J Eisenhower: Why I will vote for John Kerry

[Guest guest]

Why I will vote for John Kerry for President

By JOHN EISENHOWER

Guest Commentary

 

THE Presidential election to be held this coming Nov. 2 will be one of

extraordinary importance to the future of our nation. The outcome will

determine whether this country will continue on the same path it has

followed for the last 3½ years or whether it will return to a set of

core domestic and foreign policy values that have been at the heart of

what has made this country great.

Now more than ever, we voters will have to make cool judgments,

unencumbered by habits of the past. Experts tell us that we tend to vote

as our parents did or as we " always have. " We remained loyal to party

labels. We cannot afford that luxury in the election of 2004. There are

times when we must break with the past, and I believe this is one of

them.

As son of a Republican President, Dwight D. Eisenhower, it is

automatically expected by many that I am a Republican. For 50 years,

through the election of 2000, I was. With the current administration's

decision to invade Iraq unilaterally, however, I changed my voter

registration to independent, and barring some utterly unforeseen

development, I intend to vote for the Democratic Presidential candidate,

Sen. John Kerry.

The fact is that today's " Republican " Party is one with which I am

totally unfamiliar. To me, the word " Republican " has always been

synonymous with the word " responsibility, " which has meant limiting our

governmental obligations to those we can afford in human and financial

terms. Today's whopping budget deficit of some $440 billion does not

meet that criterion.

Responsibility used to be observed in foreign affairs. That has meant

respect for others. America, though recognized as the leader of the

community of nations, has always acted as a part of it, not as a

maverick separate from that community and at times insulting towards it.

Leadership involves setting a direction and building consensus, not

viewing other countries as practically devoid of significance. Recent

developments indicate that the current Republican Party leadership has

confused confident leadership with hubris and arrogance.

In the Middle East crisis of 1991, President George H.W. Bush marshaled

world opinion through the United Nations before employing military force

to free Kuwait from Saddam Hussein. Through negotiation he arranged for

the action to be financed by all the industrialized nations, not just

the United States. When Kuwait had been freed, President George H. W.

Bush stayed within the United Nations mandate, aware of the dangers of

occupying an entire nation.

Today many people are rightly concerned about our precious individual

freedoms, our privacy, the basis of our democracy. Of course we must

fight terrorism, but have we irresponsibly gone overboard in doing so? I

wonder. In 1960, President Eisenhower told the Republican convention,

" If ever we put any other value above (our) liberty, and above

principle, we shall lose both. " I would appreciate hearing such warnings

from the Republican Party of today.

The Republican Party I used to know placed heavy emphasis on fiscal

responsibility, which included balancing the budget whenever the state

of the economy allowed it to do so. The Eisenhower administration

accomplished that difficult task three times during its eight years in

office. It did not attain that remarkable achievement by cutting taxes

for the rich. Republicans disliked taxes, of course, but the party

accepted them as a necessary means of keep the nation's financial

structure sound.

The Republicans used to be deeply concerned for the middle class and

small business. Today's Republican leadership, while not solely

accountable for the loss of American jobs, encourages it with its tax

code and heads us in the direction of a society of very rich and very

poor.

Sen. Kerry, in whom I am willing to place my trust, has demonstrated

that he is courageous, sober, competent, and concerned with fighting the

dangers associated with the widening socio-economic gap in this country.

I will vote for him enthusiastically.

I celebrate, along with other Americans, the diversity of opinion in

this country. But let it be based on careful thought. I urge everyone,

Republicans and Democrats alike, to avoid voting for a ticket merely

because it carries the label of the party of one's parents or of our own

ingrained habits.

 

John Eisenhower, son of President Dwight D. Eisenhower, served on the

White House staff between October 1958 and the end of the Eisenhower

administration. From 1961 to 1964 he assisted his father in writing " The

White House Years, " his Presidential memoirs. He served as American

ambassador to Belgium between 1969 and 1971. He is the author of nine

books, largely on military subjects.

 

In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the

silence of our friends.

- Martin Luther King Jr.

 

 

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http://pets.care2.com/

 

" The price of apathy towards public affairs is to be ruled by evil men. " --

Plato

" Providing health care to all Iraqis is sound policy. Providing

health care to all Americans is socialism. " -- anon