Why did YOU vote for Bush??

Why did YOU vote for Bush?

I’m not trying to be contentious. If anything, I am sick of all the contentiousness that has gone on during this election process. When Kerry made his concession speech I was touched. I felt tears coming to my eyes, then suddenly I got angry. Why? Because here he was telling us we had to come together now – and George did too later – yet these two did more, single-handedly, to divide this nation over the past months than anything else in the past decade I think! I got mad at both of them AND at each of their parties for doing everything in their power to sway all of our emotions against the other – and there was a LOT they and their supporters did to sway us, don’t you think? Then they turn around 24 hours later and say it’s time to unite, to heal, to bond together in a common future. What the heck!? They leave a broken and sullen half-nation facing a smug and bullying other half that THEY caused and say buck up and be loving now. Did you hear any of that during the campaigns? I didn’t.

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(READ ON FOR FURTHER THOUGHTS OR SIMPLY SKIP DOWN TO THE NEXT SET OF **** TO GET ON TO THE “WHY DID YOU VOTE FOR BUSH” SOLICITATION SECTION)

I sure wish I could have heard a campaign where there was some respect and dignity on the part of the contenders… oh wait… I did. I voted for Barak Obama who, in spite of having some of the most outrageous barbs and ridiculous statements slung at him I’ve ever heard, he never stooped to make Keyes the easy target he could have been. He responded with dignity and focused on the positive impact he hoped to make on the Senate. He did not tear down the other guy but, instead shared his dreams for his own candidacy. I like his style and wish that politics would swing more toward that courteous and dignified manner.

Meanwhile I struggle because I’m trying to console myself over this presidency. I’ll admit I wasn’t exactly smitten by Kerry and my vote was an anti-Bush vote to be truthful. Mine was a studied vote. I did a LOT of homework. I printed up pages and pages of information about this administration, did a ton of reading and comparing. I am a Christian, born-again, a mother, blah blah blah, sort of on the conservative side, one that would ordinarily be found casting their ballot for Bush I suppose. I am opposed to abortion under any circumstances because I believe it’s murder but I am extremely sympathetic to young women who find themselves in the horrible predicament of having to deal with unplanned pregnancy. To be honest, I don’t really care what the government says about gay marriage just as long as it never becomes any sort of law that a church would be forced to acknowledge it. But these issues are not THE most important issues to me. I had to think about that before the election, so I did. I sat down and listed out what I felt were the most important issues and then based my vote on who I thought would address the most important ones most closely with what I felt.

I’m worried about the environment. I’m worried about the economy and jobs. I’m extremely concerned about the imbalance of wealth in this country and how the middle class is disappearing into a huge divide between the wealthy and the poor. I’m concerned about the cost of health care and that so many are uninsured. I’m appalled by the corporate corruption in this country and feel something needs to be done. THOSE are the issues I felt were of the highest priority. Also important to me were things like equality for religious views in schools, ie: allowing prayer and Bible study clubs in schools, teaching creationism along with evolution. Bringing back to our history classes the role that religion played in the formation of our country. No, I don’t want to make it into propaganda in our schools, but I don’t think it should be cut out the way it has been either. Additionally, I would like our government to foster a feeling in the corporations where they would be more willing to donate to religious causes and not always just have blanket rules about donating to anything EXCEPT religious causes. I just want equal consideration. But those issues were second. The abortion issue was in between the first line issues and second line issues, and I really didn’t have a slot for the gay marriage issues yet.

So, with all that in mind I researched what I cared about and found out some things that I felt were appalling about the Bush administration. Now, in a lot of ways I felt sort of sorry for George W. I felt he was held responsible for a lot of things that weren’t directly his fault. I also felt the economy was beginning its slump before he ever took office. Nevertheless, I found out some things that stood on their own as pretty terrible… things like the abortion rate actually rose during his term as president, also that he took more vacation days than any president before him. During his term, a record was set for the most personal bankruptcies ever filed in any 12 month period. He set a record for the most campaign fund raising trips than any other president. He cut health care benefits for war veterans. He was friends with Ken Lay (from Enron). He is the first president in US history to refuse United Nations election inspectors access during the 2002 US elections). There’s a whole bunch more stuff I found out that I could put here, but anybody could find it if they researched.

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The point of this entry is not to re-iterate what you could all find out with some research, the point is I would like to find out why so many people DID vote for Bush. Now, I’ve been combing other diaries and reading things, also coming the web looking for intelligently written blogs and articles on why to vote for Bush. People that I like and respect actually voted for Bush so I know there must be some good reasons but when I ask or read their reasons I’m hearing things like, “Kerry is a scary guy,” or “You liberals just don’t understand.”

I’ve seen signs that read, “Honk if you think John Kerry is a big fat poopie head,” and “President Kerry, now THAT is scary,” for Halloween. The other side is just as bad. I’ve heard, “Bush is just a big lying sack of s**t,” and “Cheney is evil.” You know, that stuff just doesn’t TELL me anything.

Somebody wrote me a note saying that they found Michael Moore frightening. Now, I could see him being annoying. I sort of enjoy him but he grates on even my nerves sometimes, but at least he explains WHY he thinks what he thinks and where his ideas and facts come from and when he made his movies he even backed up his assertions with fact checkers. Now, I’m no dummy, I know he presents things in a way that’s created to sway emotions and influence people, but he does give one pause to think and find out more for themselves. I don’t find anything about him frightening but he does keep one on one’s toes.

What I find much more frightening are people who are stubbornly, intensely, angrily, blindly insistent on something but cannot explain why or give solid reasons for their insistence. I think passion for a cause is a wonderful thing. Our country was built on passion for beliefs. But it becomes fanaticism if we can’t support our reasons. And

now that my candidate has been defeated I would like to console myself about the next four years by reading the reasons YOU may have voted for Bush, but I don’t want to hear that it’s because “John Kerry is a poopie head,” or that us, mealy-mouthed liberals would ruin the country.

I did read one lady’s article where she said she was a Democrat who was pro-choice but voted for Bush because she felt that he would protect the country better. She wanted to see a more aggressive stance against other countries. It made her feel safe. I actually don’t feel safer with that stance, but that was a concrete reason that I understood (even in my disagreement). THAT’S what I would be interested in hearing from you.

So, please, if you voted for Bush or if you feel you have some insight into this… could you take a minute and leave me a note explaining it?

Thanks!