The presidential election of 2004 is at hand. The stakes are high.
Some 72 years ago, Franklin Roosevelt assured depression-weary voters that there was “nothing to fear but fear itself.” If he were around today FDR might warn voters that, “there is nothing to fear but… four more years.”
Not much positive has come out of the first four years of this administration. I’ve asked Bush supporters to name just one thing he has done to make me vote for him. The answer is silence unless their incoherent mutterings about the disaster in Iraq, which we invaded under false pretenses, is considered a plus. After all he is resolute, they say.
On the other hand there are a jillion reasons not to vote for him. In just four years he has:
• Taken a huge budget surplus and turned it into the biggest deficit in U.S. history.
• Given away billions of tax dollars in no-bid contracts.
• Eliminated overtime pay for millions of hard working Americans.
• Given tax breaks to businesses who outsource jobs.
• Cut Medicare by 17 percent and reduced veteran’s benefits and military pay.
• Given four huge tax breaks mostly to people who don’t need it and in many cases don’t want it.
Furthermore, if he gets his four more years, Bush will privatize Social Security. Such a radical injection of Wall Street sharks into our most successful and guaranteed social program would put the whole economy in a tailspin not to mention destroying the very essence of senior security. It’s also obvious that if Bush and his cronies get four more years they plan to roll back all the other progressive gains of the 20th century.
Finally, a vote for Kerry and against Bush would give hope to millions of sufferers of Alzheimer’s, spinal cord, Parkinson, diabetes, ALS (Lou Gehrig), and many other diseases since a Kerry administration has pledged to pump money into embryonic stem cell research which some day may stamp out these terrible afflictions. Bush has essentially stifled all stem cell research by limiting the number of lines, all 22 of them and all contaminated, on hand before Aug. 8, 200l.
This ultra right-wing ideology of Bush and his cronies has triumphed over the almost unanimous view of the scientific community. Sufferers and their families be damned. The size of an embryonic stem cell is like the mark a pencil point makes on a blank sheet of paper--almost invisible. Furthermore there are some 400,000 of these “dots” frozen in invitro fertilization clinics that unless used for research will be washed down the sink or remain frozen in perpetuity. It makes no sense to waste them
With all the baggage Bush brings to the table and his refusal to properly fund stem cell research makes a vote for Kerry a no-brainer.
