Voting Strategy 2004

This is where I tell you how you should vote. Yes, I know it's amazingly pretentious but in this election we are casting our votes for millions of persons who, with bated breath and benign indifference, need us to be both responsible and informed. This is a vote that will determine the course of the nation and comes at a critical moment in international affairs.

I. Your BallotFor President: John Kerry
For Vice-President: Write-In, John McCain
For the House: A thrid-party Candidate (but not the Greens)
For the Senate: Any Republican who isn't a racist or a homophobe

II. The Reasons (or the argument that John Kerry would make were he intelligent)

A. Foreign PolicyBush has been simply disastrous for our country's reputation. With resolve, he has blundered from one mess to another like an unfettered bovine on a grassy plain. To his credit, he did correctly identify the reality of international terrorism, and, correctly (much to the chagrin of some of more leftist friends) invade Afghanistan. However, the understaffing of Afghanistan, the wild goose chase in Iraq, the president's refusing to apologize, his casual and cocky dismissal of Kyoto, the ICC, and the ABM treaty all show that resolve and bravado are for naught when misinformation and untruths abound.

That being said, Iraq is the main front in the war on terror, and, I seriously doubt Kerry's resolve to see it through and Bush's ability to carry it out intelligently. The fact of the matter is, as I have said here, liberals inside Iraq have a greater hope for a post-tyranical liberal government on September 11, 2004 than they had on September 11, 2000. Will Kerry's internationalism rebuild Iraq and address the structural inequalities within the international market? Maybe. Will a president who is incapable of seeing, let's forget about admiting, his own errors (being president is "hard work") sucessfully re-oreint American policy after the meandaring, vapid compromises of Clinton? Absolutely not.

B. The Supreme Court
There will probably be many resignations over the next presidential term. Having a split government will promote more moderate justices willing to make the compromises necessary in a multicultural democracy.

C. Domestic Economic Policy
Bush's unrestrained spending, combined with lower taxes, has bankrupted the government. We need the fiscal restraint that real Republicans and Liberatarains offer in the Senate and the House. However, we need to send a message to Mr. Bush that we, the voters, find it unacceptable what he has done.

D. Why Third Party?
We, as the voters of America, need to send a message to Washington that if the two-party system continues to offer us uninspiring choices for leadership, we will turn to alternative sources for our inspiration.


Posted by John Stevenson at 8:42 PM |