Constitution Party of VA

Summary Arguments Against Voting For George W. Bush

by Mitch Turner

A bit more explanation of these points is in a more detailed version of this same article, available here. Get this article as a PDF file here.

"If, to please the people, we offer what we ourselves disbelieve, how can we afterwards defend our work? It is our task to raise a standard to which the wise and honest may repair, recognizing that the event is in the hands of God."
-- George Washington, 1787

Myths On Why We Must Vote For Bush

Fear of Democrats: Not Biblical. God is sovereign. Bush has done much worse things than Clinton because he has no opposition.
A Godly candidate can't win: By this attitude we should not have ever fought the War for Independence. God decides who our leaders are, we must vote for Godly candidates.
Fear of the judges John Kerry will appoint: See above on fear. And if you really think Bush will appoint truly conservative judges, you are willfully avoiding the evidence of history and Bush's positions. See below on judges.
There is no perfect candidate: An excuse for voting for the lesser of two evils (which, of course, is still evil). We are not debating perfect, or slightly less than perfect. We are debating evil, or not evil.

Defense of Life

Bush does not believe babies have a right to life. He supports abortion in cases of rape and incest.
Bush has presided over the death of more than 5 million babies. Well over 30 million have been murdered since Reagan was elected. Yet abortion is not even mentioned on Bush's campaign web site, rarely even given lip service.
Bush has continued to send billions to Planned Parenthood, largest provider of abortions in the US, as well as to the UN, which supports abortion around the world.

Defense of the Acknowledgement of God

AL Chief Justice Roy Moore was thrown out of office and the 10 Commandments removed from the state courthouse, despite a GOP State Attorney General, a GOP governor, a GOP Congress, a GOP US AG, and President Bush.
The 7 GOP/2 Dem US Supreme Court refused to rule on whether the phrase "Under God" is Constitutional.
Bush has proclaimed that he worships the same god as the Muslims, who, according to him, follow a religion of peace.

Oath of Office

Bush sent forces to attack a sovereign nation without a Declaration of War.
Bush campaigned in 2000 against the McCain-Feingold Campaign Finance bill, because it was not Constitutional. In office, Bush signed it anyway.
This year Bush has responded to people working around the campaign finance law by calling for further restrictions on free speech.
Unconstitutional programs: Worst of many (looking at the cost, half a trillion and counting) -- forcing taxpayers to pay for Seniors' prescription drugs.
Bush has passed record spending, record deficits, and added debt that our descendents will be paying off for generations.
Bush now approves over $60 billion annually for a known unconstitutional intrusion into education, and he joined with Ted Kennedy to set national standards for schools along with more spending than ever before.
Bush supports the so-called Assault Weapons Ban, despite the clear language of the 2nd Amendment.
Bush's Patriot Act removes many of the protections of the Constitution from law-abiding citizens.

Defense of the Nation

Bush has continued and expanded the use of women on the front lines of combat. The Bush Administration has proposed including women in Draft registration.
Bush has continued the illegal Clinton policy of allowing homosexuals to continue to serve in the military.
Easiest, fastest, best thing to protect us would be to secure the borders. They remain like Swiss cheese, with thousands entering illegally at will.
Instead of securing our borders, Bush has proposed an amnesty for millions of illegal aliens. Result: more illegals.
The easiest, fastest, and best thing to do to secure airline travel would be to arm the pilots. The Bush Administration has stalled even the limited arming effort approved by Congress and instead harasses people who obviously are not terrorists.

Defense of Marriage

Bush has given lip service to the issue, not doing anything that would actually help in this fight. We've seen how he has fought for issues that he really cares about, and his support for marriage (or Life) has looked nothing like those.

Judges

Number one reason given as to why Bush is better than Kerry is that Bush will appoint better judges. To believe this you must ignore history and the facts.

Bush refuses to promise to nominate only pro-life judges.
Bush actively supported the primary battle of PA Senator Arlen Specter, one of the most liberal Senators of either GOP or Dems. Specter will be the next Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee and will stop any conservative nomination before it gets to the floor. Bush knew this and supported him anyway, instead of the traditional position of remaining neutral during the primaries.
Counting on the GOP to give us good judges is literally insane. All of the worst decisions in the last 40 years were by a US Supreme Court with a GOP majority. Roe v. Wade (73) -- Found right to abortion. Planned Parenthood v. Casey (92) -- After 12 years of Reagan/Bush and 5 Supreme Court nominations, this case cemented made-up right to abortion. Court was 8 GOP and 1 pro-life Dem. Had Reagan/Bush even bothered to appoint 4 pro-life judges, Roe would have been overturned. Instead, 5 GOP judges affirmed Roe (making it even harder to overturn) in a 5-4 decision. Stenberg v. Carhart (2000): Court with 7 GOP and 2 Dems found Constitutional right to kill partially delivered babies. Lawrence v. Texas (03) -- Same GOP Court found Constitutional right to practice sodomy. McConnell v. FEC (03): Court decided that Congress can prohibit political speech. Same 7 GOP judges on the Court.

In Summary

Pragmatism has failed miserably. We are much worse off as a nation than when conservatives elected Reagan in 1980. How many evil actions must the GOP do before you abandon it?

Further Reading

If this "bullet-format" article is not enough to convince you, here's a long article by Dr. Patrick Johnston with all the footnotes you could wish for.
Answers for Pragmatic Conservatives
Fears of the Pragmatic Voter
Christians Controlled by "Spirit of Fear"