This article discusses how one decides for whom to vote. Every voter oat to have some basic principles on how the government should be run. I believe that a government should be run rationally, secularly, problems should be solved privately, using a minimum of government, but defensive organs of the government (Military, Police, strict control of what we eat and import) should be strong.One must vote only for one representative (or Senator, or President) or for his opponent in this country. If our representative does not share all our principles, and his opponent shares some, we have to decide which one shares the most important principles. This is voting for issues. Some people vote straight for one party without regard to issues. Maybe their fathers voted for that party, or maybe everyone in that district votes that way. A good citizen must study the issues debated in the election and should have his opinion. He should also be knowledgeable on the people running for office.
I want to tell here my voting record. I grew up in Turkey and could first vote there at the age of 32, because I had first to go to Germany for six years of Engineering studies, and two more years to the obligatory military service. Elections were every 5 years (I think). I was working for the Turkish Iron & Steel Co. at Karabuk. Turkey had just become a multi-party country. The incumbent People’s Republican Party, had been started by Ataturk and most engineers belonged to it. I was not active in any party. The new “Democrat Party” promised a slightly different future. My wife knew personally the head of that party and was convinced to vote Democrat But a bunch of irresponsible candidate representative Democrats had came to Karabuk and promised to the workers, that if they will bring them ten signatures of complaining workers, they will get their supervisor fired. They soon had fired two of the best supervisors, who were not immediately replaceable I had to go to Ankara, to explain the real situation to some higher Democrat Party people and tell them how they were destroying the steel industry. The two supervisors were rehired but the moral in the company hit bottom. Although The Democrat Party was promising a brighter future, in view of their actions, I voted for the Incumbent People’s Republican Party. That was my first and last vote in Turkey. At that election in 1950 the Democrats won a landslide of a victory, but they thought they could do anything with such a majority and in 1960 the Democrat party was closed. The Peoples’ Republican Party was eventually hijacked by socialists, so there is no more party in Turkey that represents Ataturk’s legacy.
When I arrived in the U.S. and got naturalized, I registered as Republican, because I liked their platform of small government and private solution of public problems. From January 1960 on, I voted continuously as Republican. George W. Bush changed everything. Bethlehem Steel Corporation, where I had worked as a research engineer for almost a quarter of a century, was going bankrupt from poor management, but could not find a buyer, because of its obligations towards its retirees. President Bush, in stead of protecting the earned and promised pensions, life insurance, and health insurance of these retirees, allowed the Bethlehem Steel management to break their promise to the retirees, so that the corporation could be sold. Thanks to the ERISSA law passed by the Democrats a few years ago, my pension was taken over by the government, but I lost $26,000 of life insurance, and now It cost me $430.26 a month to replace the Bethlehem Steel health insurance that was robbed from me.
AARP wanted to import prescription drugs cheaper from Canada for its retired members. President Bush, in stead of helping AARP, vetoed it, It put the interest of drug companies ahead of that of the citizens who elected him.
President Bush allowed the evangelical religious groups to hijack his party. He gave funds to religious groups in spite of the separation of Church and State in our constitution. Even Tom Brokaw remarked that the U.S. was going towards a theocracy.
After 9/11 and the brief Afghanistan war, in stead of following those actions by stronger American forces, fully destroying the Taliban, and catching Osame bin Laden, the Iraq War was started under the influence of petroleum interests. Iraq was a secular country and had no relation with the Taliban or the Al Qaeda. The reasons advanced for this war were proven false.. It cost us almost $1 trillion, 4200 dead, 25000 wounded and 15 % of non-wounded soldiers having mental problems. In the coming election, ending the Iraq war soon and staying there until victory has become an important issue.
President Bush broke United States promises and signatures in the Geneva Convention, and in the Treaty of Westphalia which was the standard since the 17th Century. He put the United States in the position of an international Pariah. He gave Russia an alibi to attack his old USSR members.
The list is much longer, but this much is enough to characterize him and the party he changed. Of course George W. Bush is not running for re-election, but the one who is running from the Republican Party, John McCain, is almost a carbon-copy of President Bush. He boasts having voted 90 % with President Bush. He is clearly preferring corporations’ interest over citizen’s interest. Finally his choice of Vice President is too weak. Using an old Turkish expression, Governor Sarah Palin “need to eat 40 bakeries’ full of bread before she qualifies” as President of the United States.
I did not tell you how I am going to vote on November 4, 2008, did I ?
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