Sunday, October 17, 2004

President: John Kerry

Medford, Oregon Mail Tribune
October 17, 2004

Last time, we couldn’t choose. This time, we can see only one choice.

The Mail Tribune editorial board endorsed neither George W. Bush nor Al Gore for president in 2000. “In the end,” we wrote, “we just couldn’t do it.”

Now we’ve had four years to watch George W. Bush in action, and to decide whether we should recommend that voters give him another term.

We just can’t do it.

Bush sold himself in 2000 as a “compassionate conservative” with no interest in “nation building” — in short, a moderate, much like his father. Just enough voters bought that to put him in the White House.

A moderate was not what they got.

Washington Post columnist David Broder, a longtime observer of presidents, warned early in Bush’s term that this administration was the most radical in the nation’s history. He was right.

From the beginning, this president and his administration have governed as though they had a towering mandate to remake America to their liking. The results, in our view, have been disastrous in nearly every respect.

Terrorism: Bush campaigns as the heroic leader of the War on Terror. But the attacks of Sept. 11 that brought that war to U.S. soil happened on his watch. We’re not suggesting the attacks were his fault, but he showed no particular talent or inclination for combating terrorism until it happened on his doorstep.

Standing atop the rubble of the World Trade Center, Bush seemed to become truly presidential when the country needed him most. The rest of the world rallied to our side. The headline in the Sept. 12, 2001, Paris newspaper Le Monde summed it up: “We are all Americans.”

Armed with that support, Bush proceeded to squander it.

Invading Afghanistan with worldwide support and participation, coalition troops quickly ousted the Taliban. But instead of remaining there in full strength until Osama bin Laden was captured or killed and a democratic government firmly in control, Bush shifted attention and resources to invade Iraq — a brutal dictatorship, to be sure, but one with little remaining strength, no weapons of mass destruction and no connection to the 9/11 attacks.

Afghanistan has only now held its first election, murderous warlords still control large segments of the country and the opium trade is back in full swing. Meanwhile, fighting in Iraq continues with no end in sight, because the administration did not anticipate what it would take to secure the fractured country and did not expect the Iraqis themselves to violently resist our presence there.

That’s not conservative. It’s foolhardy.

The economy: Bush pushed through the largest tax cuts in history, primarily benefiting the wealthiest Americans. At the same time, he failed to budget enough money to adequately fund the occupation of Iraq. The federal deficit will reach $413 billion by the end of this year, and soar into the trillions in years to come.

That’s not conservative. It’s reckless.

Civil liberties: The USA Patriot Act, hurried through Congress before many lawmakers even read it, contained some key tools for detecting terrorist. But it went too far, giving federal authorities the power the scrutinize the reading habits and e-mail correspondence of innocent Americans.

At the same time, this administration is the most secretive in history, classifying public documents at unprecedented rates and striking closed-door deals with energy companies on regulations directly affecting those companies.

Attorney General John Ashcroft has repeatedly sought to undermine voter-approved laws allowing physician-assisted suicide in Oregon and the medical use of marijuana here and in other states.

That’s not conservative. It’s authoritarian.

The environment: The Bush administration has systematically moved to dismantle or weaken laws in place for decades that protect our air, water and public lands, all for the short-term financial benefit of corporate interests. When industry wanted to drill, cut or dig, it found the administration willing to set aside long-standing environmental safeguards.

That’s not conservative. It’s wasteful.

Health care: Bush wants us to believe that the health-care crisis is the fault of “junk lawsuits” and trial attorneys. It’s far more complicated than that, and his “reforms” have helped little.

The much-touted Medicare reform bill — which turned out to be far more costly than the administration wanted to admit — does more to protect corporate profits than to help seniors.

That’s neither compassionate nor conservative.

That’s why we don’t think President Bush deserves re-election. Why do we support Sen. John Kerry?

We think he’s a thoughtful, dedicated public servant with a 20-year career specializing in foreign affairs. He has encouraging ideas about extending health coverage to more Americans, getting the country’s finances back on a more rational footing and, eventually, fixing the mess in Iraq.

We think Kerry will bring talented, committed people into his administration who will govern in the best interest of the country, not to benefit their friends in corporate boardrooms or to advance a narrow political ideology.

We’re not afraid, as Bush would have us be, that Kerry will make this country weaker or more vulnerable. In fact, we’re convinced that the administration’s blunders in Iraq have served to strengthen, not weaken, terrorism.

We endorse John Kerry for president.