For me, the decision is stark and easy: George W. Bush wants me in prison. Why in the world would I vote for him?
Some of my more conservative friends will murmur sympathetically that they don't think the War on Pornography is an "appropriate use of resources" or "reflects an administration priority." That's very nice. They can come visit me when I have 6-10 years of my life taken from me. You'll forgive me if I'm a tiny bit resentful if I and the company I've built are among the eggs that need to be cracked in order to shore up Dubya's conservative base.
This is what the "ownership society" means: It's the "I've got mine" society, as in, "Well, my stock portfolio's doing OK, so who cares what happens to anyone else?"
posted 22:32 | trackbackWell, I do believe that Ashcroft will be on his way out early in the second Bush Administration. But there is this question: which is worse?—spending a few years in prison or dying in a bomb attack on SF?
Just a thought.
Posted by: Attila Girl at October 27, 2004 01:31 AMIf the choice really was that stark, 100% chance of me personally dying in a bomb blast in San Francisco vs. 100% chance of me going to prison, that would be a pretty horrible and complicated situation, and, yes, of course I'd vote for prison.
Fortunately, we live in the real world, rather than a Truman Show-esque world of political scare commercials, so I (and any other rational person) knows that is not the actual choice I'm faced with.
I'm overdue for my final rant before the election, but in summary: I see no clear reason to believe that a Kerry Administration will permit attacks on the US to a greater extent than the Bush Administration has. I do see reasons that a Kerry Administration would make the US safer from just such attacks.
I happen to agree that John Ashcroft will likely not be Attorney General in the next administration, but I also consider that irrelevant. Bush spent significant political capital getting Ashcroft confirmed. Bush knew what he was getting. I have no reason to believe that the fundamental priorities towards First Amendment issues in particular, and civil liberties in general, will be significantly different under a second Bush Administration. A clown like Ashcroft is utterly unimaginable in a Kerry Administration.
Thus, offering a choice of "dying in a bomb/going to prison" is just a though-experiment. I do not see a Kerry Administration policy of throwing American babies to hungry wolves. The real world is far more interesting than that.
Posted by: Christophe at October 27, 2004 07:17 AM