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Banned
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Originally Posted by politicophile
The school example does not fit this model because there are only two candidates. In a case where there are only two people running, it obviously makes sense to vote your conscience. The addition of a third candidate makes things more complicated.
In 2004, I decided that I would rather elect Bush than Kerry. Because of this decision, and because it was going to be reasonably close, I felt it would be irresponsible for me to refuse to help Bush prevail over Kerry. And that, in my view, is what a Libertarian vote would have been. The man had no chance of winning, whereas both Kerry and Bush had a significant chance of winning. My obligation under those conditions was to select amongst the two potential winners.
I'll also second what everyone else has said about the problematic nature of Libertarian calls for the destruction of the regulatory state. Not all governmental regulations are bad ones...
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Since the 9/11 attacks, between my wife and I.....two of our three sons have enlisted in the U.S. military, and one of them is still on active duty today.
One of our sons, the first to enlist, grew up in New England and attended catholic sunday school and services. He lost interest in organized worship and
is left leaning, politically. He was as shocked as I was to quickly get a sense during his early months in the military, in 2002, that there was a deliberate and widespread training and indoctrination effort to ready the troops for combat in Iraq. He asked me to look into the possibility of military action in Iraq, and...try as I might, I found no reason to believe that there would be justification for invasion of Iraq. I think his attitude, political sympathies, and reaction to Iraq was similar to what was reported about Pat Tillman:
Quote:
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cg...NGD7ETMNM1.DTL
New inquiry may expose events that led to Pat Tillman’s death
Robert Collier, Chronicle Staff Writer
Sunday, September 25, 2005
..........Interviews also show a side of Pat Tillman not widely known — a fiercely independent thinker who enlisted, fought and died in service to his country yet was critical of President Bush and opposed the war in Iraq, where he served a tour of duty. He was an avid reader whose interests ranged from history books on World War II and Winston Churchill to works of leftist Noam Chomsky, a favorite author..............
..........Throughout the controversy, the Tillman family has been reluctant to cause a media stir. Mary noted that Pat shunned publicity, refusing all public comment when he enlisted and asking the Army to reject all media requests for interviews while he was in service. Pat’s widow, Marie, and his brother Kevin have not become publicly involved in the case, and they declined to comment for this article.
Yet other Tillman family members are less reluctant to show Tillman’s unique character, which was more complex than the public image of a gung-ho patriotic warrior. He started keeping a journal at 16 and continued the practice on the battlefield, writing in it regularly. (His journal was lost immediately after his death.) Mary Tillman said a friend of Pat’s even arranged a private meeting with Chomsky, the antiwar author, to take place after his return from Afghanistan — a meeting prevented by his death. She said that although he supported the Afghan war, believing it justified by the Sept. 11 attacks, “Pat was very critical of the whole Iraq war.”
Baer, who served with Tillman for more than a year in Iraq and Afghanistan, told one anecdote that took place during the March 2003 invasion as the Rangers moved up through southern Iraq.
“I can see it like a movie screen,” Baer said. “We were outside of (a city in southern Iraq) watching as bombs were dropping on the town. We were at an old air base, me, Kevin and Pat, we weren’t in the fight right then. We were talking. And Pat said, ‘You know, this war is so f— illegal.’ And we all said, ‘Yeah.’ That’s who he was. He totally was against Bush.”
Another soldier in the platoon, who asked not to be identified, said Pat urged him to vote for Bush’s Democratic opponent in the 2004 election, Sen. John Kerry.
Senior Chief Petty Officer Stephen White — a Navy SEAL who served with Pat and Kevin for four months in Iraq and was the only military member to speak at Tillman’s memorial — said Pat “wasn’t very fired up about being in Iraq” and instead wanted to go fight al Qaeda in Afghanistan. He said both Pat and Kevin (who has a degree in philosophy) “were amazingly well-read individuals … very firm in some of their beliefs, their political and religious or not so religious beliefs.” .............
