The Issues
Oct. 18th, 2004 01:06 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenite0John Seward does a great job of summing up my attitude toward the issues of this election:
Did George Bush get preferential treatment to get into the National Guard, and then not show up sometimes? Undoubtedly, but I don’t care.
Did John Kerry exaggerate and lie about his military record? Yeah, looks that way, but it was a long time ago, and I don’t care.
Is the doomed Federal Marriage Amendment a stupid, bigoted, paranoid idea? Yup, it sure is, but it ain’t gonna happen, so I don’t care.
Did the Bush tax cut save the economy? No, it probably had only a marginal effect.
Has the Bush tax cut and big spending doomed us by letting the deficit get out of control? No, it probably had only a marginal effect.
Is it a mistake for Bush to have cut off federal funding for certain kinds of stem cell research? Yeah, maybe, but it’s not a big deal.
Is John Kerry a glib, phony liberal? Well yeah, but what’s your point? How do you think you get elected to the Senate in Massachusetts?
Is George Bush a dyslexic, inarticulate, simpleton? Well, he’s obviously dyslexic and inarticulate, but doesn’t look like that much of a simpleton to me. I wish he could speak like Winston Churchill or Tony Blair, but I don’t care that much.
Did John Kerry give aid and comfort to the enemy during the Vietnam war? Yes, clearly, but . . . . I just don’t care.
Will George Bush fight the war against the jihadists with everything he’s got, without wavering, without backing down, no matter what? Yes, I’m sure he will.
Will Kerry? It’s conceivable, but very doubtful.
Did George Bush get preferential treatment to get into the National Guard, and then not show up sometimes? Undoubtedly, but I don’t care.
Did John Kerry exaggerate and lie about his military record? Yeah, looks that way, but it was a long time ago, and I don’t care.
Is the doomed Federal Marriage Amendment a stupid, bigoted, paranoid idea? Yup, it sure is, but it ain’t gonna happen, so I don’t care.
Did the Bush tax cut save the economy? No, it probably had only a marginal effect.
Has the Bush tax cut and big spending doomed us by letting the deficit get out of control? No, it probably had only a marginal effect.
Is it a mistake for Bush to have cut off federal funding for certain kinds of stem cell research? Yeah, maybe, but it’s not a big deal.
Is John Kerry a glib, phony liberal? Well yeah, but what’s your point? How do you think you get elected to the Senate in Massachusetts?
Is George Bush a dyslexic, inarticulate, simpleton? Well, he’s obviously dyslexic and inarticulate, but doesn’t look like that much of a simpleton to me. I wish he could speak like Winston Churchill or Tony Blair, but I don’t care that much.
Did John Kerry give aid and comfort to the enemy during the Vietnam war? Yes, clearly, but . . . . I just don’t care.
Will George Bush fight the war against the jihadists with everything he’s got, without wavering, without backing down, no matter what? Yes, I’m sure he will.
Will Kerry? It’s conceivable, but very doubtful.
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Re: Promoting democracy, etc.
Date: 2004-11-08 02:40 pm (UTC)From a somewhat Machiavellian point of view, whether a country is democratic or not is less important than whether they are in line with U.S. interests or not.
I think the lesson of 9/11 is that we can't follow that policy any more, at least for Arab nations. Festering swamps of human misery spawn very nasty people. That's who formed Al Qaeda. If we can give those people a better life, they'll live it instead of becoming suicide bombers. Hopefully the domino effect will be sufficient for Syria. For Egypt and Saudi Arabia we can start squeezing economically after we've extracted our balls from their grip. But the status quo in the Arab world has to be changed.
Russia, China, etc. don't seem to be a threat in the same way, so I don't see any need to change their governments. Hopefully they'll have changed on their own before the world shrinks to where we do have to care.