BREAKING NEWS: THE DAILY TEXAN HAS ENDORSED SENATOR JOHN KERRY
Opinion | 10/18/2004
Viewpoint: Texan endorses Sen. John Kerry
Over the following week, the Texan Editorial Board will release endorsements for all contested races UT students are likely to see on their ballots.
To hear the full story behind this endorsement, you could probably ask the regulars at Little City.
For the past three Sundays, discussion during our board's weekly meetings has focused on who we would endorse for president. We disturbed our neighbors with rather childish names for John Kerry. We fought loudly over the ideals behind voting and the meaning of an endorsement.
And we never reached an easy peace.
We could all agree that President Bush has to go. The Bush administration's claim that Saddam Hussein was restarting a vast nuclear weapons program ignored the input of many of the most respected nuclear experts in the U.S. government. More than 1,000 American soldiers have died for this oversight, and the United States continues to fight a war that has no definite exit strategy.
Bush's record doesn't look any better on this side of the Atlantic.
A draft report from the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights written in September 2004 took the administration to task for its domestic policy. "President Bush," the report claims, "has neither exhibited leadership on pressing civil rights issues nor taken actions to match its rhetoric."
This problem is particularly obvious regarding gay rights. President Bush has opposed laws extending hate crime and employment opportunity laws to protect homosexuals. His endorsement of a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage in his last state of the union address was essentially an open attack on the gay community.
Finally, this administration has displayed a terrifying tendency toward secrecy and surveillance. The Patriot Act, which Bush supports, has allowed the federal government to hold non-citizens for weeks, sometimes without filing charges. Also, Attorney General John Ashcroft, a Bush appointee, instructed federal officials to interpret the federal Freedom of Information Act as narrowly as possible.
The average citizen's relationship with the government is worse than it was four years ago. His or her access to information has been significantly curtailed.
It's easy to talk about ditching Bush. It's much harder to say who should replace him.
Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., did not vote against the war in Iraq. He did not vote against the Patriot Act. Despite repeating the phrase often in the three presidential debates, Kerry has not told us "exactly how" he's going to do anything.
The Bush-Cheney campaign itself offers the best endorsement for John Kerry: He changes his mind.
When it became increasingly obvious that the war in Iraq was based on faulty intelligence and downright ignorance, Kerry was willing to call out the administration. As law enforcement officers began using anti-terrorism powers to create an unsettling culture of surveillance in America, Kerry attacked the way the Patriot act is used.
Far from being a mindless flip-flopper, Kerry has proven that he is willing to listen to public input. Kerry's brand of flip-flopping would be a welcome change from an administration that simply refuses to admit mistakes or accept any responsibility for the disaster zone it has created in the Middle East.
It's about time that someone in the White House has an open mind.
The Daily Texan endorses John Kerry for president of the United States.
http://www.dailytexanonline.com/news/2004/10/18/Opinion/Viewpoint.Texan.Endorses.Sen.John.Kerry-7713 28.shtml
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