Sunday, October 31, 2004

A Major Supply-Sider Defects...

Former chief editorial writer for the Wall Street Journal and one of the architects of Ronald Reagan's "supply side economics" - Jude Wanniski - has written a passionate letter explaining his enthusiastic support for Senator Kerry... while at the same time intending to continue voting for other Republicans.

See this piece from Wanniski explaining his endorsement of Kerry in this election:


"There are a lot of little reasons why I should be voting for the re-election of President Bush, for whom I gladly cast my vote in 2000. The one big reason why I will vote for Senator Kerry next Tuesday is that he is an internationalist, as am I, and Mr. Bush has become an imperialist – one whose decisions as Commander-in-chief have made the world a more dangerous place. Until this week, while I had privately decided to vote for Kerry, I had not planned to share that news with you until after Election Day. But I have been getting lots of mail from website fans urging me to vote for Kerry, or to help them decide between Kerry and Nader. Or from my Wall Street clients urging me to vote for Bush for all the little reasons – economic, social or political – of the kind that led me to the Republican Party in 1968 after my early adult years as a Democrat."


And the stack of defections grows. With the exception of a screeching Zell Miller, can you find any going the other way? Is it possible these intelligent and sincere conservatives have noticed something really rotten in the State?


It is late in the game to hope to convert any more undecideds. All I can do is offer up again my two "big salvoes", in case any of you out there know any wavering moderates.


about this administration's destruction of our world leadership:
http://www.davidbrin.com/neocons.html

about the "neoconservative" cult:
http://www.davidbrin.com/neoromantics.html 


I am growing increasingly optimistic. Soon we will be able to tell the world: "See? We recognized monsters and got rid of them. We are back in the community of nations. We are ready again to LEAD the community of nations."


Oh, and we'll be able to add (truthfully!):


"Most of us voted against him in the first place!"


I expect people around the world will accept this truth and cut us some slack for the temporary takeover of our government by maniacs. After all, when THEIR countries were run by monsters, the effects were often far, far worse.


It will be nice to be trusted again with the leadership of Western Civilization. I still believe we're the nation best qualified to do the job.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Now you'll get the gloaters.

Bush won the electoral vote, the popular vote, and both clearly enough that there's no Florida redux.

The Republicans also unseated the Democrat Minority Leader, Daschle, and gained a few seats all around.

The optimism was unfounded.
Most of us actually voted for him. For the first time since 1988, we've elected a president with more than 51% of the popular vote.

Sidereus said...

With victory comes responsibility and accountability. Let's all hope that W learned from his last term . . . hope.

Anonymous said...

So let's get over it and think positively about what we can do over the next four years as the "loyal opposition." We've got a strong centrist to run in 2008 with Hillary Clinton. Let's start engaging the opposition in intelligent and respectful debate, challenge their ideals and bring them back to the center. We just need to believe in the fact that we have the moral highground, that includes all moderates, both liberal and conservative.

Look on the positive side, the NeoCons don't get a Democrat Punching-Bag for the next four years to blame all the failures of the Bush Administration on.

rAs
ideonexus.com

Anonymous said...

Any thoughts to help us cope?

Are the values of science now trumped by fears of gays and shadowy enemies? Has our education system failed us?

Are we blowing this out of proportion?

<sigh&rt;

- yalurker

Anonymous said...

Any thoughts to help us cope?

Are the values of science now trumped by fears of gays and shadowy enemies? Has our education system failed us?

Are we blowing this out of proportion?

<sigh>

- yalurker

Anonymous said...

Cope?

To hell with coping.

*Fight.* Get angry, and get active.

This was a CLOSE election. The Democrats rallied MILLIONS more voters to their cause last week.

Of course, the Pugs rallied more. The media would have us believe it was because they were motivated by "moral issues." This boils down to three things: Gay marriage, abortion, and stem cell research. Hot-button issues for intolerant conservatives.

If Democrats really tried, they could find hot button issues to rally people to their cause. They could even turn evangelicals to their side by showing them the ugly face of Iraq war that has largely been ignored. Tens of thousands of innocent women and children have died needlessly in bombing campaigns. Thousands more died due to inadequate medical care in ruined and looted hospitals.

Our war, our responsibility.