The Moderate Republican

oooh- scary queers. recruit your kids. undermine your marriage. the real threat to this country isn't terrorism, or our soaring national or personal debt, or the lack of preventative health care services to the uninsured - its what those two pleasant young guys next door do when they're out of my sight.

Maybe we get the government we (collectively) deserve after all.

I REPRESENTED George Bush Sr. as a delegate to the Florida convention and I volunteered to go to Vietnam as an intelligence analyst in the U.S. Army.

Under the current administration, the Republican Party has deserted its dedicated people who believed in fiscal responsibility, a balanced budget, truthfulness from its leaders, coordination and involvement of its NATO and U.N. allies and national security that defends but does not violate the civil liberties of its citizens.

...

For those others in the past who have voted Republican because they believed in the vitality of free markets and the enterprise system, and who believed in the elimination of deficit spending that in the '90s and earlier periods brought in a revived prosperity, there is not a genuine Republican candidate for president this year.

There may be a man who will return the Republican Party to its principles. But on Nov. 2, Bush Jr. is not that man.

BASIL AKERS
Albuquerque

http://abqjournal.com/opinion/letters/248377opinion10-25-04.htm

Very jr high.

There are systemic problems with our current political system in my opinion.

1). Gerrymandered districts - as many races as possible should be contested and competitive as far as I'm concerned. The fast majority of house races are simply coronations of the incumbent (jeez I sound like Nader, God help me). In IA, districts are drawn up by an independent board and it's worked out pretty well.

2). The rise of partisan "news". The electorate congregates around the media outlets (and blogs) which reinforce their worldview. We've reached the point where the two sides don't share the same set of facts.

3). The reductions of money and staff in "balanced" news organizations that once gave us more research and timely fact checking. In many cases the press is reduced to simply taking the packaged talking points that the parties give them and presenting them side by side in what amounts to a "he said" - "she said"

4). Campaign finance laws which we never seem to get right.

5). And a new one possibly depending on how things turn out this year -- failure of voting equipment, litigation and justifiable (or unjustifable) claims of voter fraud that reduce confidence in the system.

Though it's against the traditions of our long history, I'd also submit that we might be better served by some system like Instant Runoff Voting which would give rise to a multi-party system.

What might arise initially? Here's my guess.

a). Christian Coalition
b). Constitution
c). Libertarian
d). Conservative
e). Liberal
f). Greens
g). Socialist

Good? Bad?

but the crack about George Bush's base is out of line. The majority of the republican party is not bigoted. The majority of the republican party wakes up every morning, feeds the kids, etc and goes to work the same kind of job as someone from the democratic party.

This BS with artificial divisions is a large part of why people from both parties want another choice.

Kerry supporters have just as much to be ashamed of this election cycle. Both parties seem to be run by complete jerks without an ounce of integrity.

I think this ad will appeal only to those people that would actually not vote for Bush/Cheney because of Cheney's daughter.

Pretty sad attempt at humor, if it was.

No, this is just bigoted and designed to pander to bigots. Oh, I mean, George Bush's base.

Have to admit it was kind of funny in a stupid kind of way.

Humor? Implying infidelity is not humorous.

Come on now. That is at least an attempt at humor. Republicans can't be as funny as Dems (see Will Ferrel skit on Bush), but at least they are trying.