I’ve been thinking about why I do support the President’s bid for re-election. Here ya go…
10% – The Christian Factor
I appreciate that President Bush knows sin. Knows God. Knows redemption. As governor, he pressured the state government in Texas to cease their prejudice against a Christian rehab group because he recognizes that God changes lives more effectively than state programs do. But just the fact that he’s a born-again Christian only goes so far. I’m sure everybody in the race this year will also be (or claim to be) – they just don’t toe the line as visibly: more on that in a moment.
30% – Strength of Convictions / Track Record
He said he would cut taxes – not just for the rich, as is claimed by (take your pick: The Media Fund, MoveOn, Kerry, Edwards, Gore, etc), but for middle- and lower-income taxpayers too. He did.
The man said we would drive out the Taliban – hosts of Osama Bin Laden in Afghanistan, because of the events if Sept. 11, 2001. He did.
He said he would not tolerate Saddam Hussein violating UN resolutions that carried consequences, while the rest of the world backed down from SH’s stubborn refusal to account for his known dangerous weapons. The ones he used against his own country. And again, Bush was good to his word. Despite pressure from some of the bigger economic powers in the Europe.
He does what he says he will do. I respect that much, even if I don’t always respect his reasoning.
20% – He Expects Accountability
Public schools are a failure. Sure, they do achieve some things, but nothing like the level of education in American before the Public School system came to be. Many public school teachers just don’t care. Most quit after just a few years. Students are a hassle. Their parents are a hassle. The school board is a hassle. They have no impetus to go the extra mile. I’ve seen a glimpse of it from the teaching side, too – one of my brothers is a certified teacher.
Bush came into office with a promise to hold failing schools accountable – letting students in chronically underperforming environments go to better schools, costing the bad schools funding, and encouraging them to step up. That in itself, is a very big deal to me, especially now that I have a child and face either the exorbitant cost of sending her to private school, or the fear of how she’ll turn out from a public school.
20% – Staffing
No President is effective without an inspired administration. In this, Bush has appointed more minority members than any previous administration, but has also gone with those who have proven experience, sound ideas and track-records of integrity. This extends even to people who ideologically disagree with him: Colin Powell supports Affirmative Action and is pro-choice: but is just so good, how could Bush not ask him to head the State Department? Kerry’s choice for a VP was a trial-lawyer. Geez.
10% – Tax Cuts / The Growing Economy
I have a long-standing gripe about Democratic plans to fix economies. Raising Taxes only works to a point — you cannot tax a country into prosperity. Bush’s promise to cut taxes has had exactly the intended effect. The problem is, you cannot assign a timeline to its outcome (a shortcoming that liberals had been quick to point out as a failure, until it was so obviously working they had to quiet down about it). This is because as everybody gets to keep more of their paycheck, they all have different obligations to satisfy before the new money every week can be spent in a way that really improves the economy. You pay off old bills before you go out and buy a boat (or at least, you should).
Now that it’s been a few years in progress, the upswing in the economy is undeniable. Even in states slower to feel the improvement (like Michigan), there are more jobs around now, and people are spending more money at Wal Mart.
Under democratic plans that favor more dollars for social programs (welfare for illegal immigrants!?), the only way to fund such increases is to take more money from the peasants (or their employers).
50% – Competition: Lies, Contradictions, The Company They Keep, The Hypocrisy They Promote
And here’s what seals the deal for me. John Kerry is inconsistent. An outright liar only a bit less transparent than Bill Clinton. John Edwards has been a man for sale for so long that he’s just as untrustworthy – I don’t care how nice his smile is. Examples:
John Kerry told an Iowa newspaper “I believe life does begin at conception” (Jonathan Finer, “Kerry Says He Believes Life Starts At Conception,” The Washington Post, 7/5/04). Yet he’s running for president in the party of abortion rights, and voted against the Lacy Peterson law in the senate. That’s a stunning duality. In effect it says “I believe fetuses are human lives, but if you want to go ahead and murder it, well, I won’t stand in your way.”
John Edwards has a similar conundrum. As a trial lawyer before his senate stint, he prosecuted a malpractice case in which he argued a caesarean section procedure might’ve prevented cerebral palsy (that’s junk science, unproven anywhere). He addressed the jury as the unborn child imagining the fear felt that this strange Dr might hurt him. Yet he fund-raises with Planned Parenthood, and challenges parental-consent laws.
The recent fundraiser with Whoopi Goldberg, Dave Matthews, Michael Moore etc. was full of jibes at the President. They accused him of untrue actions, made lewd remarks about him, lied, exaggerated, and presented a point of view so putrid it would have offended most Americans. Kerry shook hands, smiled and called them “The best American has to offer”. These are the best America has to offer? A foul-humored, vitriol spewing, washed up comedian millionaire who can’t keep a job? A egomaniacal movie maker who so distorts the truth that even liberals who see Farenheit 911 admit “it’s not entirely fair”? Who also claims more Americans should die to make up for American’s wrongs against the world? (Michael Moore, via his website -and since removed- : “I’m sorry, but the majority of Americans supported this war once it began and, sadly, that majority must now sacrifice their children until enough blood has been let that maybe — just maybe — God and the Iraqi people will forgive us in the end.”)
This is the best American has to offer? Obviously I hold Americans to a higher standard than does John Kerry. And for that, I cannot vote him for President.