i'm being completely serious in this post

i voted for george w. bush in 2000. i did not think that gore would have made a good president. i had many reasons why i thought this, most of which i have long since forgotten due to the events of recent years.

bush didn't do shit to piss me off the first few months of his presidency. september 11th came and pissed us all off. we invaded afghanistan which was legitimate and appropriate. we took out the taliban as we said we were going to do.

we also said we'd find osama. yeah that's gone real well.

we're still there trying to setup the government, which is good, but has been compounded by later bullshit.

we then trumped up an invasion of iraq. in the buildup to that war i wondered why the administration didn't just say "we're tired of them disregarding un resolutions and shooting at our planes that are flying in accordance with the cease fire they signed and we're not going to wait for the un to do anything about it anymore" instead of going the wmd route.

i did believe that iraq had wmd's, as in chemical or biological weapons. the idea they were anywhere near a nuke was ludicrous. i still do believe thay had chem/bio weapons, however i don't believe they had a legitimate threat as of 2003 to the US or its interests. i also don't believe they were a threat to their neighbors and were only a real threat to our planes in the no fly zone. i do believe that they had ample time to remove or destroy any chemical or biological weapons they had prior to the invasion.

the administration fucked up the occupation. rumsfeld is an idiot. i don't think i need to outline how horribly that has gone.

i did not vote in 2004. my voter registration was fucked up by gaston county and i'll be damned if i was going to drive 6.5 hours to vote. looking back on it now, knowing what i do now, i would not have voted again. that whole giant turd and huge douche thing.

bush has fucked up everything he has touched. more scandals than anyone, abu ghraib and this plame bullshit is fucked up.

i don't think if jesus himself was elected president next that he could fix everything even in 2 terms.

[Edited on October 21, 2005 at 11:42 AM. Reason : *]

10/21/2005 11:40:04 AM

i agree with the majority of this post, and I'm glad to see that you're thinking critically and admitting there are some serious problems here.

hope you don't get kicked out of the club

[Edited on October 21, 2005 at 11:42 AM. Reason : .]

10/21/2005 11:42:04 AM

i voted for bush in 2000

kerry in 2004

I HAVE NO PARTY!!1

10/21/2005 11:44:26 AM

i just dont get why conservatives still support him.

i guess becuase its a 2 party system

10/21/2005 11:45:09 AM

I voted for Kerry in 2004. and i was too young in 2000, but i told other people they should vote for gore. i never wanted that turd in office and i still don't want him in there. I can say as a participating member of this nation, I'm in the now clear majority do not approve of the job the president is doing.

10/21/2005 11:46:40 AM

I have an American friend here in Germany who I talked to a couple weeks ago about this. He's a smart guy - engineer, non religious, fiscal conservative, supports the idea of the DHS, supported both wars, and voted for Bush in 2000 and 2004.

He was never overly into politics - just paid attention to what he needed to to get by. Then he had a revelation sometime during the spring of this year when he was watching Bush speak on TV and he said to himself "holy shit, this guy is an idiot". Then he started listening and watching more carefully and reflected back on a lot of what happened during the election last year and realized he made a big mistake in voting for him.

.... That's the kind of thing I'm worried about - that within 6-9 months after Bush was reelected that all these people are coming around and finally seeing him and the administration for what they're worth. But instead of being able to do something about it now, we have to wait 3 more years....

10/21/2005 11:57:27 AM

i only vote democrat to keep republicans out of office

10/21/2005 11:59:10 AM

next time i'm voting for the flying spaghetti monster.

10/21/2005 12:01:43 PM

Yea, sure, Bush could not possibly be worse. He is an idiot, nutjob, lier, socialist, bad judge of competence, and probably gay as all hell.

But in the end, he is still better than John Kerry.

Of course, I also need to admit that it would probably have been better if Kerry had won. Maybe he would have vetoed a bill or two and neither side passed any legislation. Hell, maybe a government shutdown or two could have been secured.

Either way, the republican majority in Congress is both necessary and proper.

10/21/2005 12:50:20 PM

Ill maintain that in some ways he is still slightly preferable to Kerry.

For instance, a crony on the supreme court is still better than two outright liberals on the court.

And as far as the war goes, I dont feel qualified to speak to the strategies of the military occupation, but I do think the way he has handled the war in terms of speaking to the American people has been absolutely disastrous. I feel that support for the war wouldnt have plummeted the way it has if the administration had just been upfront with the people about the difficulties involved and not bullshit them with stuff like "last throes."

Now wiith the combination of the crony court appointment, the way he is handling the war, and the usual spending and corruption there is no longer any reason to support him.

10/21/2005 1:05:54 PM

^^^you were touched weren't you?

i've felt that warm, noodly touch

[Edited on October 21, 2005 at 1:11 PM. Reason : `]

10/21/2005 1:11:48 PM

Quote :

"Either way, the republican majority in Congress is both necessary and proper."

eh, I dont want to see the republicans lose majorities in congress, but I would like to see the current crop of incumbents punished.

