Quote of note:
This is the time to decide whether this country and, by logical extension, the fate of the world should be in the hands of a leader whose essential mode of governance mocks the ideals of a free society.
This is too dangerous a time for voters to be blinded by the extra bucks in those tax breaks that are bankrupting our future economy or to indulge in some comic book fantasy about zapping the bad guys in those foreign countries. It is a time to think hard about the unbridled power of a second Bush term and whether you want Bush, Cheney & Co. to decide, on a political whim, to send your kid, or the one next door, to war.
The Dangers of a 'What the Heck' Vote
Robert Scheer
September 28, 2004
Don't say you weren't warned. Yes, you, that otherwise reasonable centrist voter who might be tempted to cast a "what the heck" vote for George W. Bush. Don't kid yourself that the Cheneys, Ashcrofts and Rumsfelds who mold Bush's thoughts will suddenly moderate their radical vision for remaking the world or dampen their attacks on our treasury and civil liberties. It won't happen: Reward their rampage of the last four years with a new mandate to rule and they will only be emboldened.
Four more years of the Bush administration threaten two essential ingredients of our system of government: checks and balances on the president's exercise of power by Congress and the judiciary; and an informed citizenry alert to the attempts by a president to play fast and loose with the people's future.
On the latter point, it is dangerous to reward rather than punish a president who exploited the tragedy of 9/11 to justify a costly war in Iraq. A vote for Bush is a vote for the neoconservative doctrine of preemptive war based on distorted evidence and the rule of fear. If the GOP wins in November, why shouldn't a victorious Bush administration feel empowered in its second term to invade another country on the basis of flimsy ties to Al Qaeda?
What is to stop the administration from expanding attacks on our civil liberties or reinstituting a military draft in order to wage an ill-defined war on terror? Nothing, because Bush's reelection would erase the doubts raised by his first dubious victory and validate his post 9/11 strategy of stoking our fears while robbing us of the information and logic needed to make rational policy choices.
