The Polls Are Haunting Me

Can it actually be that this country will elect George Bush (for real this time)? These polls are killing me--day after day, and they generally seem to show Bush on top. My hope is that November 2 will come out quite differently. After all, Jimmy Carter was not re-elected mostly for Iran's taking a couple of hostages, but we now have beheadings every couple of weeks. To talk to people, though, I won't be incredibly surprised if Bush is elected. Is this a dumb country? There's widespread agreement that Kerry-Edwards won every single debate. Kerry is a war hero; his actions during Vietnam are right out of an action movie. Yet Republicans are able to persuade the American public that up is down--Iraq's going well, chicken hawks are good for the military, making war is making peace, a war hero is a coward, and we're doing well economically.
This spills over to the state level. Many states, especially my own, are experiencing budget problems (add one more to that previous list--the tax cut for the top 1% includes you). Someone who knows more can correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems that the states have increased their taxes because of the federal tax cuts. This is one thing I don't get about conservatives--mention taxes, and they're all up in arms. You can kill their children for no apparent reason and take away their civil rights in the name of fighting terrorism, but try to tax them and you're history. Taxes pay for things. Taxes improve our cities. Taxes provide educational programs for our children. Taxes help people in times of need (I forgot, that's bad). So we can pay a few more dollars and get ourselves out of this record deficit. Was it Donald Trump who said, "Never trust a Republican with your money"? The beloved Donald Trump.
I have no question that John Kerry is the perfect candidate for this time. He will restore our relations with the rest of the world. But again, to conservatives, that's a bad thing. Aside from taxes, mention the U.N. and Republicans will unlock their bun cabinets. Why? I really don't get this one. We gain nothing by going it alone; we gain less by deliberately insulting longtime allies. We need to maintain good relations with the rest of the world. Even Richard Nixon knew this. Republican lies (or more accurately, deliberate misquotes)--"He would have us pass a global test." Not what he said, village idiot. The concept is that we seek support ahead of some military action, not just rush in against better judgment. (By the way, members of the Bush administration were pushing Clinton to step up military action against Iraq.) Now we have, "He thinks terrorism should be looked at as a nuisance." Again, inbred, what he actually said was that since terrorism can never be completely terminated, he would like to reduce it to more like a nuisance so that fear of it doesn't run our lives. But so much of the Republican platform relies on fear. One more thing, those Senate votes Bush keeps citing, some are for the same thing, and there are more than 60 votes against raising taxes. Jesus did say "render unto Caesar," which seems to mean "pay your taxes," but that seems not to apply to a lot of businesses.

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