Why you should vote again for President Bush

It seems like it took forever to get here but election day has finally arrived. Today, millions of Americans will place their votes for either incumbent President George W. Bush, Democratic Senator John F. Kerry, or a slew of third party candidates including Independent party candidate Ralph Nader  and Libertarian Michael Badnarik. This election could turn out to be one of most important elections ever, and if you are still undecided, read on, and I will tell you why you should vote for Bush.

It may surprise some of you to find out that I am actually a registered democrat. I disagree with Bush on several things, among them abortion, gay marriage, religion and the clampdown on radio by the FCC. I have absolutely no qualms about abortion, since a fetus is, for all intents and purposes, nothing more than a blood clot; I don’t have a problem with gays getting married since they would then get to experience the joys of divorce and alimony; as far as religion is concerned, I am an atheist; and in the realm of radio, while I do work in the industry and can see the effects of the iron fist of the FCC firsthand, whether there is a democrat or a republican in office makes no difference, as one can see by looking back to when Clinton was in office (under his watch, the FCC proposed over $1.5 million in fines on Howard Stern alone). These issues, however, are not what are deciding my vote this time, as there is something that is of paramount importance that I believe outweighs all else: there are people in this world that want to kill both you and me, simply because we are Americans, and Kerry has not convinced me that he is the right man for the job of protecting the United States.

After Sept. 11, 2001, many Americans realized there is a sinister force lurking who would like nothing more than to see this great country destroyed. Over 3,000 innocent Americans were killed that day by a group of religious zealots who orchestrated an attack of massive proportions. Seeing the towers fall instilled a great anger within many of us, and we looked to our government to protect us in the days following and to exact retribution on whoever caused the pandemonium of that day. Bush answered the call, united the country, and was not afraid to step up to the enemy and declare war against terrorists and any country that harbors or supports them.

A few years later, Bush, still standing up to the threat of terrorism, attacked Iraq and toppled the regime of Saddam Hussein, who had been a thorn in the side of the United States for more than ten years. While it has not been proven whether or not Iraq actually had weapons of mass destruction, the invasion of Iraq by the U.S. was a testament to Bush’s War on Terror speech where he mentioned that he would go after any country supporting or harboring terrorists. Hussein had donated money to the families of Palestinian suicide bombers for years, in sums’as high as $25,000, and that, in my eyes, was enough to warrant invasion.

Throughout the past four years, I have seen a resiliency in Bush that I have not seen or heard of in many other presidents. He did not back down from the challenge of protecting this country, and he made several sacrifices in the process, the most glaring of which is the loss of more than 1,000 U.S. soldiers in Iraq thus far. Even still, Bush is a man who will not back down from threats against this country and I am proud to have such a leader as my president. As long as there are people who are willing to die to kill us, I am glad Bush is in office, and this is the reason why he will be getting my vote today, and should be getting yours as well.

Gerry Wachovsky is a senior broadcast journalism major at CSULB and the Diversions editor of the Daily 49er.