I'm wondering if the media, and GOP are underestimating what's going to happen in the 2004 election. I know the polls still have Bush ahead in a match-up with any Democrat, but I keep hearing stories about
Republicans who voted for Bush in 2000 but are upset about his fiscal policies and the Iraq War. Will they vote for him again in 2004?
I have been a Republican my whole life and beliefs of liberty, small government, reverence for the Constitution and a fiscal discipline are typical among people who think like I do. But the politicians who said they believed in these concepts are nowhere to be seen. Above all, President Bush, who ran on the platform of "Not Believing in Nation Building," is currently building two, and no Republican seems to care."
I initially supported the war in Iraq, but now I must admit that if it were my son killed in that helicopter crash, patriotism is not the only feeling that I would be experiencing. The wars we have fought lately have not instilled in me a belief that these people are dying for their country as much as for their president's agenda -- and I wonder why I am so willing to support a war that is justifiable enough to risk the lives of other people's children, but nowhere near justifiable enough to risk the lives of my own.
What will happen with the military vote.
Zinni has picked his shots carefully -- a speech here, a "Nightline" segment or interview there. "My contemporaries, our feelings and sensitivities were forged on the battlefields of Vietnam, where we heard the garbage and the lies, and we saw the sacrifice," he said at a talk to hundreds of Marine and Navy officers and others at a Crystal City hotel ballroom in September. "I ask you, is it happening again?" The speech, part of a forum sponsored by the U.S. Naval Institute and the Marine Corps Association, received prolonged applause, with many officers standing.
The U.S. military have been royally screwed by this administration. Some may decide to forgo voting this time, rather than voting for Bush. Even if they don't vote for the Democratic candidate either, there would be fewer votes coming Bush's way, right?
And then there's the Dean factor. Many Dean supporters (and you know who you are) may not have voted in any previous election. You speak so eloquently for yourselves, I feel I need not say more on this subject.
So, what do you think: Is there something to this or am I connecting the wrong dots to the wrong places?