Re: [MLUG - DISCUSSION] Missouri Young Republicans?

[Jonathan King <EMAIL:PROTECTED>]

On Wed, 07 Jul 2004 20:11:51 -0500, Nathan Odle <EMAIL:PROTECTED> wrote:
> Mike Miller wrote:
> 
> > Kerry isn't the only guy I'd vote for in a Presidential election, but
> > this year he's the only one with a chance to beat Bush.  Therefore,
> > being of sound mind, I will vote for Kerry.
> 
> Perhaps this isn't how you meant it (in fact I'll go ahead and say I'm
> pretty sure it wasn't), but your comment that you are voting for the
> only guy with a chance to beat Bush didn't include any sort of
> qualification covering the possibility that you actually like what said
> individual stands for.

Now here is the real puzzler.  If I were a Republican (disclaimer: I'm
not, but I have voted for Republicans more than 10 times in my life at
all levels of office), I think I would be pretty disguested with him. 
For me, the defining (positive) characteristics of the GOP always
were:

1) Fiscal conservatism
2) Limited government
3) Support for Free Trade
4) Disdain for foreign adventures
5) Fervent anti-communism
6) Conservative stances on social issues, subject to (2) above.

I guess you could say that G. W. Bush has very conservative stances on
some social issues.  But his trade policy is a disaster, his fiscal
policy is irresponsible, he is a foreign adventurer of the most
extreme kind, and a president who pushed through both the USA Patriot
Act and the declaration that he had imperial powers to imprison people
without due process.  Oh yeah; I suppose he's fervently anti-Castro
(which is what (5) now boils down to).
But how on earth any traditional Republican could support this guy, I
do not know.

> That being said, voting with the mindset that *anyone* has to be better
> than the incumbent is pretty irresponsible unless we're talking about
> the likes of Saddam Hussein, Manuel Noriega, etc.

Those people weren't incumbents, because they were never legitimitely
elected.  It's easy to imagine worse candidates for president than
George Bush (let's start with the current incarnation of Ralph Nader).
 But how anybody really thinks that Bush is better than dozens of
Republicans chosen pretty much at random from Congress or various
state houses...I'm baffled.  I guess old-time Republicanism is truly
dead in this day and age.
 
> Like I said, that's probably not what you personally meant but there are
> a ton of people out there this year that are thinking that way and I
> thought I'd vent on the issue :)

What Republicans in (say) the Senate would you NOT prefer to G. W.
Bush as president, if you were given the choice to switch?  Not being
a fan of these guys, I can come up with 10 or so, but no more than
that (e.g., Trent Lott, Rick Santorum, Brownback, Chambliss...)

I'm completely serious here, by the way.  The popularity of G.W. Bush
among Republicans does completely mystify me (in a way that the
popularity of, say, Bob Dole, Ronald Reagan, John McCain and many
others does not).

jking
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