siamesedreamer said:
A Bush Win:
I think a Bush win would be disastrous for REPs long term. He is so polarizing that I think the 2006 midterms would be a DEM revolution tilting both houses back to the DEMs (if not put them back in the majority). I also think a Bush win could lead to 12-16 years of a DEM White House. I can't stand Rumsfeld (Bush needs to fire him immediately) and Bush completely dropped the ball by listening to Rummy when he went into Iraq without enough troops (as it turns out to be true now). I think all the problems in Iraq go back to that very thing - too little troops from the outset. That being said, 4 years is a long time in politics and my dreary forcast for a DEM revolution could turn out to be completely wrong.
While I agree that a Bush win this Tuesday would only serve to polarize this country even further. This country is already heavily divided, and I hope that whoever gets elected wins by a decent margin, with both the popular and the electoral vote or 2008 will be extremely ugly.
But the main point I want to make is that I completely agree with you all all issues you've brought up, (Rumsfeld needs to go, not enough troups)
but I think that all of the problems with Iraq go back to the failure of intelligence. Or to put it more in terms with how I am thinking of it, it comes down to the fact that this Preident wanted to go to war with Iraq and
found the reports that supported that action while ignoring all the evidence to the opposite. That is far away my biggest problem with the Iraq war. Adding in all of the other problems, such as not enough planning for troops, and the post war conditions just make this a president I can not vote for.
siamesedreamer said:
I think Bush has stronger convictions than Kerry and as a result is better suited to run the country in this time of terrorism. The economy (through the tax cuts) has been roaring back to life in the last 18 months or so. There's been 1.9 million new jobs created since 8/03. I would like to see the neo-con dream of a democratic nation in the heart of the middle east given 4 more years to see it through (as I think Kerry probably will cut and run - though not at first). I desperately would like to see Bush's idea of privatizing Social Security for young workers (that's probably the biggest reason why Bush gets my vote).
As for stronger convictions bit, I'll give you that. My problem is that Bush does not seem capable of admitting his mistakes, and then doing something about them. He'll say things didn't go the way they had planned, but then not change anything about his current actions. In terms of the economy, I'm not horribly well versed on it, but I was under the impression that it wasn't really doing all that great. More of a 'the stock market isn't doing too bad, but nothing else is really catching that momentum', feel free to point me in the direction of something that would enlighten me.
The jobs thing is more just horrible spin then anything else. Bush has lost jobs. He has yet to create any new jobs above what he had when going into office. As I am sure you have heard, that would make him the first president in a very long time to have a negative net loss of jobs while in office. His job creation policy is just now starting to chip away at the huge losses he has accrued, and unfortunately the jobs that are now being created are not near the quality of the jobs that were lost.
The neo-con idea for the middle east scares the shit out of me. Seriously. Look at the way the middle east neo-con plan has played out so far. Horribly. World domination is not something that I think is good for America and I definately do no think it's good for the world at large. We need to have a bit more restraint that just going in and trying to over throw different regimes. As for having a democratic nation in the heart of the middle east.. well I don't think we'll see it in another 4 years, and I doubt that even if we did, no matter under which President, it will have absolutely no legitmacy in that region. IN the long run it would be a great thing to have, but unfortunately coupled with the way that Iraqi in general was handled I think we have a very long wait to see anything good come out of that region in terms of democratic ideals.
In regards to Bush's privatizing social security.. wasn't this something he campaigned on in 2000? What the hell is he waiting for? Beyond the fact that I don't think it's the greatest idea, (the system we have now can work with some tweaking, and if we still had that surplus that Bush went through to make the largest deficit.), I wonder why alot of Bush's platforms are the excat same as the ones he ran on in 2000. I guess the war takes up most of his time...
siamesedreamer said:
A Kerry Win:
For all intents and purposes, this is the far left's last chance for a major power grab as I don't think Hillary has a prayer in 2008 should Kerry lose. Kerry would essentially be powerless through 2006 as both houses are controlled by the REPs. That's a comforting thought. I think he loves his country and would do everything possible to protect it. I also think there's a tiny chance that he could get other countries involved in Iraq.
