In 1968 I had the opportunity to vote in my first Pesidential election. I voted for Nixon. Every year since then I have voted for the Republican candidate for President. Ironically though, I very seldom voted a straight party ticket. Most recently, I voted for the Democratic candidate for Attorney General of Kansas and for the Democratic incumbent in my Congressional district.
As I look back to the 2000 election I can say that I feel Bush was the man to have around post 9/11. I do not think Gore could have handled it properly. Now we come to the current Presidential term. On an international basis, I still like Bush.
But domestically, I am starting to have misgivings. Every citizen has a cause or some causes that are "hot" buttons. For some it is economics, for others it is education, for others it is crime, ad infinitum.
For me it is the personal freedoms granted to us by our Constitution and kept in place by the sacrifices of millions of men and women over the centuries. Slowly our personal freedoms are being eroded. What is worse, is that a highly active group of religious zealots, supporters of and supported by, our current Chief Executive are attempting to inflict their beliefs on our nation as a whole. I find these people to be repugnant.
Would Kerry have been a better President? I don't know. For various reasons, which I will not enumerate here, I personally am not fond of the man, and that opinion has not changed. Actually, I think our choices for the top leadership position of this country have been pretty bad. We really have not had much to choose from.
I could go on and on about my current misgivings, but do not want to turn this into a novel.
