Weighing
in on presidential candidates
VOTE KERRY
Would you allow fear of terrorism or intellectual
reality to choose your president? President
George W. Bush has led this country away from security
and into a veritable lion’s den of military
and economic threats. He will tell
you that he has increased the safety of America by
protecting us from terrorism. Think about this
logically. Terrorists fight America because they
perceive us as a power that ruthlessly pursues its
own objectives without regard for non-Judeo-Christian
cultures. Whether or not this is true,
it is a reality, one that we are reinforcing by attacking
a country that had no weapons of mass destruction
and did not support al-Qaida. Pardon me, Mr.
President, but since when does sending our young
soldiers to fight an unjustified war that is sure
to increase animosity toward the United States increasing
security?
Senator John Kerry has created a plan to end the
war and the needless deaths (over 1,000 Americans
and 15,000 Iraqi civilians) as soon as possible. He
has promised to use the full range of America’s
arsenal in the war on terror, our military technology
or economic power and the strength of diplomatic
relations. The only international leader
I know of who has endorsed Bush is Vladimir Putin,
the president of Russia, and we will need the support
of the world if we are to root out terrorists in
democratic nations.
Bush has taken this country from a $5.6 trillion
surplus to a $5.2 trillion deficit. In
the last four years, over 3 million jobs have been
lost. Bush will tell you that he is creating
new jobs, but people are losing employment faster
than new jobs are being created. I wonder
where Bush found $120 billion to finance the war
in Iraq while cutting taxes — oh, never mind — by
running up a bill our kids will have to pay!
Kerry has pledged to stop the drain on the American
economy created by the mismanagement of the war. He
also plans to provide tax cuts to companies that
keep jobs in America, not reward those that make
billions by outsourcing.
In the end, I am voting for Kerry because I am Catholic.
He is working to protect life by raising the minimum
wage to $7 an hour as he tries to solve the poverty
that too often causes abortions. He is trying
to protect the family by increasing the child care
tax credit and implementing the national service
plan that would provide students who volunteer in
health care and early education with state college
tuition. I ask Catholics on campus: How a candidate
who is pro-death penalty and pro-war can possibly
be pro-life?
Kelly Simmons
President, College Democrats
