The Pros and cons of a conservative government - 9/15/04

You all voted them in. Congress starts these laws. You wanted 'national security'. Well, folks, you get it by giving up your rights.

When you vote for a political candidate based on one issue, you tend to forget that there is a whole slew of bad things associated with every ideology - Democrat or Republican. If you're afraid of terrorists, most polls show the voters think Bush can do a better job of dealing with them than Kerry. But if Bush hadn't been president already, and the two were running on the merits of their abilities, I think there would be a different story.

Still, the majority want Bush. This means that you get everything Bush stands for. Many of you like that. It's obvious that many of you don't.

Stop thinking about one issue and start thinking about them all. The best way of handling the country is through moderation. Moderates don't have an agenda to push based on bleeding-heart liberalism or bible-thumping morality. Moderates seek concensus and then action. Libs and Cons want to be happy by pushing their agendas. In a moderate America, it isn't going to happen.

In order to get a moderate America, we need to put the two parties at direct crossroads to each other. Either a liberal congress and a conservative president, or vice versa. In our immediate future is the opportunity to vote in a liberal president (who formally initiates no laws but can only approve or veto those he receives) with a conservative congress. When diametrically opposed philosophies are in charge, moderation is the only course of action left.

The conservatives have been using the war on terror and the fear of terrorism as a club to distract the American people from the other things - like this 'little regarded law' that was passed to erode personal freedom and push their moralistic and religiously-based agenda. A liberal president and a conservative congress can't do that. Neither side can gain an advantage to push their own agendas.

America works best when it works together and it's painfully obvious that America is NOT working together now. No matter how much of a Bush or Kerry fan you are, you should be able to see at least THAT much. It's obvious that an extremist philosophy - in this case conservative - is ripping the country in half, polarizing it and turning American against American.

This is not the way we do our best work, folks.

We need moderation. Through moderation, we can find concensus and then the action for which America is best known and by which we shine as an example of the best the world has to offer. If we keep the status quo, we will continue to be a house divided and I'm not sure the future can handle that. Kerry may be a putz, but in this country we don't vote for a candidate but for a philosophy. To get moderation, which is not a choice among the individual candidates, we must pit philosophy against philosophy and force our government to work together.

For the sake of moderation, vote to tie up government and turn it back into a government of the people, by the people and, most importantly, FOR the people once again.