1)Kerry/Edwards
2) I have disagreed with Bush long before I knew anything about Kerry, and the prospect of a second term, wherein he's not thinking about reelection, is disturbing. You may not agree, but lets leave this forum free of that. After all, if you don't agree - your man likely won. It doesn't change my opinions (note that word) or mean that they're wrong.
a) I considered the Iraq war unjust, and now feel we're trapped there. Say what you will about fighting 'them' there, but that doesn't preclude attacks on the mainland, nor does it assuage my fear that terror recruitment will be easier with such a visible enemy and our most embarrassing atrocities.
b) When Bush picks Supreme Court justices, he'll pick ultraconservative justices like Scalia and Thomas. We'll be fighting to keep rights for a long time rather than striving for more freedoms. We just may lose some.
c) This administration has financially suffocated secular social services (non-profits) with long histories in favor of "Faith-Based" organizations, whom he lavishes millions on. This has already lead to corruption and incompetence. It's not that they couldn't succeed, but preaching only abstinance where we used to teach about birth control sets us up for failure.
d) Escalation of military advisorship and civilian contractors in Columbia. More of a link to Congress on that one, but how many people even know about that?
e) An anti-gay agenda. I believe people are born gay, and that there cannot be anything morally wrong with the way a person is born. I realize that lots of Americans don't agree with me, particularly those who support Bush (saw some data on the bit about gay marriage on the ballots). I think the technical meaning or values associated with marriage (which are vastly different among many cultures) should take a back seat to the quality of life of living Americans.
f) Too much favoring of corporations over workers, especially given the widening gaps between those at the top and those at the bottom and the overall slipping wages for the bottom 40% when you factor inflation in for the past 30 years. Yes I know it's not all Bush, but he pulled his weight here.
g) Trickle-down economics - At best, there is a wide class differential that shades the benefits from this. This is at least debatable, and the prospect of making the Bush tax cuts permanent would suggest that the debate is settled. It is not, and I know a couple of economics doctorates that would argue that it is in fact settled - and uniformly wrong.
h) Environment - Bush is no friend to the environment - I'll leave that at that.
i) WASPy Western Ethnocentrism - opposing viewpoints so readily get trampled by the arbitrary superiority of one view (among a plurality) of our society. If we're going to impose our views on others, at least recognize that that's what we're doing. In my view, the flaws of cultural hegemony do not even show up on the radar of political cognition.
j) My only personal qualms with him - he so rarely addresses the nation, he never admits a mistake, and while I don't think he's dumb, I don't think he's especially reflective in his decision-making.
In short, I fear we'll suffer an unchallenged hegemony of neoconservative values in all of our governing bodies. I thought Kerry was okay. I respect what he did after Vietnam (especially getting under Nixon's skin). In a number of issues, like health care, social security, and general foreign policy I thought he was better than Bush, but not nearly good enough. In issues that barely got notice - the environment, equal pay for women, and lagging minimum wage - he really had something to say that his opponent couldn't. Some of the earliest and lasting charges about his character weren't legitimate. Check out
www.factcheck.org to see how they categorize the entire flip-flops charge, and some other distortions by Kerry and Bush - not that it matters now. Finally, in my own research, it looked like Kerry was going to spend exactly as much as he'd have (with the 4- year deficit) in the budget - 2.2T, plus the billions recalled. Once again though, none of that matters now.
3) There was no wait when I went at 4:00, though I heard some parts of Dallas had waits of an hour or so.