2004 Elections: A Positive Spin, Part II
Oct. 5th, 2004 08:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tagrynBUSH VICTORY - Republicans
1. Continuation of Bush's policies. This includes, obviously,
continuing our presence in Iraq and seeing the operation through
to a successful conclusion. The tax cuts which prevented the
recession from sliding into a possible depression will be made
permanent, thereby ensuring that the ongoing recovery won't stall
out. There's also a myriad of other long-term programs which
don't get a lot of publicity, but may well constitute a lot of
Bush's legacy: things like the Army reconfiguration, changing
the direction of NASA, ceasing to rely on large foreign bases
for our military, etc.
2. As with Kerry, whoever controls the White House gets to make
the next Supreme Court nominations, and it looks like there could
well be more than one during the next four years. We've seen
with abortion and affirmative action how important SCOTUS is, so
keeping control of this is one of the *major* advantages of
being President.
3. If Kerry loses, the Democrats may well tear themselves apart,
as the various factions that make up Kerry's unstable coalition
blame each other for the loss. The Deaniac/"progressives" will say
that Kerry wasn't tough enough on Bush and too weak on pushing
for an Iraq withdrawl, while the DNC/Clinton "centrists" will
argue that going out to the far left is a sure way to keep
on losing. Whether Hillary, as the presumptive favorite for
them in '08, has what it takes to keep this fundamentally
unstable alliance together is questionable at best.
BUSH VICTORY - Democrats
1. Keeping Bush in office will force him to take responsibility
for the Iraq debacle, rather than foisting it onto Kerry to
clean up. This is fundamentally an unwinnable situation for
the U.S., and the longer we stay there, the more bitter the U.S.
population will become towards the Repubs, and the more
receptive they'll be to alternatives. Maybe this is what it'll
take to finally wake the electorate up as to what's happening
in this country.
2. As well, there will be no excuses for a 2nd term Bush plus
a Republican Congress for not taking on the things that regular
people really care about, like the crisis in health insurance
and jobs going overseas. But of course, they've shown already
that they *won't* deal with this, so nothing will happen. Again,
got to hope that this will wake up the voters to how bad things
really are, and in '06 they'll express this by voting Democratic
and giving control of both houses of Congress back to us again.
3. Hopefully this will also cause the Democratic party to stop
trying to put up "moderates" like Dukakis and Kerry, and instead
next time nominate a truly progressive nominee who can speak with
the courage of his (or her) convictions, and not flinch when the
GOP tries to tar him as a "liberal" or other nonsense. If this loss
causes the party to get back to its roots, it might be a case of
losing the battle but winning the war.
4. At least Cheney isn't President.
1. Continuation of Bush's policies. This includes, obviously,
continuing our presence in Iraq and seeing the operation through
to a successful conclusion. The tax cuts which prevented the
recession from sliding into a possible depression will be made
permanent, thereby ensuring that the ongoing recovery won't stall
out. There's also a myriad of other long-term programs which
don't get a lot of publicity, but may well constitute a lot of
Bush's legacy: things like the Army reconfiguration, changing
the direction of NASA, ceasing to rely on large foreign bases
for our military, etc.
2. As with Kerry, whoever controls the White House gets to make
the next Supreme Court nominations, and it looks like there could
well be more than one during the next four years. We've seen
with abortion and affirmative action how important SCOTUS is, so
keeping control of this is one of the *major* advantages of
being President.
3. If Kerry loses, the Democrats may well tear themselves apart,
as the various factions that make up Kerry's unstable coalition
blame each other for the loss. The Deaniac/"progressives" will say
that Kerry wasn't tough enough on Bush and too weak on pushing
for an Iraq withdrawl, while the DNC/Clinton "centrists" will
argue that going out to the far left is a sure way to keep
on losing. Whether Hillary, as the presumptive favorite for
them in '08, has what it takes to keep this fundamentally
unstable alliance together is questionable at best.
BUSH VICTORY - Democrats
1. Keeping Bush in office will force him to take responsibility
for the Iraq debacle, rather than foisting it onto Kerry to
clean up. This is fundamentally an unwinnable situation for
the U.S., and the longer we stay there, the more bitter the U.S.
population will become towards the Repubs, and the more
receptive they'll be to alternatives. Maybe this is what it'll
take to finally wake the electorate up as to what's happening
in this country.
2. As well, there will be no excuses for a 2nd term Bush plus
a Republican Congress for not taking on the things that regular
people really care about, like the crisis in health insurance
and jobs going overseas. But of course, they've shown already
that they *won't* deal with this, so nothing will happen. Again,
got to hope that this will wake up the voters to how bad things
really are, and in '06 they'll express this by voting Democratic
and giving control of both houses of Congress back to us again.
3. Hopefully this will also cause the Democratic party to stop
trying to put up "moderates" like Dukakis and Kerry, and instead
next time nominate a truly progressive nominee who can speak with
the courage of his (or her) convictions, and not flinch when the
GOP tries to tar him as a "liberal" or other nonsense. If this loss
causes the party to get back to its roots, it might be a case of
losing the battle but winning the war.
4. At least Cheney isn't President.
