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Rants: Election '04 part 3

I watched both of the speeches this afternoon. I need to say that I have respect for Kerry conceding the race. He could have pulled the bullshit that went on in the last election, but he faced the reality that he couldn't win and took the high road. It takes courage to do the right thing. I know that his supporters aren't happy with the outcome, but they supported a man that did the right thing. I also give him credit for wanting to head off some of the division that this election caused and I hope that it wasn't just posturing on the part of both candidates.

I've been reading posts by a lot of people in their blogs. Most of the people that I read seem to be diehard Kerry supporters. I am the minority among my friends and the blogs that I read. I find it really appalling that the people writing these blogs are such sore losers. Neither of the candidates was a real prize. I understand that this was an emotional election for everyone, but let's get real. George W. Bush cannot destroy this country by himself. He is not the anti-Christ. He is not entirely bad for this country. He is not entirely bad for the world. Get the fuck over it. Kerry was not going to fix all of the world's problems.

I don't like a lot of the policies of this administration. I think Ashcroft seriously needs to go. I'm not a big fan of the religion factor. I'm flabbergasted by the treatment of science.

Having said that, I am all for someone that is willing to take a stand and keep with his convictions. Even if I don't agree, you know where George stands. I wanted a candidate that I would feel comfortable with, and the Dems gave us John Kerry. You could never nail him down on specifically what he wanted to do. One of my co-workers summed up the problem: if you couldn't put together a candidate that could beat W. with all of his problems, especially after the 2000 election, you are a loser. All I needed was something other than "I'm not George Bush". I'm not going to vote for someone that won't tell me what he stands for. All he needed to do was answer the questions about what specifically he was going to do. I never heard that answer and I watched all of the debates. George was repetitive but he's done things to make things better. He's also made some things worse.

We all need to just relax a little bit. If you've been watching the way elections go, in order to get elected you need the support of the Christian Right. It is just a fact in elections. That is why both candidates reinforce that they go to church regularly. Now that George isn't going to be running again, there is the very real possibility that he won't pander to the right as much as he has. He needed their support in order to get elected and then re-elected. Give the man a chance. He is now free to veto things that he doesn't necessarily support. I don't believe that he is as far right as people make him out to be. He went right because he needed the Evangelical support.

People are also doing a lot of Monday morning quarterbacking on the Iraq thing. Congress saw the same intelligence and voted to allow the war. Bush couldn't do it without them. Everyone forgets that. It was his recommendation and others came to the same conclusions. The data was faulty, but knowing what he knew, I think he made the right decision. If he hadn't acted and there had been a terrorist attack, he would have been strung up and American civilians would be dead. He made the right choice, he may not have handled everything correctly, but he is human just like all men are. The upside is that Iraq will have free elections and Saddam is out of power. In addition, it will help stabilize the oil flow eventually so all of the American's can have their gas guzzling SUVs. I see a lot of them with Kerry stickers, and they don't see the irony in this.

Face it, as American's we want it both ways. We want safety, but we don't want to send troops into harms way to ensure it. We want stable energy sources, but we won't support other sources from oil. We are spoiled and we don't want to give anything up. Kerry promised "bread and circuses" and wouldn't tell how we were going to get it because I'm convinced he didn't have a plan to deliver. Bush at least is willing to do the unpopular thing because it is his job to do it.

posted at 18:13 [/rants] #

Rants: Election '04 part 2

It's the morning after. I'm batting about .500 on the election so far. The local stuff I wasn't even close on. Apparently we will be spending money in wasteful areas. Yeah... my taxes are going up. Fuck. And we passed a state constitutional amendment banning gay marriage or any non-marriage union "that approximates marriage", what ever the fuck that means. On the up side, we did repeal a law saying you can't have any other laws giving special rights to gays; not that I am for "special" rights, but I think it was divisive and didn't help the city any.

Contrary to my hopes, we still don't have an official President-elect. It looks like Ohio will be the deciding factor. Part of me wishes that it was another state. Part of me is glad that my home state is the deciding factor in the election.

The biggest problem I have with this whole thing is the fact that neither of the candidates was what I wanted. You have two idiots that shouldn't be running for President, yet they are the only choices we have. Frankly, who ever wins, we don't. Personally, I would rather have a form of direct election. I think the electoral college is an antiquated system that fucks with the results every time. There is a summary of alternative voting methods in this month's Wired magazine.

posted at 07:20 [/rants] #