Some political thoughts.

First, allow me to begin this with some personal history: The first election I remember is the 1996 election, when Bill Clinton won his second term. I recall nothing of the candidates or their candidacies. In fact, I can’t even remember whom the Republicans ran against Clinton. What I do remember is the actual process by which my mother voted. The voting machines were set up in the gym of PS 282, where I was a student at the time. I went into the booth with her and watched as she flipped all of the little switches that represented her votes. The full ballot was cast by throwing a large reddish-orange lever. When it came time for my mom to cast her votes, she allowed me to throw the lever. I had been eying it for the entire time we were in there, and she knew I’d find enjoyment in doing it. As I pushed the lever from the left to the right, I recall being struck by a heavy feeling of importance. I was a fairly fast learner, and realized the importance of what I was doing for my mother. I was casting her vote in an election that determined who would rule the country for the next four years. To me, four years was an almost incomprehensibly long time, given that at the time, I was only five years old.

The next election I can remember, and the first that I can clearly remember, was the landmark election of 2000, when George W. Bush defeated Al Gore. While I was then still only 9, I was, if I do say so myself, a very bright child, and I followed the election intently, because it was infinitely interesting to me (God knows why.). This was before the watershed moment of September 11th, 2001, so I will admit to some naiveté about elections and how the country was run, but I remember listening to all of the candidates and all of their debates and liking what I heard from only a few of those candidates. The one candidate I remember being really impressed by was, I must admit, a Republican senator by the name of John McCain. I must take a moment to defend myself by stating that this was the John McCain of 2000, who was still a maverick and one of the most moderate Republicans in the party, and not the John McCain of 2008, who has become a typical neo-con that would pick an utterly inexperienced Alaskan governor to potentially serve in the second-highest office in the land. But, I digress; back to 2000. I remember a feeling of dread when I heard that George Bush had won the Republican nomination, because I honestly did not like George Bush at all. I was slightly heartened when Al Gore won the Democratic nomination, because while I preferred John McCain’s ideas at the time, Gore had impressed me during the course of the campaign. When Bush was granted the Presidency by the Supreme Court of Florida, I felt let-down by the political process, but at the same time, I had a feeling that is best expressed in the simple words of John Wayne: “I didn’t vote for him, but he’s my President, and I hope he does a good job.” And I felt that way until the events of September 11th, 2001. I doubt that I will ever be able to sufficiently express in words what I felt on that day, and thus I will not attempt to here. But I will expound on what 9/11 did to the political atmosphere of this country.

9/11 enabled the Republicans of our country to stifle dissent with naught but one invocation of the events. And we did what we were compelled to do, because we had been through a national nightmare, and we clung to our President in the hopes that he would deliver us from the darkness of that terrible time. And you know what? He promised to. He took action. He went into Afghanistan to destroy the Taliban and try to kill Osama bin Laden. That was a move that I supported in 2001, and it is a move that I support today. The war in Afghanistan is, to appropriate a Bush term, “the central front in the war on terror.” Or, at least it should be.

However, it isn’t. The Bush administration, and the Republican Party as a whole, likes to portray Iraq as the central front in the war on terror. And, to them, it is. In their war on terror, it is. In the war on terror, it should be Afghanistan. But again, it isn’t. The central front in the war on terror is, sadly, here. The United States of America. The Bush administration’s war on terror is supposedly a war against Al Qaeda, but has now become a war of aggression against a sovereign nation that did nothing against us in 2001. But, even the most important war on terror is not about Al Qaeda, anymore. Al Qaeda is involved, but they sparked this war. They sparked the terrorism. But, they are not, sad to say, the enemy in this war. You might ask who the enemy in this war is? Well, I’ll tell you. The terrorists in this war are in our own country. The terrorists in this war are in our government. The terrorists in this war ARE our government, in point of fact. The Republican Party has become a party of terrorists. The Oxford definition of “terrorist” is “a person who uses terrorism in the pursuit of political aims.” The definition of “terrorism” is “the use of violence and threats to intimidate or coerce, esp. for political purposes.” This is what the Republican Party has been doing. They have been using threats of terrorism to hold our country in their thrall for the last 7 years. It is possible that they initially set out with good intentions, but these last seven years have shown that any good intentions have been subverted and superseded by a desire to rule, and rule they have. When Republicans can seriously say that voting for Democrats will put this country on the defense, and that America “will be safer with a Republican president,” they cease to be one of America’s two political parties and instead become a terrorist organization.

And that has happened. Rudy Giuliani, John McCain, and the other Republican candidates in the 2008 election said that America would not be safe unless they were at the helm of the government. They ran (and are still running) on the platform of “Vote for us, or else.” When that becomes your point of view, you are attempting to subvert the democratic processes that have made our country so great. At that point, you are no longer worthy to hold office in this country. In fact, when you run on that platform, in my opinion you are no longer worthy to LIVE in this country. Running on that platform makes you an enemy of our country, just as much as Osama bin Laden is an enemy of this country. If what I mean by that isn’t clear enough, I will state it bluntly. In my opinion, George W. Bush and John McCain are just as dangerous to this country as Osama bin Laden and his cronies are.

I must admit to some pity for Mr. Bush, however. He seems too deluded to realize that by curtailing our freedoms so that we avoid the terrorists winning, he is in fact helping the terrorists win. The terrorists will win if he continues the way he has. They will win when we volunteer our rights and our freedoms rather than fight for them. The Bush administration has removed more of our rights than Osama bin Laden ever could. The right to habeas corpus? Gone. The right to privacy? Essentially gone. Protection from illegal searches and seizures? Out with the bathwater. Have you ever wondered why Al Qaeda hasn’t struck in this country since 9/11? I’ll tell you why.

They don’t need to. George Bush is doing for them what they could never do on their own. With only 19 hijackers and 4 airplanes, Al Qaeda prompted endeavors to create a police state. They wanted America to live in fear? The Bush administration is serving up fearful Americans. They hate the essential freedoms that make America great? The Bush administration is revoking those freedoms one-by-one, in the name of security. On that subject, Benjamin Franklin said it best. “Those who would sacrifice essential liberty for temporary security deserve neither liberty nor security.”

In summation, I thoroughly encourage everyone who reads this to fight for America. Fight for American freedoms and rights. But don’t, in the name of all that is good and holy, don’t buy into the Republican Party’s lies. If you do what they want you to do, you will not be fighting for America, or our freedoms. You will be fighting for the private agendas of a megalomaniacal former Texan governor. If John McCain wins this year, you will be fighting for the private agendas of a megalomaniacal Arizonan senator. How can you fight for America’s values? I’ll tell you how: Don’t believe them. Don’t give in to them. Don’t fight for them. Here’s what you do: Vote this year, in one of the most important elections of all time. Vote for Barack Obama and Joe Biden. They love this country, and they are more patriotic than the Republicans. Were the Republicans patriotic, they would not curtail that which makes America great.