I wouldn't put Kerry at the far left, but I can see how you might have that idea thanks to the unfortunately often cited Republican study that puts him 'more left' than Ted Kenedy. As for the comment about Hillary Clinton, I really don't think that having a woman run for President, much less the wife of the guy who actually balanced the budget, would be that bad of an idea nor do I see how if Kerry lost this election would have any effect on who would run in 2008. Anyways... I agree with you, for different reasons, that having Kerry as preisdent and the House/Senate as Republican would be good. It's a nice balance. It goes back to the idea of checks and balances that our government was founded on. I'd probably like to see the Senate go democratic instead of Republican.. but if it stays, I'm not going to be horribly upset. I think that this country opperates best when one side does not controll all aspects of the government. Just look at the Clinton era. This country got a helluvalot taken care of in those 8 years and thing were looking good before we lost this check and balance system.
As for loving his country and protecting it, I agree whole heartedly. In return, I also think Bush loves this country as well.. but the ideas on 'how' to protect is are where I think Kerry is more on mark. Again, agreed on the issue of Kerry being able to get more support from other countries. If not man power, then at least money, in exchange for cutting loose some of this no-bid Halliburton contracts.
siamesedream said:
But, there are so many things that he has shown me that makes it fundamentally impossible for me to vote for him. First, he wants to saddle my generation (I'm 27) with debt from another major government entitlement program in the form of government subsidized healthcare for millions and millions of Americans. My generation is already on the hook for trillions and trillions of dollars due to baby boomers in the form of SS and Medicare beginning in 2009. It would be fiscally disastrous and irresponsable to put this burden on us. This also relates to Kerry wanting to completely ignore the impending SS crunch that is a reality for me and my generation. It is outrageous for him to ignore it and not want to change a progam that is a dinosaur and is on life support.
The reason we need to change the way SS is being handled is because the money that was put aside for helping cover that huge gap has been taken away by Bush via his tax cuts and other economic actions. The reason Bush keeps harping on needed to change it is because his current policy on those issues just does not allow for the system to sustain itself and he can't find the money to cover it since he spent it all. (and then some)
AS for healthcare, I don't see what is horrible wrong about offering choices. But again, this is unfortunately an area that I know very little about. And again, if you'd care to point me in a direction I'd be happy to discuss further.
siamesedreamer said:
Second, the Supreme Court only has one member under the retirement age. There's a good chance that who ever is elected Tuesday will get to nominate a new SC justice. It is absolutely frightening who Kerry could chose to sit on the bench (yeah, I know the Senate has to approve it). What I consider to be a pretty good make up of the SC could suddenly end up looking like San Francisco's 9th Curcuit Court of Appeals under a Kerry presidency (good forbid he gets re-elected). Had the DEMs nominated a more moderate candidate, this wouldn't be nearly as big of an issue for me.
I unfortunately can't comment so much on this, as I don't think Kerry is on the far left side and not a moderate. I find it far more frightening to think what kind of people someone who has appointed evangelical Christens into his office, would get appointed to the SC. Your comment on San Franciso Superme Court makes me wonder how much you know on the issues though. What makes you think Kerry would appoint some radical judge? (As opposed to Bush who basically said that he would appoint somone who would fight to abolish abortion and would side with the far rights idea of equal and deny gay rights.)
siamesedreamer said:
I think it an absolute farce that Kerry's running mate could be VP or in a disastrous scenario POTUS. This guy has 4 years as a junior senator from NC on his resume and that's it. He very likely would not have even been re-elected had he not decided to run for president. He doesn't deserve to be where he's at right now. I would have been much more comfortable with a Wesley Clark in the VP spot. His credentials far exceed anything Edwards has ever done.
It's much better to just skip the senate and go from being governor for a few years to being Preident isn't it? While I agree that Edwards doesn't have much experience, it's a little unfounded to bash him for having so little elected time under his belt considering who is in office. That being said, the committees that Edwards is on has me hopeful that if something should happen he would not be completely lost.
siamesedreamer said:
There are many, many more issues that I could name, but they are petty and would only ignite stupid resonses from other posters.
Anyway, I hope we actually know who has won Tuesday night. Sadly, I don't think that will happen.
I hope nothing I said came off as a stupid response, as I honestly did not mean any of the above in an ill mannered way. Just saw you points and figured they offered a good way of me explaining why I will be voting for Kerry.
And yeah.. I have a feeling that Tuesday will be a long night. I hope that we will have a clear answer, but with the way things have been playing out in the swing states.. I have a very bad feeling about it. I think if the turnout of newly registered voters is as high as they have been hoping then we have a chance of things just being clear cut, other wise I think we will be in for another long haul.