Convince me why the Environment, Choice, Education, Civil Rights.....

[LynneSin]

....and many other important issues are worth sacrificing in order to take a stance against the Democratic Party, DNC, DSCC, DCCC, DLC and anyone else fought hard to bring down candidates like Dean, Clark, Kucinich, etc?

That's a powerful statement that even has me thinking twice about going out there and supporting (probably) Kerry in 2004. I mean he did "support" the war and look where that got us.

But this election is more than the Iraq War and shaking up the democratic party. I am confident that Kerry (again more than likely he'll be the nomination so I'll stop these little side notes in parenthesis) will do the right thing with Iraq and get our soldiers out there and turn more responsibility over to the UN.

But let's step away from the War issue for a moment.

If Bush is elected, will he help protect the environment and create a national Energy policy that is fair to ALL people(and other living things) and helps clean up the air we breath, the water we drink and the food we eat.

If Bush is elected, will he protect a womans right to choose and the ability for all women to get the proper health care they need regardless of how much money they have. Heck, will he help men get the same quality of health care

If Bush is elected, will the children in my urban neighborhood here in Wilmington have the same opportunities in life as those children in rich upscale neighborhoods?

If Bush is elected will he fight for the rights of Gay, Lesbian, Trans-gender & Bisexuals and ensure they have the same rights as us straight folks?

If Bush is elected will he find ways to cut back on our spending in order to bring down our national debt and not have our children and grandchildren paying for our high cost of living today?

If Bush is elected will he selected fair and impartial judges that will interpret the law as it stands and not change the law in order to benefit special interest groups?

If you can convince me that Bush will do these things then I will gladly consider taking my vote away from the Democratic party and voting for a 3rd Party Candidate.

[onebigbadwulf]

1. Can't defeat corporations.

Time to flee the country.

[JailForBush]

2. Dead Issue

I really don't think many people are talking about voting Third Party - in the PRESIDEDNTIAL campaign. Most of use know our choices will be limited to George W. Bush and a Democrat, quite likely John Kerry.

Many of us don't trust Kerry (to put it mildly). We wish we had a candidate who could criticize the war in Iraq (among other things) without looking like the world's biggest hypocrite.

Many people think such harsh discussions are dangerous, because they make the opposition appear disunified. I disagree.

If we charge into Campaign 2004 mindlessly supporting John Kerry and ignoring all the tough questions that people need to be asking, then what do we look like? The Business as Usual crowd?

I'll campaign fiercely against George W. Bush. I'll urge people to vote for Kerry, but I won't support him (unless he comes out of hibernation). On the contrary, I'll probably be one of Kerry's harshest critics - and that's good. If Kerry gets elected, I don't want the world thinking that every liberal American thinks he's a really great guy who can do whatever he wants because he has our unquestioning support. I want to put Kerry into office knowing he'd better produce - and fast - if he wants to survive politically.

In the meantime, I'm also speaking out about education and some of the issues you alluded to earlier in our post. Since the Democrats won't be talking about them, I'll do the job for them.

[LynneSin]

3. Maybe I've been reading this forum for too long

and starting to think that the 3rd party is going to try to make a major push in 2004.

But what you've written is how I feel. I tool have reservations about John Kerry but that won't stop me from voting for him. However I won't be jumping on the Kerry Bangwagon but instead turn my energies towards "Get out the Vote" campaigns. Anyhow it's a proven fact that when there is a high voter turnout - democrats tend to win.