Politics

Ok, so it's going to be Bush versus Kerry. I can't quite decide what to do or think about this.

On the one hand you have Kerry who will undoubtedly increase taxes to pay for welfare-type programs. The guy wants to be called the black president or some such nonsense. My bet is that a black president would push hard for more welfare and more affirmative action. I don't know what the NRA thinks of the guy, and I would be interested to know. He's more liberal than Bill or Hillary. He's a Kennedy without the drug and weight problems. He's smarmy and annoying, and seems intensely dislikeable at a personal level.

On the other hand you have Bush who is pretty much just playing bitch to el presidente Fox. He wants to throw the borders wide open and let everyone collect welfare checks. The immigration thing pisses me off, but it's gay marriage that will probably keep me from voting for him.

I'm not gay, and I don't really have any gay friends. I know a few gay folks in town and used to work with tons of fags when I lived in DC and worked in the restaurant business. But what the hell difference does it make whether a guy wants to marry a woman or another guy? What difference does it make to me? To you? To Bush? To your parents? To the neighbors of the newly weds? None. Not a bit.

I don't buy the judeo-xtian argument that god only wants men to fuck women. Hell, I don't buy their concept of a god. I understand that this is a nation founded on judeo-xtian values. Good. Thanks for getting things jump started and rolling along. Let's go back to a little common sense and reasoning now. Who you or I or the rainbow pendant wearing bull dyke falls in love with and wants to marry is none of the government's business.

I love that there seems to be a groundswell in this movement right now. I haven't been reading much more than the headlines on any of the stories, but the time seems to have come to address the issue. I'm don't trust Bush and AG Ashcroft to take the right approach here. I hate how liberal the California federal and state courts have become, and I have deep fears that the concept or personal responsibility is a dying one in the western courts. Still, this issue is more basic, more fundamental than a lot of other issues before the courts. I don't think Bush's people will handle it properly.

I love how Bush handled the terrorist attacks. I think going to Iraq when and how we did will pay long term dividends. I think that in a second term his foreign policy would remain sound. But you know what? Foreign policy doesn't effect me much. When and where it does it is dramatically less than domestic policy. Bush has Ashcroft and his henchmen cross referencing my King Soopers grocery card with my library card with my cash flow from my checking account with my 1040 returns for the past ten years with by boarding pass and their making it so fucking annoying and impossible to travel anywhere.

Terrorist attacks on the international stage will continue until there are either no more jews or no more muslims. In all likelihood, neither of these groups is going anywhere quickly. Domestically, we still haven't seen any suicide bombers or car bombs going off in New York or DC or Iowa City. It's happened in London and Dublin and Moscow, but not here. When it does happen (and I suspect that eventually it will) whoever is president will be forced to respond quickly and decisively. I think that if Gore had won, he would have followed a similar path that Bush did. Maybe I'm being too generous, but I have a feeling that the response to any such attack is driven as much by the intelligence and military planners as it is the politicians. Any monkey in the office can review the information and follow advice.

I think that brings us back to domestic policies. I'm not sure that I can vote for Kerry, but I am almost certain that I cannot vote for Bush. I like the guy. I think he would be fun to hang out with if he would start drinking again. But I think perhaps he's too much the teetotaler and too much the zealot. Too bad there's not a viable third choice.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot, I read that Howard Stern is preaching that Bush needs to go. I don't think Bush should underestimate the power Stern wields. The whole indecency thing is bullshit anyway. Let Stern do fart jokes. Let Janet's breast sag and flop. Let Opie promote sex in the cathedral. Who cares? It's funny. If you don't like it, turn it off; don't listen. But don't tell me what comedians I can and can't listen to.


Jonathan 3/09/2004 09:26:00 PM