Bush’s Bumper Sticker Platform
Mr. Bush’s entire platform can be condensed to these bumper sticker slogans: “strong,” “steadfast,” “resolute,” “keeping our word,” “never waver,” “stay on the offensive,” “lead,” “we cannot send mixed messages.” Yet, aside from the immediate and superficial impact of these slogans, Mr. Bush’s rhetoric is completely empty.
However, when asked to go beyond the five second sound-bytes, Mr. Bush cannot even begin to outline why we’re in Iraq (First it was WMDs; then it was, Saddam is a bad man; this then became, We’re bringing freedom to the Iraqi people; and now, Mr. Bush simply says, We can’t leave because we have to be resolute.); Mr. Bush can’t even begin to outline why we cannot afford the security measures we so desperately need (i.e., shipment container security, more FBI personnel, etc.), simply because he squandered the largest surpluses our nation had seen when his massive tax-giveaways were enacted. I ask, when in history has a nation passed tax-giveaways when at war? War, after all, is precisely the time when a nation must rely on the treasury to finance the war effort. (I’m speaking of an actual “hot” war, as this president reminds us by anointing himself a “war time president.”)
Last night’s presidential debate crystallized John Eisenhower’s, son of President Eisenhower (Republican), endorsement of Mr. Kerry for me. Here’s what Mr. Eisenhower wrote in his endorsement:
Now more than ever, we voters will have to make cool judgments, unencumbered by habits of the past. Experts tell us that we tend to vote as our parents did or as we “always have.” We remained loyal to party labels. We cannot afford that luxury in the election of 2004. There are times when we must break with the past, and I believe this is one of them.
As son of a Republican President, Dwight D. Eisenhower, it is automatically expected by many that I am a Republican. For 50 years, through the election of 2000, I was. With the current administration’s decision to invade Iraq unilaterally, however, I changed my voter registration to independent, and barring some utterly unforeseen development, I intend to vote for the Democratic Presidential candidate, Sen. John Kerry.
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“The fact is that today’s “Republican” Party is one with which I am totally unfamiliar.”
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“In 1960, President Eisenhower told the Republican convention, “If ever we put any other value above (our) liberty, and above principle, we shall lose both.” I would appreciate hearing such warnings from the Republican Party of today.
The Republican Party I used to know placed heavy emphasis on fiscal responsibility, which included balancing the budget whenever the state of the economy allowed it to do so. The Eisenhower administration accomplished that difficult task three times during its eight years in office. It did not attain that remarkable achievement by cutting taxes for the rich. Republicans disliked taxes, of course, but the party accepted them as a necessary means of keep the nation’s financial structure sound.”
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http://www.theunionleader.com/articles_showa.html?article=44657
