anyone but these two parties

I am no stranger to hating a sitting President. My early political opinions formed when I was a child watching the Watergate hearings on the television. While I did not have a mature appreciation for the magnitude of the events unfolding before me, I knew that it was a pretty big deal and I was determined to get an understanding of it. And I knew without a doubt that my Grandmother blamed pretty much everything on “Nixon and them fat cats”.

Little did I know then that I would end up pretty much in agreement with Grandma.

By the time of the bumbling Carter administration I was an extremely aware teenager and I loathed the man. I was too young to appreciate that Jimmy was probably to be the only occupant of the Oval Office during my life time with even a shred of personal integrity. I remember clearly my personal angst over not being able to cast my vote for Reagan in 1980 because I was 26 days too young to vote.

My first awakening that I may have placed my Faith in the wrong party was the Iran-Contra affair. I had bought the party line on most of the issues, but the whole shadow government thing left my faith fairly shaken. It was a rapid downhill slide from there.

“Read my lips: no new taxes.”

“I didn’t have sex with that women – Monica Lewinski...” {insert finger wag here}

“Look, I don't care about the numbers. I know the facts.”

Hate is an ugly word, and deep down, I do not feel hate for these men as individuals. I do, however, hate most of what they have stood for and so I understand well the sentiment behind the Anyone But Shrub campaigners. And it is very tempting for even me to succumb to the apparent reasonableness of this line of thought.

The problem with the ABS view is that it is too short sighted.

I will confess that I am not positive that I will not vote for Kerry this fall. I do view Shrub & Co as the worst threat to American freedom extant. My quandary is whether President Kerry would be a sufficiently less of a threat to my freedom as to warrant my vote-and for the time being, my answer to that question remains a “No”.

The circumstantial evidence that Kerry is sold-out to the ruling class is pretty strong I think. His distinguished pedigree, personal wealth, Democratic Party roots and relative success at high levels inside the ruling class for many years are marks of the American Aristocracy that are hard to ignore. Certainly Kerry says the right things with some regularity, but how different do we really expect this blue-blood to be?

I realize from my stats that nobody reads these epistles, but I will ask the ether this question: in your heart, do you really expect great things from Kerry? Really? And if you aren’t answering yes, ask yourself if your dislike for Shrub is enough to hang your vote on.

People I know and respect are planning to vote against Shrub and by implication cast their vote for Kerry. In the mean time, I am keeping my fingers crossed that a legitimate third party or independent candidate will arrive that I can actually cast my vote for, rather than simply voting against Shrub.

Is it too much to ask that I be allowed to vote FOR something positive? I fear that perhaps it is.