US Election 2004

A reader asked, "Why Bush and not Kerry?"  Below is my response:

Since I have written many posts over the past months, let me try to distill those down to the essentials.

First and foremost, my recommendation is that you vote your rational self-interest without apology to the altruists of the world so say that you should live your life for others.  There is not categorical imperative to vote for Bush, or against Kerry.  In fact, in the hierarchy of your values and based upon your personal judgment it can be perfectly defensible to select Kerry over Bush.

In a significant number of bad ways, and some good, there is little difference between Bush and Kerry.  However, there are important differences which I will focus on.  As a President will be fortunate to accomplish only a few things, I will give a top three for each.

Top three reasons to vote for Bush:

(1) He has made the strategic decision that state sponsors of terrorism must be violently confronted if we are to roll back international terrorism [2 state sponsors defeated (Afghanistan, Iraq), 1 surrendered (Libya), new policy initiatives against all the others; and on the down side one new sponsor not acknowledged (Venezuela)].

(2) He has the courage to confront long standing problems in our welfare state programs.  Unfortunately, his vision is too tweak a failed system through reform instead of restoring the individual rights previously violated.  However, he creates the opportunity for better ideas to be brought to the discourse.

(3) In the next term, Bush will address tax reform.  His particular plans are unknown.  However, they will tend to addresses long term complaints about the system such as simplification and elimination of punitive tax rates, by punitive I mean those that are not to produce revenue, but to punish success.

Regarding Kerry, although I have repeatedly criticized his (and Bush’s) policy proposals, my preference is to vote for the better candidate not against the worst.  Of course, this can be difficult given the choices provided by the two political parties.  With that caveat, these are the top three reasons not to vote for Kerry:

(1) According to Bush, Kerry has a Sept 10th mentality when it comes to fighting the War against Terrorism.  I would go further to say that he has a ‘60s New Left Anti-American view on the war. The full argument for this point is extensive; however, I would suggest renting the 1998 film The Siege with Denzel Washington and Bruce Willis for a perspective on the link between those two perspectives.

(2)  Kerry has not only defended the failures of welfare statism, but seeks its expansion.  For him, it is not that the ideals have failed in reality, but that we have not been willing to sacrifice enough to make them work.  Truly, Bush can be criticized on this point as well, but the difference between the two is that Bush mixes bad ideas with good ideas while Kerry wants the bad ideas in their ideal form without contamination from reality.

(3)  Under Kerry, productivity will be stifled with more taxes, more regulation, more government ownership, and more prosecutions.  Even under Bush, I have met individuals who have gone on strike (refused to produce) because success is punished.  This trend will accelerate under Kerry.

Shakedown (10/1/2002)

Image Source: Intellectual Activist 

Road to Recovery (3/1/2002)

Image Source: Intellectual Activist 

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