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The other son, who enlisted much later....after the invasion of Iraq and the reports that there were no WMD to be found, spent his childhood in the southeast, in an extremely conservative christian household. He is an unwavering supporter of Bush and his policies, still arguing that WMD were found and that the left leaning press ignores the facts. I advise him not to be "more Bush", than Bush....as the administration has admitted that "the weapons we thought were there.....aren't there..." This son voted for Bush, and believes that it is right to back up the president and his policies by serving in the military. I don't agree with his politics, but I admire his willingness to "put his money where his mouth is".
I see so little of that consistancy exhibited by many other young people who support and/or vote for Bush:
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http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/...in944449.shtml
............But if opponents of the war should go to France, shouldn't leaders of the pro-war movement serve in Iraq? In response to a query from The Nation about whether any leaders have volunteered to fight the war in Iraq, Shauna Moser, the chairman of Penn State YAF, said only that information on YAF officials could be found with a simple "search in a search engine."
YAF chairman Erik Johnson, vice chairman Darren Marks and fourteen other national officials have posted brief autobiographies on YAF's website. None of these bios indicate that the organization's national leaders have served in the military or plan to in the future.
For his part, Chris Hill has served in the Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC) and has contibuted to a web log in which he offered advice to aspiring soldiers on how to obtain a military commission. He holds an officer's commission and intends to attend Navy Flight School next summer.
Nation Editor's Note: In an Oct. 6 interview with The Nation about his military aspirations, Hill indicated that he planned to attend graduate school, but for reasons of military protocol, did not disclose his naval commission or his plans to attend flight school. This story has been updated to include that information.
College Republicans also appear to be lacking in military aspirations. None of their board members--the controversial chairman Paul Gourley and officers Jess Beeson, Nathaniel Harding, Britton Alexander, Dan Schuberth and Tom Robins--boast any military experience. Their posted bios do not refer to any past, present or future military service, though they do describe in detail the postgraduate work and political aspirations of these young right-wingers.
Conservative campus groups like YAF and College Republicans are growing in strength and numbers. And since the start of the Iraq War, these outfits have stood shoulder-to-shoulder with Bush to support the war, but they have not stood alongside the soldiers doing the actual fighting and dying. They want someone else to do the hard work.
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This "contradiction" between what young Bush supporters say, and vote for, versus what they are willing to do, is causing controversy on college campuses:
Quote:
http://orient.bowdoin.edu/orient/art...section=1&id=2
Schuberth questions Cornell du Houx’s motives
Campus responds to criticism of student Marine’s impending deployment
October 28, 2005
By Anne Riley
As Maine College Democrats President Alex Cornell du Houx '06, a vocal opponent of the War in Iraq, prepares for his upcoming active duty with the U.S. Marines in Iraq, members of the Bowdoin community are responding to the news of his deployment with shock, gratitude, and in some cases, criticism.
"I applaud Mr. Houx [sic] for his service, just as I applaud any other soldier who is brave enough to take up arms in defense of this country," Dan Schuberth '06, secretary of the College Republican National Committee, said in a statement aired on a Bowdoin Cable Network news broadcast this week.
"I find it troubling, however," Schuberth continued, "that one of the most vocal opponents of our president, our country and our mission in Iraq has chosen to fight for a cause he claims is wrong. Mr. Houx's [sic] rhetoric against the war on terror places him in agreement with the most radical fringes of the Democratic Party, and I am left to question his logic and motivation."
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Quote:
http://orient.bowdoin.edu/orient/art...section=1&id=2
Schuberth retracts criticism of Cornell du Houx's service
Leaders of College Democrats not satisfied with apology
November 4, 2005
By Anne Riley
Orient Staff
After publicly questioning the "logic and motivation" of U.S. Marine and Maine College Democrats President Alex Cornell du Houx '06 for his military service, Secretary of the College Republican National Committee Dan Schuberth '06 has issued an apology. Schuberth called Cornell du Houx, who is leaving for a tour of duty in Iraq in December, "one of the most vocal opponents of...our country."...........
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politicophile, what about you? Do you fully understand the implications, obligations, and consequences of your vote for Bush? Do your plans include military service in the near future, or.....do you have "other priorities"? |