Saturday, October 23, 2004

An Unlikely Democrat

I'm going to make the argument that if you're a real libertarian, you're going to vote for Kerry. Consider that the Libertarian candidate has no chance of winning; you can't do any good by voting for him. On the other hand, a vote for Kerry will bring about a larger, more socialized nation with a more heavily progressive tax structure, increasing control over private industry and life, so on and so forth.

So why, you ask, is that a good thing? Why would I advocate helping Kerry win the presidency? Simple: His policies won't work, if they're really carried out long-term. Not that Bush is much better (he is - barely), but Kerry is bound, if he's able, to send the country straight into the furnaces of the firey down under (and we're not talking about the land of vegemite and boomerangs, here).

The end result of his twiddling and tinkering can be nothing other than the realization that government intervention produces the sort of problems that Americans abhor. From this point, perhaps real progress can be made.

Before you comment, just remember that this is very tongue-in-cheek. Now fire away, gentlefolk.

5 comments:

Tim said...

1) Yes, tongue-in-cheek is another way of expressing less than seriousness.

2) I think that there are more ways to get to a consensus on the illegitimacy of government than non-voting. Note that voter registrations and turnouts have been increasing in recent years. Not voting doesn't help unless you're not voting because you don't believe the myth of consent; you can still believe that the government is legitimate, just that you have no control over it, and thus no rational reason to participate in the electoral process.

M said...

Chris: At one point do the non-voters achieve critical mass? We have rather low (relative to other industrialized nations) voter efficacy, which so far has done little to suggest to anyone that anything is illegitimate.

Anonymous said...

Allow me to take up the Kerry advocate banner.

You boys are crying about Kerry's domestic policy. Do you pay attention to the US political system at all? If he is elected, he won't pass any bills concerning domestic economic policy. Republicans house and senate will do their own thing, and Kerry won't veto what they do, because he's a moderate anyway. He'll tip the legislation a bit to the left, but not much.

The real world difference between the president and senator Kerry concerns fighting terrorists. Kerry believes in spending money to upgrade the security on US soil, and using a law enforcement approach to shutting down terrorist networks. Kerry has expertise in this field as he's been investigating the topic of organized crime worldwide during his years in the US senate. He has proposed many bills to curb foreign financing of crime. All but one were shot down by republicans when they were initially sent to the hill, but after 9/11 many of Kerry's proposals were taken up in the republican based Patriot Act.

He believes that we can't force democracy on Iraq or most other mideast nations, based on his experience in Vietnam. Kerry learned a lesson from the tragedy that was Vietnam, while Bush's top advisors were the ones who wanted Vietnam, and pushed for the Iraq war today.

Concerning the Iraq war, Kerry has a few policies that I enjoy particularly. He doesn't want us to have permanent army bases in Iraq, thus keeping our troops out of harms way, and curbing longterm ill feelings towards the US(I don't want my friend getting killed during his second tour in Iraq). He wants to take steps toward the US giving up some administrative control over the occupation of Iraq, thus further reducing the level of anti-americanism within the region.

Bush believes that he was ordained by God to spread freedom across the world.
Kerry believes in statecraft and law enforcement.
You decide which one is more likely to "send the country straight into the furnaces of the firey down under".

DW

I'd really like to hear your justification for this post, given the fact that Kerry won't pass one domestic economic policy bill.

Tim said...

Ahem. Moderate? Did you say moderate? Pardon me while I giggle. Moderate like Hillary Clinton or Karl Marx, you mean.

Yes, he's beholden to the status quo, so he's not going to be shaking things up much - but from my perspective, that's not a good thing, especially since he's going to be raising tax rates every chance he gets. Bush may too, but he's at least an advocate of tax relief. And yes, I do believe that tax relief means relief for the ones that actually pay the taxes in the first place...

No, I don't think Kerry will be the Antichrist, but I don't think he's Mr. Rodgers either. Maybe Cookie Monster, or the Grinch. Or a tribble, with his lovely sculpted hairdo. In any case, I don't support him for the simple reason that he hasn't convinced me that he actually has a single belief worth stating in his bones.

He's about the same as Gore - a political waffler that molds his ideology to the latest polls. Gore was a "conservative" democrat down in his homestate, but on the national stage he's an arch-liberal. Very much the same story with Kerry - an uber-liberal at home, now a main-stream candidate for the people. Very touching, but not encouraging. Without having the appearance of actual beliefs, I have no basis for any confidence in any future policies that he'll support. His actions will reflect the fickleness of the voting public. Bush may be zealous and monotone, but at least I feel one can know where he stands, and how you to act in relation to him.

Anonymous said...

How could you justify electing a man, who gets us into costly wars of mysterious impetus if what you want is lower taxes.