Indulge me.

[kellinator]

For those of you who are planning to vote for Bush in November, would you please tell me why? Preferably a reason a little more nuanced than "Kerry's an asshole"?

Note: You're not going to change my mind on this. If the past four years haven't changed my mind, a fifty-word comment sure as hell isn't going to do it.

I'm just trying to understand. Right now nothing scares me more than the thought of four more years of Bush, but I know there are people I like and respect who disagree for whatever reason, and I want to know why, so I can at least try to understand.

No flaming. If I'm too slammed to post my DragonCon pictures (coming soon!), I'm sure as hell too busy to play referee. Play nice, folks.

Comments

[jphthebachelor.livejournal.com]

One of my very best friends and co-workers, "The Biggs Show" we call him, is a Bush supporter.
I've spent many a lunch hour debating the candidates with him. In this time, I've found that Biggs disagrees with Bush on almost every possible issue.
He opposes the Bush tax cut, the anti-gay marriage amendment, the war in Iraq, stricter mandatory minimums for Crack cocaine vs. powder, and the death penalty. He favors gun control, stricter environmental policy, and the land mine ban treaty.
SO why is he a Bush supporter?
One issue, abortion.
Biggs has a deeply held opposition to abortion. He sees Bush as the only chance for getting a more conservative Supreme Court, one who will over turn Roe V. Wade. While I may disagree with him, I respect Biggs for his opinion on this issue.
What I can't respect is the fact that he will chose, because of this one issue, to re-elect a man he himself has described as "the worst president of my lifetime, including Ford".
I've given up on trying to talk him into supporting Kerry. I'm trying to talk him into just not voting, or voting third party.
I think there are a lot of these types of single issue voters.

[xforge.livejournal.com]

I kinda respect your friend's choice too, but (1) dang I hate "litmus tests" and (2) you might be able to reason with him that a Democratic administration might actually succeed in reducing the net number of abortions performed. As such: Democrats will fund social programs that support people who might otherwise say "no way I can afford a baby." And they'd support social programs that help pregnant girls get through to adoption rather than having to panic and have an abortion. Whereas the Bush administration (NOT specifically any other Republican mind you) refuses to fund any program that might possibly be interpreted as helping anyone with anything.

Well, that's perhaps a little harsh - but not much. I'm sure you get the gist of what I'm saying.

And Bush's battle to outlaw abortion (oh God, the carnage) would be a MUCH harder battle to fight than getting a few relatively inexpensive social programs in place. No?

[parilous.livejournal.com]

Bush's stance on abortion is why my mother-in-law is voting for him. My father-in-law will vote for Bush because he always picks the Republican candidate.

My mother, who has never voted in her life, finally registered to vote. I played dirty with her emotions, and scared her into voting for Kerry because of Bush's war politics and my brother being 18 - prime age for draft/ enlistment.

My grandmother is voting for a Democrat for the first time in her life. She's very anti-abortion, but she's more anti-war, having lived through WWI, WWII, Korea, and Vietnam. She says she thought Bush should've declared war on a country, not on an idea ("terrorism") and sees him as being the worst president in her lifetime.

Uh... don't know where I was going with this.

[gaiagurl.livejournal.com]

i'm sorry, but that's just dumb. do these people even think? you can't end abortion by making it illegal. what you can do is make it more dangerous and kill lots and lots of women who will get abortions anyway, but who won't get them in safe, sterile environments at the hands of real mds rather than dirty-handed quacks.

the "pre-born children" are still gonna die. there's no way around it.

[winterbadger]

Well, fewer people will get abortions if they're illegal. I honestly believe that. If someone is faced with the choice between something they don't think they can handle and a painful, unpleasant, stigmatizing process, they will often choose the latter. If alternative B also includes a serious chance they may die, that will tip the scales for some of them.

But you don't convince people to stop doing things by banning them. You convince them by *showing* them its wrong. Some people are deterred from doing murder because they fear the consequences, sure, but IMO most people reject murder as an option because *they* *believe* it's wrong. We haven't made huge inroads in American's smoking habits by banning tobacco (the only people who aren't supposed to get it--kids and some convicts--still get it anyhow); we've done it by stigmatizing smoking and convincing people it will *harm* them to do it.

I hate the idea of people having abortions: what a horrible position to put someone in, deciding to end what at some point could be a human life! But it has to be an option, because for some people it really is the *only* choice. You'll do a lot more good teaching kids how to avoid having babies in the first place. Even the plans from Africa the president cites as showing abstinence works said "abstain, abstain, abstain: and if you can't abstain..."