undecided voter

i am i the only one who still hasn't decided who to vote for?

No, it seems like they put something in the water in Ohio

P.S. Please vote for Kerry!

Yes, you are. Hasn't Ohio been bombarded with like a million people on each side trying to inform you of the differences between the candidates?

What's making it hard for you to decide? The candidates have major differences. Anything in particular you're trying to decide between?

P.S. Please vote for Kerry!

[Edited on Nov 01, 2004 by BadYeti]

I played it safe for the sake of my concience and future and wont vote at all.



[Edited on Nov 01, 2004 by Lain]

Maybe my favourite quote of the past week may help a little?

(one of Bill Clinton's rules of politics).

At the end of the day, go with your gut feeling. Your vote is a precious thing. Don't opt out of your democracy

The sleeper must awaken...

i believe in stem cell research, but not 3rd term abortions. i like equal rights but i don't want people to get things for free. immigration is okay but only if we can feed them too, we don't put enough work into our own country's education and we are falling behind. i agree with free trade we should be able to get the best products at the lowest prices, but i don't want it to come at the cost of child labor and harming others. our own economy is a concern, but then so is our culture. we receive mixed messages from our media and government. you want to own a gun? go ahead. we've got 'em. just in case the zombies come. if you shoot a person, you should be punished. terrorism should not be tolerated in any form. if i have to sacrifice a bit of my privacy, so be it. no one should get a tax break. we all use the government's money in one way or another. however, the government needs a bit of a refresher on budgeting. i believe children should be children but not spoiled. there's too much empahsis on school funding and not enough on learning. there are too many schools that are subpar and in disrepair. this is not a fair playing field. but, we elect those officials into office.

so, i'm still confused. help.

I didn't vote for Bush the first time around and I'll be damned if I would this time either.

Edited to add that I knew about Bush and his antics in TX and he has some serious black marks on my list of important issues namely religious expression and the right to choose.


[Edited on Nov 01, 2004 by KaraLynn]

You should vote for Kerry then.

I'm sure everyone will discredit my opinion because I've been an open supporter of Kerry for a long time. But what you're posting there is much closer to Kerry's platform than Bush's platform.

Economically you say that you don't believe anyone should get a break from taxes but that you think the government should spend responsibly - this is the Democratic line. Bill Clinton balanced the federal budget and even created a surplus - George W. Bush has given us our biggest deficit in history and disproportionately cut taxes for the wealthy, including the elimination of the estate tax (which only affects the very wealthy.)

Kerry is for unfettered access to stem cell research, Bush implemented a policy restricting the ability of researchers to gain access to embryonic stem cell lines. Neither candidate is in favor of third term abortions, (which are exceedingly rare to begin with), although I believe that Kerry supports them in the case of serious health risks for the mother.

Both candidates (at least claim to) support continued immigration - but you need to keep in mind that Bush has made it much more difficult for people from other countries to work here by exponentially increasing the amount of red tape necessary to obtain a work visa.

As for education - Bush claimed this was a priority in his 2000 campaign, wrote the "No Child Left Behind Act" and then subsequently cut funding for it and other education initiatives in his budgets. The methodological basis for NCLB is questionable as well - there's no indication that using standardized testing a means to give out funds will result in better schools.

Neither candidate has advocated serious gun control laws. Bush was against the assault weapons ban, Kerry was for it. That law basically restricted access to guns that were classified as "assault weapons" meaning that had to have at least two of several listed characteristics including a grenade launcher, bayonet mount, threaded barrel for silencer and several other modifications not typically used for "sportsmen" purposes. People here will contest its effectiveness, I'm not an expert so I can't say.

To the chagrin of much of the progressive left, Kerry has not said much about using free trade to increase human rights abroad. Whether he will is up in the air, he will certainly continue to pursue a policy of free trade like Clinton did, but making trade contingent on a lack of child labor has not been brought up. You can bet that Bush won't do it either.

Both candidates will likely adopt a similar stance on global terrorism, meaning they will try hard to stop it. The advantage that Kerry has is his multilateral approach to international politics, other countries are aware that he will support them so will probably be more likely to give support when he asks for it. The US cannot take out terrorist organizations on its own. Bush has done a lot to soil the name of the US in the international community, from deriding our traditional European allies as "old Europe" to his disdain for the UN. None of this will help him when he comes calling on those same countries to help out in the real war on terror (as opposed to the imaginary one in Iraq.) Kerry will probably spend more time considering your civil liberties than Bush will in pursuing this goal, but you've said that isn't 'an issue for you.

A lot of other things you said are basically outside the effective realm of politics and are more cultural in nature, so whether bush or kerry is in office, there will likely still be spoiled children and unnecessarily precocious ones. But I hope I've helped make the case for why you should vote for Kerry and not for Bush.

it's been said before, and maybe it's beating a dead horse at this point:

think of the fact that 2 to 4 supreme court justices could be appointed in the next four years. these nine individuals hold the key to what you and i understand as "liberty." president bush and senator kerry have very divergent ideas about what our liberties should entail. it's not just abortion. there are key due process, equal protection, interstate commerce, and 1st amendment issues (just to name a few) that are 5-4 decisions and a swing the other way could change the face of the country you have known for some time now. these issues will effect YOU substantially.

oh i agree. there will be many uninformed voters out there tomorrow. i'm reading up on each of their issues and trying to find unbiased information on each candidate. blah. i guess i'm just disappointed in both of 'em. i'm disappointed in the polarization of Americans. i guess i'm just using this thread to vent my frustrations.

Okay, I've edited out the stuff I think is a wash for both candidates.

IMHO, things that mean you might want to vote Kerry:

Third term abortions are currently illegal in the US except when the life of the mother is at risk. Kerry voted against a ban on "partial birth abortion" because there were no exceptions made for rape, incest or the health of the mother.

Both Kerry and Bush have promised tax cuts, although Bush has promised a lot more of them. Kerry has said he's going to raise taxes for people making over $200,000 a year.

Bush has already shown how fiscally irresponsible he is. Even if you think Kerry will try to increase federal spending more than Bush, he'll be facing a GOP-controlled Congress that won't give him the same blank check they've been giving Bush.

IMHO, things that mean you might want to vote Bush:

Both Bush and Kerry say they wanted the Assault Weapons Ban to be extended, but Bush put no pressure on Congress to do so.

Call me partisan, but that's 3 to 1 in favor of Kerry.

No way. Seriously?

i agree bean. my choice of presidential candidate won't matter much considering the electoral college is the real deal. but i feel left out that i'm not for one group or another. this feels more like a "who's team is gonna win" than an election.

grrr...vote missbernie, the others suck.

Right on.

You've got my vote.

yay! only a few million more and i'm in!

I'd feel bad if I felt like I influenced your vote, so I won't tell you how to vote. So my suggestion is: 1.take the paragraph you wrote above 2. go to each candidate's website 3. Compare your list with their platforms 4. See which agrees with your positions the most.
Hope this helps.

P.S. After reading the other thread, i now understand Lain's post.