My wife's cousin is a fence sitter. While she supports most of the liberal agenda, she was raised by, is married to, and is friends with, republicans.
About once a week, we get an email with the title "what about this"? Inevitably it contains some email she got that shows Kerry or his wife, or Edwards, in a bad light. Flip-flopper, Swift-liars, Edwards drove on my lawn, etc. Today was the one from a pilot who claims Kerry dissed him and didn't share his pizza.
Usually i just reply to the facts and ignore the larger issue but that gets tiring. Below the fold is my response. Please note that I wrote it quickly and off the cuff so didn't bother fact checking completely. Also, for the sake of the narrative, Doris is the cousin of my Wife (Barbara). Doris has a nephew in the Army in Iraq (Kris) and Spencer and Sierra are my kids.
Hi Doris.
With the news today that officially over 1000 have died in Iraq also (unofficially it is much higher) the news that Kris is still well is welcome.
In terms of the letter, there is no way to tell if it really a personal account or not. Different names have appeared as the author, and at least one group that has tried to verify it authenticity have not had any luck. But the real question is, why is the potential slight by the Democratic candidate who did serve and volunteer for duty, why is it more important than a son of a Senator who had him pull stings to get into the Texas Air National Guard (which meant someone else went) who the public paid to learn to fly planes but then he didn't show up for a physical because a drug test is required and then goes AWOL for a few months while getting drunk every night, doing coke, and getting paid for a "job" that his daddy got him.
This stuff is actually documented, but Democrats don't bother going there because there is so much actual record to look at. We have a failed economy, record deficits, record job loses, record un-insured, a savaged environment, lost civil liberties, and a war that was launched on falsified evidence that has now cost over 1000 mothers and fathers their sons and daughters, children have lost their parents and 10,000 more are coming back crippled to reduced benefits thanks to the Bush Administration.
Just today, Dick Cheney, our Vice-president, part of the administration that promised to bring a new tone to Washington said the following:
"It's absolutely essential that eight weeks from today, on Nov. 2, we make the right choice, because if we make the wrong choice then the danger is that we'll get hit again and we'll be hit in a way that will be devastating from the standpoint of the United States," Cheney told about 350 supporters at a town-hall meeting in this Iowa city.
So vote for the other guy and you will DIE. Boy, I am glad it is that simple.
Last week, a teacher took a couple of his students to hear the president speak at a rally. One of the students had a Kerry button in his pocket, but had to take it out to go through the metal detector, he as kicked out of the rally. This president is a coward. He is scared of the American People, Scared of the Truth, Scared of Scientific Fact and Scared of Making the Hard Decisions. Bush has had less press conferences in his entire 4 years than Clinton had in any year and they are scripted, like his public appearances. He was scared of telling the widows and widowers of 9/11 the truth about what happened that day, and fought the formation of the commission, once formed refused to appear, once forced to appear, would only do so not under oath and with his V.P. and not in public.
Bush has taken more vacation each year than Spencer gets as a student. He was on vacation the day he claims to have read a briefing titled "Bin Laden Determined To Attack the United States", and when we were attacked one month latter, he sat in a class room for over 7 minutes after the second plane hit, after he was told "America is under Attack". In that 7 minutes, a fighter jet could have been dispatched and taken out the plane before it hit the Pentagon.
I am not supporting Kerry because he a war Hero rather than a deserter, or because he can put together a coherent sentence, or because he has a record of standing up for Veterans instead of cutting their hazard pay and benefits. I don't care that Bush has done drugs, failed as a business man and been served everything by people who his father now owed favors to. I am voting for Kerry for the future, for the future of me, Barbara, Spencer and Sierra. For my mom and dad who are getting older and are counting on Social Security like they were promised. For my neighbors who are friendly and wonderful and caring and gay. For everyone making less than $200,000 a year, and statistically less than they were 4 years ago. And so much more.
If you watched the Bushes acceptance speech last week you may have noticed the word will. Bush told us everything that he will do and nothing he has done, because they have no accomplishments to be proud of. The have rhetoric and an abundance of fear, but no accomplishments.
I know that this is more than you bargained for, but for people like me who are spending more hours than we care to admit on this election, it gets frustrating when nice story or phrase (flip-flopper) seem to get in way of the facts. I will bet my house that if the facts were known instead of the garbage that the news spews out from the republican talking points these days, Kerry would win in a landslide.
It hasn't been easy. Spencer and Sierra wonder why their Dad isn't home every night to play with them, and even Barbara, who supports what I do, feels like I am putting the Family second. For now I will do my best to prioritize, and hope they understand how important this election is to all of us.
Thank you for staying involved and asking the questions. I have one for you. Why Bush? Why should we give him 4 more years?
Eric