I do not believe in superstition. I believe that society and, in particular, governments, ought to be run in accord with rational processes based on objective and verifiable facts.
Because I believe these things I can not vote for George W. Bush. He is a medieval man who elevates faith above reason and who subordinates facts to personal theology.
I believe in science and the use of the human mind. George W. Bush discounts science and its methods.
I do not want to revive the dark ages; I do not want every thought and every act to be evaluated against theology. Nor do I want the United States to become a state in which fundamentalist religious principles supersede the Constitution and and replace reason with dogma.
The Crusades began in the year 1095. They lasted 250 years. The results were far different than anticipated by those who began them. The United States under the hand of George W. Bush has begun a new crusade. And this new crusade seems as full of ill portents as were its predecessors.
In the United States the people are supposed to be the sovereigns. I want a president who speaks to the citizens of the country and listens to what they say. I am unwilling to follow a President who fancies that he speaks to some god and elevates that unaccountable and unverifiable voice above that of the citizens.
For these reasons I will not be voting for George W. Bush in the coming election.
There are other reasons as well: The diminishment of Constitutional rights, the evisceration of the Microsoft case, the appointment of a religious zealot to the head of the Justice Department, inattention to environmental matters, the bumbling into a ceaseless and apparently unnecessary war, and the institution of a policy of national xenophobia in an increasingly interdependent world.
In this election my choice is motivated largely by repulsion from Bush rather than attraction to Senator Kerry. However, Senator Kerry does have many positive aspects, most particularly his adherence to the classical notion of a liberal, constitutional system of government best described by President Lincoln in his Gettysburg Address as a "government of the people, by the people".
Posted by karl at October 24, 2004 2:06 PM