I would prefer that those attacks happen in the primaries the way it was with Arlen Specter but on a much larger scale. Basically every republican incumbent who voted against the Coburn amendments deserves to be defeated and well over half of those in the house need to knocked in the side of the head.

However I am not confident that the grass roots and interest groups can make this happen so it may become necessary to vote for democrats.

It is incredibly troublesome that the Republicans are in a position where they can still maintain power and even make gains with all the shit that has happened recently, and I dont see things getting better for the party in terms of putting forth actual conservative ideals until the current republicans are either replaced or lose their power to democrats.

10/21/2005 1:21:05 PM

Quote :

"my voter registration was fucked up by gaston county"

Should have absentee voted, I just registered for it when I was back in G-Trash for a weekend and I got my ballot in the mail.

10/21/2005 2:06:24 PM

Quote :

"he was watching Bush speak on TV and he said to himself "holy shit, this guy is an idiot". "

I voted for him in 2000. My response was more gradual:
-"Hmm, maybe it's just the Texas accent."
-"Maybe he's just nervous. He'll do fine when he stops reading canned speeches and actually talks in a normal tone."
-"Hmm, he really didn't prepare for this speech well."
-"It's the State of the Union address, I guess he's supposed to speak in vague all-encompassing rhetoric."
-"Hmm, he's not a very good public speaker at all. But then again, neither am I. That's okay, I'm sure he's doing his homework and has his shit together, that just doesn't show in his speeches."
-"Holy shit, this guy is an idiot."

10/21/2005 2:45:37 PM

Voted Libertarian in 2000 and for Kerry in 2004.

I've never wanted Bush in the White House. I don't think Gore would have been that great of a president either, nor Kerry. Still, I think either could have done a better job with what has happened in our country than Bush has.

Naysayers - prove me wrong. You can't...

10/21/2005 2:48:14 PM

Here's the worlds smallest violin, made in china, playing for our country.

I listened to the man speak for five minutes in 2000 and decided he was an idiot. I haven't supported him since.

10/21/2005 6:06:00 PM

Didn't in 2000 (thru-hiking the Appalachian Trail and didn't get my absentee ballot in time) but probably would have voted for him. Voted for Kerry (holding nose) in 2004 after seeing what a fuckup he is. By the most embarassing president I've seen in my 35 years on this big blue marble.

10/21/2005 7:26:51 PM

first of all, props for making this thread


secondly, all of you who thought Kerry would come in and turn this place into commie-haven

either are naive enough to believe everything you hear, or are fucking dumb as hell

thanks for leading this country in the wrong direction--at the least, i hope your neanderthalism in November of 2004 atleast served to restore your masculinity, which is obviously terribly fraile

10/21/2005 8:30:29 PM

In simple words, America needs to revise its Democracy.

10/21/2005 8:36:30 PM

No not at all.

America needs to revise its political ideals.

10/21/2005 8:39:57 PM

Obviously this two party system isn't working.

10/21/2005 8:42:51 PM

first order of business: presidental voting days become national holidays, akin to christmas - ALMOST nobody works, at all.

I think PR systems are way, way too unstable for the type of global role we currently play.

[Edited on October 21, 2005 at 8:43 PM. Reason : a]

10/21/2005 8:42:55 PM

Which would fall under revising our political ideals, yes.^^

10/21/2005 8:45:01 PM

^^ My teachers told me I didn't have to go to class if I bought the sticker back saying that I voted. But I have disliked Bush since he was the governor of Texas. I kept telling people that he sucked then, and no one wanted to believe me....

10/21/2005 10:08:52 PM

Quote :

" North Carolina Libertarians to Sue over Ballot Access On August 22, the North Carolina State Board of Elections removed the Libertarian Party from the ballot. In response, the party plans to bring a lawsuit, charging that the state’s ballot access laws violate the State Constitution. Article I, sec. 10, of the North Carolina Constitution says “All elections shall be free”. Current ballot access law requires a party to obtain 69,734 signatures, unless it polled 10% for president or governor at the last election. Yet U.S. history shows that states that require as few as 5,000 signatures never have a crowded ballot, where “crowded ballot” is defined as a ballot with more than 8 parties or candidates. North Carolina only required 10,000 signatures for a new party to get on the ballot before 1981. "

State republicans and democrats have gathered forces to keep all other parties off the ballot in North Carolina. The campaign finance reform law, better named as the "Incumbant Protection Act", prohibits private citizen groups from advertising political messages during the time when most voters are paying attention. Congressment and senators use our money to keep buying themselves back into office. Why should we be surprised at the poor choices we are given at election time?

10/21/2005 10:59:38 PM

^^^^ The question is: Do you really want even more idiots voting?

[Edited on October 21, 2005 at 11:20 PM. Reason : ^]

10/21/2005 11:20:23 PM