[Tiresias]

More perspective...

 

• You want thinking "outside the box"?  How about privatize the education system.
  ...and how, exactly, is No Child Left Behind supposed to stop the liberal school system from "bad-mouthing Republicans (and God!)"?
  Conservatives should oppose nationalized education. No Child Left Behind only serves to dig the public schools deeper in bureaucracy.

• How is Bush standing up to Congress when he signs every piece of legislation that comes across his desk?
  What are you referring to when you say that Bush has "gotten so much done"?  Are you referring to the stripping away of American freedom with the PATRIOT Act... Increasing government bureaucracy with a new, unnecessary cabinet-level department... Bringing us into war on false premises... Massive increase in government spending... the prescription-drug giveaway that will harm the solvency of Social Security and increase prescription-drug prices for the rest of us. Need I go on?

• Funny...  funny that the greatest amount of casualties has occurred after we "won" the war. So far, about 500 Americans have died after those 22 days... that's doesn't seem the slightest bit mismanaged to you?
  We need to face the fact that Saddam didn't have WMD, that particular justification for war is dead. We have wasted almost a billion dollars looking for what's not there just to "save face."
  I'm sure you've seen this quote before from Bush Sr., but the words have become prophetic now:" We should not march into Baghdad, turning the whole Arab world against us. Assigning young soldiers to a fruitless hunt for a securely entrenched dictator and condemning them to fight in what would be an unwinnable urban guerilla war, it could only plunge that part of the world into ever greater instability."

• If Kerry does win, what of it?  The problem with Bush is that he has forsaken the traditional principles of his party, thus there is little difference between him and Kerry.
  Not voting for Bush will cause the Republican party to wake up and realize they need to stick to their principles... return to conservatism. No more pandering to the left; it is has gone on too long. Too many Republican politicians think that they can pander to the left to gain swing voters and Democrats while upsetting their conservative base because... after all, the conservative base isn't going anywhere because they have nowhere to go.
  It's time to show them that politicians who do this will be denied votes from their conservative base. For years conservatives have had to settle for voting for the "lesser of two evils" rather than a candidate we could really support. We thought, at last, we had that in George W. Bush, but he has proven us all wrong. To vote for him is to say that you're okay with this. And if you are okay with everything Bush has done, then by all means vote for him.
  But if you also have a list of grievances similar to the ones at the beginning of this topic, then please don't give your support and approval to a President that will continue to disappoint you. By voting for Bush, you are an accomplice to all those things you find wrong with his presidency, not to mention those things to come.

[jkrouskop]

Conservatives should oppose an education system that is completely at the mercy of rampant liberalism. You may feel that completely removing any federal influence from education will lead to a better system, but I'm not prepared to completely hand the future of the nation over to those who will not even allow the Pledge of Allegiance because it mentions God. No Child Left Behind is far from perfect, but it forces the Democrats to look elsewhere when seeking election year issues, and it reminds them that conservatives DO care about what is being taught to their children. Be realistic.

Please review the entire legislative record during the first three years of the Bush administration before you throw that Patriot Act paranoid nonsense at me. Many of those bills you claim Bush signed after Democrats put them on his desk were actually sponsored by Republicans and pushed by the administration. Your civil rights have never once been violated by the Patriot Act, and neither have mine. Most of the new and more controversial aspects of that law still require a court order to enact, and that requires sufficient cause to suspect an individual may be a terrorist or terrorist-backer. There is certainly room for abuse, but this administration is not abusing the Patriot Act. Only those who have ties to terrorists need fear the Bush administration.

Have you ever served in the military? Do you have any idea the risks involved in being deployed in the Middle East? Because the terrorists have proven more resourceful and more determined than you, the uninformed civilian, expected does not mean that the military and intelligence authorities running the show are "mismanaging" it. The war proper was won in 22 days, and US military forces are there to ensure that a future war to oust another maniacal dictator will not be necessary. The brutality of war does not diminish the valor of those who fight or the nobility of the cause they fight for. Why don't you write to the troops in Iraq and tell THEM how their efforts are disorganized and mismanaged? I'm sure they'll appreciate that. As for Bush Sr.'s comment, "fruitless" hardly describes this war, since that dictator is behind bars and the "unwinnable war" is hardly unwinnable. If you honestly believe we're only still in Iraq to find WMDs and save face, and not to try and keep peace until a new government is in place, then you are beyond reasoning with. Further, if you really believe there is NO possibility that Saddam may have hidden or destroyed any evidence of WMDs then you know NOTHING about the man we removed from power. Be against the war if you so choose, but don't be naive.

Not voting for Bush will put the very liberal, very self-serving John Kerry in the White House. If you don't see the harm in that, you are nowhere near as conservative as you claim. That's okay, though. Go ahead and betray your country by handing it over to another Clintonite liberal. I'm sure the military men who die because they are not supported properly by their new commander-in-chief and his administration, the unborn babies who are aborted, the taxpayers who see their tax burden go back to Clinton era levels, the Christians who are refused the right to express their religious beliefs in public and every other American who suffers from Kerry's policies will all forgive you for your failure to do your civic duty and vote in the Presidential election.

It's your country, too. How can you stand idly by and let a liberal take it, simply because the Republican in office is not as conservative as you would like?