A Dozen Reasons to Vote for John Kerry

1. To Balance the Government

The House, the Senate, the Executive Office and the Supreme Court are all currently run by conservatives. As evidenced by the popular vote in the last election going to Al Gore, this majority does not reflect at least one half of the beliefs of the country. If you are truly a swing voter, your vote for John Kerry can help balance the country so that important issues (such as the Patriot Act) are discussed, not just bullied through.

2. Because All Said and Done, He Did Go

Regardless of the muddy and obnoxious arguments back and forth about who did what when, “was the wound self-inflicted?,” “were the documents forged?” there is one clear fact that remains about Kerry and Bush’s war service. John Kerry went to Vietnam and served. Bush, and Cheney and Rumsfeld all got out of the war through deferments national guard duty . . . something. I am as tired as you about hearing about this issue, but I still think it does speak on some level to their character. And I do think someone who actually saw the horrors of war up close is better to decide the types of wars that this country should get into (and hopefully get out of.)

3. Because he Knows the Mission is Far From Accomplished

The Right are trying to use “Scary Kerry” tactics to make voters actually afraid to vote for John Kerry. I can understand not agreeing with his stance on some issues, but where is the fear coming from? There is no American alive right now who would not take terrorism seriously. Kerry has vowed to immediately implement every recommendation that the 9/11 Commission has recommended to make America safer (yes, the same Commission that the Bush Administration tried to stop at every turn.) He has also given much thought and has a direct plan on how to get out of the mess that is Iraq. And he has even taken the time to think about North Korea, an issue that George W. Bush has totally ignored. Kerry is the only candidate taking a big picture view of the problem with terrorism plans to fight these new challenges the way they need to be fought in the 21st century.

Read the NY TIMES Magazine detailed article about how Kerry reacted on 9-11 and his plans to defeat terrorism.

4. He Understands We Are Part of the Whole World

These days the world is closer than ever, and while the U.S. doesn’t need to ask “permission” to make decisions, it is pretty stupid and totally unnecessary to purposely destroy our goodwill with the other nations in the world. The War on Terror crosses ALL borders and can't be fought with Cold War techniques, which is why Kerry's plan values funding intelligence rather than supporting the invasion of sovereign nations. He will work to rebuild our alliances across the world, which is yet another effective way to counter terrorism. A foreign born first lady who knows six languages could also prove to be a huge help in building bridges with other nations.

5. He Understands what “Fiscal Responsibility” Means

I can’t believe Democrats always get labled as “tax and spend.” Kerry was instrumental in helping Clinton Administration to finally balance the budget, even creating a surplus. In less than four years Bush has blown through the surplus, and got us back into a projected deficit of $436.9 billion . Kerry plans to cut the deficit in half in four years, mainly by closing tax-free loopholes for corporations that take their money out of America and hide in in tax shelters, and rolling back tax cuts to the levels they were at during the Clinton Administration for people making over $200,000. Everyone making under that limit will keep their tax cuts, and he will also secure Medicare, and Social Security.

6. He Believes No School Should Be Given an Unfunded Mandate

Bush’s “No Child Left Behind” plan has a major dirty little secret . . . the federal government expects schools to produce results or else they will be taken to task, but they have not given nearly enough funding to actually support the program. John Kerry believes that if the federal government is going to mandate requirements for schools, then the funding to make it happen should also be mandatory.

7. He Will Make College to be Easier to Pay For

As president he will put forth a “Service for College” plan in which students can earn four years of college tuition in exchange for two years of national service. Now you don’t have to join the military and risk getting killed in Iraq before you can get an education.

8. He Will Make the US Energy Independent

Saudi Arabia currently controls 7% of our Gross National Product. If we ever anger them and they have reason to “pull out” their money, our economy will tank, no pun intended. We need to slowly extricate ourselves from this situation. John Kerry has a plan to make the U.S. independent of Middle East oil, that does NOT involve drilling for oil in the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge. Instead he `wants to invest in renewable energy sources such as ethanol, solar and wind, creating 500,000 new American jobs in the process.

9. He Believes Everyone Deserves Health Care

Bush’s plans for Healthcare reform aren’t really reforms at all. He wants to continue to increase the privatizing of health care and wants to place limits on the rights of patients to sue HMOs. John Kerry realizes that a national government plan that people can opt to buy into is the only way to extend coverage to tens of millions currently uninsured Americans and the premiums for those that are insured can be reduced. Basically what this means that if you already have good healthcare now, you won’t have to change your program, but if you have none, you will actually be able to have full benefits for you and your family.

10. He Believes You Should Keep Your Tax Cut, but Your CEO Should Give it Back

Remember when Bush promised that his tax relief package would allow average Americans to keep $1,083 of their own money? How much did you get? I remember getting a check in the mail for something like $300 once, and that’s what most of my friends got too. Now getting “free” money in the mail is fine, but not at the cost of 1.6 trillion at the most conservative estimate (2.1 trillion over the next ten years is the more accurate cost according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.)

Kerry has vowed to repeal the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans so we can invest in education and health care, but he will protect middle-class tax cuts such as the child credit and the elimination of the marriage penalty. He also proposes additional tax credits to help middle-class families make ends meet.

11. He Will End the Era of Ashcroft

Our current Attorney General John Ashcroft isn’t just a “religious man.” He is a fundamentalist zealot who is anointed with holy oil before any public announcement, who lost vote in Missouri to a candidate who was dead, who paid $4,000 of tax payer money to drape a statue representing the scales of justice because her bare breast was showing. Under the guise of “Making America Safer” he has detained American citizens without giving them basic rights or letting anyone know why they are being detained, tried to start a nationwide program called TIPS which encouraged the spying on your neighbor (hello, can you say Chinese communist cultural revolution?), and he wants libraries to report back to the government on what you checked out. Even though he did write (and sing) a song called "Let the Eagle Soar," he is about as “anti-american” as anyone can get. In addition to fighting to protect women’s rights, civil rights, and workers rights, Kerry has vowed to immediately recall all of Ashcrofts civil rights violations.

12. If You Vote for Bush in 2004, You Won’t Want to Admit You Did by 2008

Admitting you voted for Nixon in 1972 was an embarrassment just a few months later, and in 1998 Democrats came up with lame excuses for a ridiculous lapse in Presidential judgment when Clinton let Monica Lewinsky into the Oval Office. There is enough information out there on the Bush Administration to make both of these previous “scandals” look like very small potatoes. These scandals are coming so quickly, are are being so quickly spun by the right-wing media that we aren’t learning enough to ask for more, and our attention is being diverted so quickly that we are forgetting the things that just happened. Case in point, the Abu-Gharib prison scandal is one of the worse cases of lack of government accountability to ever be uncovered, far worse to our national reputation than Watergate or Lewinskigate, but how much do you still hear about it? Has anyone been fired or held accountable? This is just one of many such scandals and this from an administration that still needs to be reelected. I don’t even WANT to imagine what they will do with “four more years” of power.