Confessions of a Republican Voter
So, Election 2006 is over. Yes, I voted. I also voted Republican. I won't give you reasons, and hopefully, I don't need to. However, here's some things to consider for those of you who hate George Bush, Republicans, the War in Iraq, and politics in general.
I've been involved in and surrounded by politics for as long as I can remember. My mother is Republican. She was recently appointed to the Salem County Board of Elections. Prior to that, she served four terms as the Salem County GOP Chair. I've campaigned, setup fair booths, rode in parades, attended fundraisers and dinners, and many other things. Does this make me Republican? No! Does it make me want to vote? Yes!
First of all, there's no war on our grounds. We don't have militia lined up on every street corner with weapons. We don't have tanks strolling down the I-95 blowing things up. You have your freedoms, and you have very little to complain about really. You don't have it that bad… and it's NOT all because George W. Bush is President.
I don't care who you voted for… I just hope you voted. I know many (or most) of you hate George Bush. I could go into hundreds of reasons why you might… Some of you know exactly why, but I'm willing to bet a good number of you simply hate him because it's cool.. or because your friends or favorite bands do. But seriously folks, we're Americans, and we're supposed to support our government and its leaders, regardless of their party affiliation. It just looks bad to other countries that we're over hear bashing our President. I don't care if you think he's an idiot or incompetent human. The point is, WE appointed him President. We as in the people of this country. If you didn't vote in 2004, or if you didn't tell all of your non-voting friends to vote for someone other than Bush, then you're to blame (in part).
I think many of you have this idea that George sits in his office (or on vacation) and makes stupid decisions about the country. You're wrong. There's an entire chain of power and processes that take place for him to say, "OK, let's go to Iraq." He didn't wake up one morning and decide it would be a good place to kill people. Personally, I'd rather have troops there now, even if we don't know why, than regret it later. If Bush were doing so poorly of a job as President, he wouldn't have been voted to a 2nd term. If he's been so bad since then, why hasn't he been impeached yet, and on what grounds? I know some of you think he knew all about 9/11 and even may have had involvement. That's bullshit. I don't know how else to put it. I don't know how else you wanted him to handle that kind of disaster. You can't plan for something like that. No one in the White House has any privacy to the point where a single individual or party could plan or know about something like that without news going through the roof. Clinton couldn't have a secret affair. McGreevey couldn't get away with his gay affair . So what makes you think that Bush could get away with something like a WTC attack? If he's the incompetent idiot many of you think he is, than how does such an idiot plan such a perfect cover-up? Your accusations don't add up! Many of you all went and watched Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11, and bought every word of it. He deliberately took interviews, media, and situations out of context to structure a persuasion piece. It worked. But for those who bought it - Did you actually go and research on your own the facts? Did you even watch the rebuttal Fahrenhype 9/11? Do your homework people!
I personally don't think that if our Present was a Democrat, or if our President hadn't sent troops to Iraq (or pulled them out by now), that we'd like him. It seems like the cool thing to do these days is to bash your leader. I also don't think that if our country had all Democratic leaders, we'd be a perfect, happy, Government-loving country. We'll always have crap to complain about. We'll always find things wrong with our leaders. It's what we do. If you think something needs changed, you have options. WRITE your senators! Take action. Run for office yourself!
The most important thing here is that you do your research before your go around party bashing. I'll be the first to admit that how I vote will depend a lot on where I live. Parties are different everywhere. Get to know your local candidates. And, for God's sake, do NOT rely on the media! If you use the media for your political jargon, at least use multiple papers, channels, websites, blogs, whatever. They are ALL biased! I will say that most media sources will tend to be liberal. Why? Without the rally for change, they don't have a story. It's as simple as that.
So, when Election 2008 comes around, I know most of you will vote for the Democrat, regardless of who it is just to see Bush out of office. So when the country once again has a Democratic leader, I hope you're not banking on the fact that by 2012, after term one is up, that the country is returned to it's Pre-Bush state or better. For all we know, he could end up in some sort of sex-scandal. Or, he could have a gay affair and appoint his lover to office. Who knows?