This email came from a lifelong Republican, who, as you will be able to infer, has as his occupation basically what you would call Union-Busting. You will be surprised and thrilled to read his well reasoned comments.
Hi friends,
The election is drawing near and I think all of us are a bit anxious about the outcome. The so-called debates are helping a bit, even the Cheney-Edwards VP debate.
It is not that I have great trust in the Democrats, but Cheney is one major reason I have great difficulty
supporting or trusting the Republican ticket. Not only did Cheney take the CEO position with Halliburton not becuse he had private corporate experience (he didn't), but becuse of his connections with the Department of Defense and his ability to bring government contracts to Halliburton. this was
an alliance for the good of Halliburton and Cheney personally, not for the US Government or the citizens of the US. Cheney also has supported this war in Iraq that clearly benefits Halliburton and could benefit no other company nearly so well (only Halliburton was in a position to provide the services quickly - perhaps a reason for so quickly going to war before anyone else was prepared to bid for the work).
GeeDubya is clearly charmed by Cheney, as
many of us are by his self-assured personality. So, our President has followed Cheney's false lead with his usual "never in doubt" style.
To me Cheney must be a sociopath who can
lie and take dishonest profits while seeming
honest and sure of himself. His self-assured
demeanor surely makes people feel he must be telling the truth and really must know what he is talking about.
How can Cheney deliver what looked like a
knock out punch in the debate with Edwards by bold-faced lying about never having met Edwards before?? Either he is a victim of altzheimers (doubtful since he seems otherwise slick as a fox) or he is a bold-faced liar. He clearly had met Edwards before on more than one occasion and had sat together on a panel.
Though the Democrats are FAR from perfect,
they have not put the US economy into massive debt that will come back to damage the economy of the US and world at large in the years to come. The Democrats have not destroyed our reputation abroad. They have not caused the deaths of thousands of American and Iraqi people for a false war they will not admit they started to support corporate interests. The Democrats have not divided our country or damaged individual rights (what supposedly our government was established to protect) by imposing the Patriot Act for trumped up fear mongering reasons.
I know the Democrats are liberal and like
to spend a lot of money on social programs.
But they won't get much done with a
Republican Congress. What they will get
done, probably, and much due to the fact that
they will not be able to pass much of their
liberal social programs, is far better budget
budget management and reduced debt, which
in the longer term will do America and US
business a lot more good, adding jobs for all
Americans.
With the Democrats we probably will get more
enforcement of environmental laws critical to our long-term existance on Earth, laws that already are in place. Also, with the Democrats we will probably get more focus on building America's energy independence, with more wind farms for electric generation and perhaps some attention on improving rail and other more energy-efficient transportation systems.
While corporations have resisted environmental legislation, really there is no competitive downside for them if we enforce the same rules equally for all.
As for foreign competition that COULD gain some competitive advantage by not following as strict rules on environmental pollution, as the greatest importer in the world, WE can do a lot to set the environmental (and even human rights) standards for any nation wanting to sell their goods here rather than cave to such organizations as the World Trade Organization and NAFTA as Bush and company are doing. Not only can we
influence the world economy and put more favor on our own domestic producers by not allowing imports from environmentally unfriendly companies around the world, we can positively influence the world's environment in a positive way by doing so.
We can become the good example rather than
the bullies of the world.
Some fear if the Democrats get into office
that we will have liberals placed in the
Supreme Court that will affect our country's
future for decades, probably dragging us deeper and deeper into costly taxation as we move more toward a society that supports "from each according to his ability; to each according to his need." It is a real concern. Yet, we have a conservative Congress still that experts feel will not approve of any justices that are not at least moderates. The risk here is small, it seems.
Under the Democrats it is likely labor unions
will prosper better. It is healthy for our
our country to have a more active union
movement. And for me personally, whose
business is driven to a great extent by
labor-management strife, it can mean more
business. My firm, will help prevent labor-mangement strife by helping businesses
make unions less necessary because they find business-smart ways to be more conscious of employee fair treatment.
I encourage you to think practically about
this election, especially if you, like me, have
always been a political conservative. Bush and Cheney are not in it for us. They are in it for themselves and their cronies -- maybe even more so than the Democrats, I believe. But for sure the Democrats are self-serving and beholden to their benefactors as are the Republicans. It is a matter of balancing the power of the out-of-control Republican Party at this point.
If you think I'm missing something, please share. I must say that this election is very confusing to me as it is for most people that I speak with.But to most, the direction of our country seems to be floundering. The choices in this election are not very good, and having to choose between not very good choices is always difficult. Nothing is clear cut. I welcome your thoughts.