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Jan. 20th, 2004 08:05 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
usernamenumberSo John Kerry seems to have won the Iowa primaries. It's already being circulated that this is far from a sure indicator of winning the country, to which I respond: "Duh". But I do wonder if I'm the only one on my friend's who's excited about Kerry's win.
While I have not done enough research to make a final descision, I have been leaning toward Kerry ever since I started watching debates and following the election to find out who this Dean guy everone said I should vote for was. He strikes me as an actual liberal-leaning moderate, like me, as opposed to somebody who's way left or, like the incumbent, way right (pretentions of compassion aside). I like his plan for repealing the tax cuts (leave cuts for the middle-class and below, vs Dean's plan to cut everything). I like his energy plan (there is a third option between drilling ANWR and dependancy on the middle-east: long-term funding of research into alternative vehicle fuels like ethanol). And I like the facts that 1) he has actually fought in a war (vietnam) and 2) he came home to become one of the leading organized protesters of that war. At first, my only real problem was how I could bring myself to vote for someone that fugly.
Since then I've read some things that indicate I have more research to do. For example, the politics1 site Lizbeth linked to mentions that he opposed legislation to force US review of China's human rights practices in order for them to retain normal trade relations. In fact, according to the site, he fought make those trade relations permanent. One of other things I like about Kerry is that he's idealistic without seeming... impractical to me, but this smacks of a republican-esque "practicality before all" attitude that I would not like to see from my candidate. As I've said, I'll have to research more.
Still, I think on the whole that I'm very pleased with this outcome. Kerry seems like he could be the kind of president that I could really get behind... maybe. If anybody here has information they'd like to share, for or against, feel free.
EDIT: Oh, one other thing that annoys me about Kerry. Throughout the leadup to the primaries, he always seemed the most likely to jump on Dean. During a health care debate I watched it was ridiculous, every single non-dean candidate was all over him, but none moreso than Kerry. Now, I understand that Dean was the man to beat and, frankly, I think that a lot of the anti-dean points are well made (flip-flopping on issues, the fact that he wasn't actually against the president's war, he just backed an alternate bill that would have supported the war under other circumstances), but the consistency with which Kerry tended to make the debates personal really bothers me on a character level. Props to Dean, I must say, for handling it as well as he did.
EDIT, part deux: Looking at the candidate summary that Louis linked to reminded me of another interesting Kerry plan. It's imaginative, it's bold, maybe it goes too far and I'm really curious to see what the rest of you think. I'm talking about the his emphasis on and plans with regard to community service. An example from Kerry's website:
"Service for College" Initiative
Now, what's to complain about there? Well, there's also been talk, though I couldn't find anything in my cursory search of the site, of making community service a mandatory high school graduation requirement. Like most Americans, I think, I tend to cringe when the word "mandatory" is used by the government. But really, would it be so bad? Most kids will whine, I probably would have, but I think the overall effect for the country and it's people would be positive, like the japanese schoolchildren mlechan described taking an active role in keeping their school clean, but on a community level. Opinions?
While I have not done enough research to make a final descision, I have been leaning toward Kerry ever since I started watching debates and following the election to find out who this Dean guy everone said I should vote for was. He strikes me as an actual liberal-leaning moderate, like me, as opposed to somebody who's way left or, like the incumbent, way right (pretentions of compassion aside). I like his plan for repealing the tax cuts (leave cuts for the middle-class and below, vs Dean's plan to cut everything). I like his energy plan (there is a third option between drilling ANWR and dependancy on the middle-east: long-term funding of research into alternative vehicle fuels like ethanol). And I like the facts that 1) he has actually fought in a war (vietnam) and 2) he came home to become one of the leading organized protesters of that war. At first, my only real problem was how I could bring myself to vote for someone that fugly.
Since then I've read some things that indicate I have more research to do. For example, the politics1 site Lizbeth linked to mentions that he opposed legislation to force US review of China's human rights practices in order for them to retain normal trade relations. In fact, according to the site, he fought make those trade relations permanent. One of other things I like about Kerry is that he's idealistic without seeming... impractical to me, but this smacks of a republican-esque "practicality before all" attitude that I would not like to see from my candidate. As I've said, I'll have to research more.
Still, I think on the whole that I'm very pleased with this outcome. Kerry seems like he could be the kind of president that I could really get behind... maybe. If anybody here has information they'd like to share, for or against, feel free.
EDIT: Oh, one other thing that annoys me about Kerry. Throughout the leadup to the primaries, he always seemed the most likely to jump on Dean. During a health care debate I watched it was ridiculous, every single non-dean candidate was all over him, but none moreso than Kerry. Now, I understand that Dean was the man to beat and, frankly, I think that a lot of the anti-dean points are well made (flip-flopping on issues, the fact that he wasn't actually against the president's war, he just backed an alternate bill that would have supported the war under other circumstances), but the consistency with which Kerry tended to make the debates personal really bothers me on a character level. Props to Dean, I must say, for handling it as well as he did.
EDIT, part deux: Looking at the candidate summary that Louis linked to reminded me of another interesting Kerry plan. It's imaginative, it's bold, maybe it goes too far and I'm really curious to see what the rest of you think. I'm talking about the his emphasis on and plans with regard to community service. An example from Kerry's website:
"Service for College" Initiative
As President, John Kerry will call on young people to help strengthen America's security and address unmet community needs. In return, he believes we should offer young Americans and their families the opportunity for a college education. A Kerry Administration will offer Americans the chance to earn the equivalent of their state's four-year public college tuition in exchange for two years of service. If service members decide not to go to college, their award can be used for job training or to help start a business. John Kerry will set a national goal of half a million young people serving their nation every year within ten years. President Bush promised to double AmeriCorps, but he broke that promise and let Congressional Republicans cut the program in half. John Kerry believes we need to think big and do better and get 500,000 young Americans serving the nation.
Now, what's to complain about there? Well, there's also been talk, though I couldn't find anything in my cursory search of the site, of making community service a mandatory high school graduation requirement. Like most Americans, I think, I tend to cringe when the word "mandatory" is used by the government. But really, would it be so bad? Most kids will whine, I probably would have, but I think the overall effect for the country and it's people would be positive, like the japanese schoolchildren mlechan described taking an active role in keeping their school clean, but on a community level. Opinions?
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My thoughts
Date: 2004-01-20 07:33 pm (UTC)Check out the SJ Mercury News link I put in my LiveJournal thingy the other day for their summary of the candidates.
I was leaning strongly towards Carol Mosley Braun, myself, but now she has dropped out and given her support to Dean. I have issues with Dean being to conservative for my tastes, and I'm not sure his gubenatorial record is particularly good, although I don't know much about it. I think I might be slightly leaning towards Edwards at the moment, but I'm probably not going to decide until I have to.
Re: My thoughts
Date: 2004-01-20 08:00 pm (UTC)He sounds sincere in this and he certainly has been no supporter of the war. But then again, after flattening Afghanistan, you'd think anyone with half a brain wouldn't have trusted Bush in the first place.
Bottom line is: what would this imply about Kerry as a president? He supported giving Bush too much freedom, but he did not support (or he at least speaks and acts now as though he does not) support the war, so I've little fear of him being a warmonger. I'll admit that it doesn't do much for my faith in him as a consistently wise descision-maker, but many of the other things I've seen and heard still paint him as an appealing candidate to me.