It isn't often that I agree with Republicans. Since 2000 at least, as the Republican Party has shifted more and more toward the far right, the opinions of prominent Republicans usually just make me wince and look anxiously forward to 2004, when the chance to change the guard will arrive.
That election, in 2004, will carry more significance than any in recent history.
The ideological extremism of President Bush, his puppet-master Karl Rove, Dick Cheney, John Ashcroft and Donald Rumsfeld has brought this nation to the brink of an abyss.
Under Bush's leadership, we have unjustly invaded a foreign nation with no apparent plan for its reconstruction. The budget deficit is approaching $500 billion. The disparity between the haves (who get tax breaks) and the have-nots (who collect unemployment insurance) has not been greater since the Great Depression. The Patriot Act has put our civil liberties under full frontal assault. Our international prestige has eroded, which will only foment more hatred abroad. The president's Healthy Forests Initiative and his push to allow drilling in the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge show his lack of concern for the environment and his willingness to pander to his friends in big business. His prescription drug plan, which fails to insure many Americans, is another ruse meant to lead Americans to believe that "compassionate conservatism" actually means something.
The list of candidates waiting in line to replace President Bush is long. There are ten, to be precise. As Senator and presidential hopeful John Kerry put it last weekend in Claremont, the Democratic candidates represent "the only ten jobs this president has created." That President Bush is poised to become the only president since Herbert Hoover to preside over a net loss of jobs just further underscores the absolute failure of this administration. With that kind of record, it should be easy for the Democratic nominee to take down the Bushies, right? Unfortunately and inexplicably, the answer is no.
Ed Gillespie, chairman of the Republican National Committee and the only Republican I have agreed with in a while (though only on this issue), puts his finger on one of the major problems confronting the Democrats. Gillespie was quoted in Monday's New York Times as saying, "Each of [the Democratic candidates] has relative strengths and weaknesses, but happily for us, in each case the relative weaknesses outweigh the relative strengths. They're all Howard Dean now. They have adopted harsh, bitter, personal attacks as their approach. They are a party of protest and pessimism." Gillespie makes a very valid point.
The infighting among Sen. Kerry, Gov. Dean, General Wesley Clark, Senator Joe Lieberman, Senator John Edwards and the rest may be entertaining now. But unless it ends soon, the only person who will be laughing at the end of the day is Karl Rove.
As former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich '68 said here Sunday, the candidates cannot lose sight of the real opponent here. It is absolutely vital that George W. Bush continues to follow in his father's footsteps and ends his presidency after one term.
It's just as important for us, as the electorate, not to get caught up in the primary fever and place all our hopes on the shoulders of one candidate. Though I personally believe that Senator Kerry is the best choice among the candidates and the most likely to defeat Bush, I will vote for whichever one of them opposes the trigger-happy commander-in-chief -- even, god forbid, Al Sharpton.
Once the Democrats select a candidate, it is vital that those of us terrified of the prospect of four more years under Bush put our full support behind the Democratic nominee. This time, we don't have the luxury of voting for a third-party candidate if the nominee is not exactly what we want. As Reich noted, anyone is better than the current occupant of the Oval Office.
This election brings our nation to a decisive crossroads. We must do everything in our power and help in any way we can to ensure that America does not keep traveling the destructive path George W. Bush has led us down.
