you think the party in power in the executive branch has grossly overstepped its mandate and the bounds of constitutionality, has lied about the most important matters of state, has pandered to religious groups you dislike and mistrust, and has failed to perform its day-to-day duties in managing the country. You think the Republican administration has sent the troops to war without a good reason, and without preparation. You aren’t concerned about the administration’s environmental or racial civil rights record, but don’t like its intrusions on general civil liberties that affect all of us. You are more pro-choice than pro-life.
So you think you might vote for Giuliani, saying he might be the lesser of the evils.
What I want to know is just what does a party have to do to lose your vote? Engage in genocide? Promote slavery? What?
Janus