Vote for a Man, Not a Puppet
Posted: Thu Sep 30, 2004 6:13 am
The following opinion piece by conservative columnist, Charley Reese
is worth reading. Reese is a columnist for the King
Features Syndicate. He turns out three columns a week and is known
as a staunchly committed conservative. I guess that's why this
column is causing such a stir. He apparently took a good hard look
at Bush & Co.'s record vs. rhetoric, and came to some inevitable
conclusions.
VOTE FOR A MAN, NOT A PUPPET
by Charley Reese
Americans should realize that if they vote for President Bush's
re-election, they are really voting for the architects of war - Dick
Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz and the rest of that cabal
of neoconservative ideologues and their corporate backers.
I have sadly come to the conclusion that President Bush is merely a
frontman, an empty suit, who is manipulated by the people in his
administration. Bush has the most dangerously simplistic view of the
world of any president in my memory.
It's no wonder the president avoids press conferences like the
plague. Take away his cue cards and he can barely talk. Americans
should be embarrassed that an Arab king (Abdullah of Jordan) spoke more
fluently and articulately in English than our own president at their joint
press conference recently.
John Kerry is at least an educated man, well-read, who knows how to
think and who knows that the world is a great deal more complex than
Bush's comic-book world of American heroes and foreign evildoers.
It's unfortunate that in our poorly educated country, Kerry's very
intelligence and refusal to adopt simplistic slogans might doom his
presidential election efforts.
But Thomas Jefferson said it well, as he did so often, when he
observed that people who expect to be ignorant and free expect what
never was and never will be.
People who think of themselves as conservatives will really display
their stupidity, as I did in the last election, by voting for Bush.
Bush is as far from being a conservative as you can get. Well, he
fooled me once, but he won't fool me twice.
It is not at all conservative to balloon government spending, to
vastly increase the power of government, to show contempt for the
Constitution and the rule of law, or to tell people that foreign outsourcing of
American jobs is good for them, that giant fiscal and trade deficits
don't matter, and that people should not know what their government
is doing. Bush is the most prone-to-classify, the most secretive
president in the 20th century. His administration leans dangerously toward
the authoritarian.
It's no wonder that the Justice Department has convicted a few
Arab-Americans of supporting terrorism. What would you do if you
found yourself arrested and a federal prosecutor whispers in your ear that
either you can plea-bargain this or the president will designate you
an enemy combatant and you'll be held incommunicado for the duration?
This election really is important, not only for domestic reasons,
but because Bush's foreign policy has been a dangerous disaster. He's
almost restarted the Cold War with Russia and the nuclear arms race.
America is not only hated in the Middle East, but it has few friends
anywhere in the world thanks to the arrogance and ineptness of the
Bush administration. Don't forget, a scientific poll of Europeans found
us, Israel, North Korea and Iran as the greatest threats to world peace.
I will swallow a lot of petty policy differences with Kerry to get a
man in the White House with brains enough not to blow up the world
and us with it. Go to Kerry's Web site and read some of the magazine
profiles on him. You'll find that there is a great deal more to
Kerry than the GOP attack dogs would have you believe.
Besides, it would be fun to have a president who plays hockey,
windsurfs, ride motorcycles, plays the guitar, writes poetry and
speaks French. It would be good to have a man in the White House who has
killed people face to face. Killing people has a sobering effect on
a man and dispels all illusions about war.
LIFE IS A MYSTERY TO BE LIVED, NOT A PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED!
is worth reading. Reese is a columnist for the King
Features Syndicate. He turns out three columns a week and is known
as a staunchly committed conservative. I guess that's why this
column is causing such a stir. He apparently took a good hard look
at Bush & Co.'s record vs. rhetoric, and came to some inevitable
conclusions.
VOTE FOR A MAN, NOT A PUPPET
by Charley Reese
Americans should realize that if they vote for President Bush's
re-election, they are really voting for the architects of war - Dick
Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz and the rest of that cabal
of neoconservative ideologues and their corporate backers.
I have sadly come to the conclusion that President Bush is merely a
frontman, an empty suit, who is manipulated by the people in his
administration. Bush has the most dangerously simplistic view of the
world of any president in my memory.
It's no wonder the president avoids press conferences like the
plague. Take away his cue cards and he can barely talk. Americans
should be embarrassed that an Arab king (Abdullah of Jordan) spoke more
fluently and articulately in English than our own president at their joint
press conference recently.
John Kerry is at least an educated man, well-read, who knows how to
think and who knows that the world is a great deal more complex than
Bush's comic-book world of American heroes and foreign evildoers.
It's unfortunate that in our poorly educated country, Kerry's very
intelligence and refusal to adopt simplistic slogans might doom his
presidential election efforts.
But Thomas Jefferson said it well, as he did so often, when he
observed that people who expect to be ignorant and free expect what
never was and never will be.
People who think of themselves as conservatives will really display
their stupidity, as I did in the last election, by voting for Bush.
Bush is as far from being a conservative as you can get. Well, he
fooled me once, but he won't fool me twice.
It is not at all conservative to balloon government spending, to
vastly increase the power of government, to show contempt for the
Constitution and the rule of law, or to tell people that foreign outsourcing of
American jobs is good for them, that giant fiscal and trade deficits
don't matter, and that people should not know what their government
is doing. Bush is the most prone-to-classify, the most secretive
president in the 20th century. His administration leans dangerously toward
the authoritarian.
It's no wonder that the Justice Department has convicted a few
Arab-Americans of supporting terrorism. What would you do if you
found yourself arrested and a federal prosecutor whispers in your ear that
either you can plea-bargain this or the president will designate you
an enemy combatant and you'll be held incommunicado for the duration?
This election really is important, not only for domestic reasons,
but because Bush's foreign policy has been a dangerous disaster. He's
almost restarted the Cold War with Russia and the nuclear arms race.
America is not only hated in the Middle East, but it has few friends
anywhere in the world thanks to the arrogance and ineptness of the
Bush administration. Don't forget, a scientific poll of Europeans found
us, Israel, North Korea and Iran as the greatest threats to world peace.
I will swallow a lot of petty policy differences with Kerry to get a
man in the White House with brains enough not to blow up the world
and us with it. Go to Kerry's Web site and read some of the magazine
profiles on him. You'll find that there is a great deal more to
Kerry than the GOP attack dogs would have you believe.
Besides, it would be fun to have a president who plays hockey,
windsurfs, ride motorcycles, plays the guitar, writes poetry and
speaks French. It would be good to have a man in the White House who has
killed people face to face. Killing people has a sobering effect on
a man and dispels all illusions about war.
LIFE IS A MYSTERY TO BE LIVED, NOT A PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED!
