fromasadamerican.blogspot.com/2004/11/how-you-could-have-had-my-vote.html
Open Letter To The Democratic Party Friday, November 05, 2004 How You Could Have Had My Vote It's been two days since John Kerry conceded, and all I am seeing, hearin g and reading from the Democratic party is that you guys think you lost on "moral values." You seem to think this means nothing more than opposi tion to gay marriage. You seem to think that Bush voters waited in line for hours to stick it to the queers, to tell those faggots how much we h ate them! Many Bush voters, like myself, were not happy to be voting for the Presid ent's re-election. Many Bush voters agonized over our decision and cast our vote in fear, trepidation, and trembling. Many of us would have give n our left arms for a Democrat we could have supported. Because I am too young to be as disillusioned as I am, and because I know that one-party rule is not good for my country, and because it is my de epest wish to see the Democratic party change into one I can give my who le-hearted support, I am going to explain why you didn't get my vote, an d how you can get it in the future. First, for context, let me give you a bit about my perspective: I am a si ngle, heterosexual, college-educated woman in my late 20's with an annua l income of about $30,000. I live in a solidly red state in the South, t he region you guys wrote off entirely without even trying to persuade us to vote for you. I am not an ideologue, and I experience painful ambiva lence about many political issues. The notion of an abortion makes me qu easy, but I don't want Roe vs. I have friends who've be en impregnated by rape and friends who found out late in their third tri mesters that they were carrying babies too malformed to ever have normal lives. The pictures of Iraqi children who've lost arms from the bombs m y tax dollars bought make me shed tears, but I recognize that the war wa s the right thing to do, given the information we had available at the t ime the decision was made. I had no health insurance for three years, bu t I'm still, hesitantly, not in favor of socialized medicine. I know peo ple who abuse the social services, but I also have friends who would be dead without the food stamps and SSI checks they collect each month. I b elieve in God and consider myself a Christian, but I don't go to church, and Falwell, Robertson, and their ilk scare me more than they scare you . I believe that in a perfect world, Roy Moore would have to live with t he stench of his own ego, just like the rest of us do. I have gay friends who are closeted and gay friends who couldn't be more open if they had QUEER tattooed across their foreheads, and I think they should be allowed to get married if they want to. I waited in line until midnight when the fifth Harry Potter book came out. I will probably shack up before I get married, but I won't be proud of it. I wouldn't buy an SUV, even if I could pay cash for one. I shop at Wal-mart, but I feel guilty about it, and if they unionize d, I would never cross the picket line. I think FOX News is about as fai r and balanced as a seesaw with a gorilla on one end. President Bush's close relationships to people like John Ashcroft scare m e I hate the PATRIOT Act and am fearful of what might be part of PATRIO T II. The two dumbest trial balloons I've heard floated for his second-t erm agenda are privatizing Social Security and abolishing the income tax . When he says that God chose him to be President during this time of tr ial, I am embarrassed. I am a pragmatic, disillusioned, realistic, and entirely ordinary member of the radical middle. Here is why you didn't get my vote: 1 You didn't give me clear positions on the issues. I followed the news closely all through the campaign, but I still don't understand Kerry's p osition on Iraq. I know he voted for the IWR, but then he voted against the $87 billion. To you, that seemed to be a symbolic stand against Sadd am Hussein (the IWR) but also a principled stand against a President who was out of control (against the $87 billion). He said he would have done everything different, but he also said that, knowing what he knew today (the day he was asked) he still would have cast the same vote. He said that he would bring allies to our side to share the burden, but he also said he would be sending 40,000 more of our troops. He said that we must finish the job, but he also said it wa s the wrong war at the wrong place and the wrong time. Kerry seemed to think that terrorism is like any other crime. You catch the people responsible and put them in jail, and that's that. After seeing the destruction physical, financial, psychological , and emotional -- wrought by the September 11th attacks, I do not under stand how he could believe this. The hijackers lived among us, ate at ou r restaurants, shopped in our malls, and wounded us worse than we have e ver been wounded before. How Kerry saw this as a crime, and not as a par adigm-shifting event that deserved a military response, both in direct r etaliation and to keep it from ever happening again by going on the offe nsive, is something I don't understand. Most of the men I know who are older than 50 served in some way, either in country or in the Coast Guard or other non-combat roles. I don't see the relevance, and the drumbeat of "three purple hearts" st ruck me as manipulation. It was as if you were saying, "These dumbshit h awks want war? I don't care what Europeans think about me or my country. I learned in high school t hat living my life with one eye on the opinions of everyone else leads o nly to unnecessary turmoil and pointless pain. Rich people were talked about in this campaign as though they were all evil cheaters who had wage slaves tied up in the basement to be flogged for minimum wage, and what they didn't earn from the wage slaves' labor, they stole from n ursing home residents. I am not rich, but I work hard, am learning about investing money, am continuing to improve my prospects for earning more money in the future, and fully expect to end up at least well-off somed ay. If I do, it will be because of my efforts and work, not because of w inning "life's lottery." Both are en trepreneurs who took big risks and worked their backsides off for years to get where they are. Given that Kerry is married to a billionaire, thi s seemed especially hypocritical. Bush is stupid, Bush is an idiot, Bush is Hitler, Bush is a Nazi, Bush masturbates to p hotos of dead Iraqi babies, I'd vote for my dog before I'd vote for Bush , I'd vote for Castro before I'd vote for Bush, the Rethuglicans are fas cists, Bush voters are treasonous, Bush should be impeached, blah blah b lah blah blah blah. It was old three months after Bush's inauguration, a nd it's now just tiresome. I don't hate my President, even though I vote d for him with more reluctance than I can express and a queasy feeling i n my stomach. Language like this makes you seem immature, needlessly vul gar, and obnoxious. I tuned in regularly, for m onths, to your biggest media project, your serious effort to get your me ssage out: Air America Radio. I listened all day on Good Friday as host after host mocked people like me for believing in Jesus's life, death, a nd resurrection. I listened as Janeane Garofalo, who was one of my favor ite comedians for years, expressed hatred and disgust for Bush voters so vile that I ended my live stream feeling assaulted, as if I'd been vomi ted on. I listened the night that Mike Malloy told a young Republican to hang up the phone and go open a vein. I listened to pure, unadulterated venom that was so intense I sometimes cut the stream and cried. Tonight , your spokespeople on AAR have been calling people like me "snake-handl ing evangelicals," and that was about the kindest thing I heard. I've lived in the South my entire life and have never met a single sn ake-handler. Your attitudes, language, and behavior toward people like m e: reasonable, thinking Christians who are quite moderate politically an d who are just as well-informed as you are (yes, I've read all the PNAC essays, too, and yes, they scare me, too) is reminiscent of nothing so m uch as an abusive ex-lover, a crazy and drunken ...
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