THE LAST STRAW
Carl F. Worden
That's it, I've had it.
I've been a registered Republican since
I pulled my first lever in a voting booth, and I've voted as a loyal
Republican for Republican candidates consistently every year. I am
55 years of age. I am considered a right-wing Christian
conservative and strict constitutionist who knows the Framers of the
Constitution expected strict adherence to that original document
unless and until it is amended.
You don't get much more conservative and
constitutionally-minded than I am, and that is why I just cast my
Oregon vote-by-mail ballot for Democrat John Kerry as the next
president of the United States. So did my wife -- and she's a very
independent thinker. I know there are thousands of lifelong
Republican/Independent conservatives who are going to do the same
thing on November 2nd, because they've written and told me so.
The absolute last straw for me took
place at the Bush rally, held in Central Point, Oregon on October
14th. President Bush stayed in Jacksonville, Oregon overnight after
the rally, and protesters and police clashed on the streets. I sent
out a photo of a Jackson County Sheriff's Deputy, all Nazi'd up in
black leather Riot Control gear and grinning evilly as he shoved a
woman holding her 5 year-old daughter. It wasn't the finest hour
for local law enforcement, but even that wasn't the last straw for
me. No, the last straw for me happened just before the Bush rally
itself.
Three local teachers got tickets to the
Bush rally, passed all the security checkpoints and scrutiny and got
in. They never created or caused a disturbance, and they were
perfectly peaceful members of the audience waiting to hear Bush
speak. But before they got to hear Bush, they were expelled from
the rally by Bush rally staff who objected to the words printed on
the T-shirts they were wearing.
No, the words on the T-shirts the ladies
were wearing did not disparage Bush, nor did they suggest support
for Kerry or any other candidate. The words did not condemn or
support the war in Iraq, nor did they slam any Administration
policy. No, the T-shirts the three women wore showed an American
flag, and under it the words, "Protect Our
Civil Liberties". That was all -- I kid you not.
That was it. That was the last straw
for me. That was the defining moment I'll never forget. That was
my epiphany.
Bryan Platt, Chairman of the Jackson
County Republican Central Committee, said he stood 100 percent
behind the person who made the decision to exclude the
women, removing any doubt that one or two individuals exceeded their
authority and blew it. No, it was solid, Republican
neo-conservative fascist policy on open display, and the Brown
Shirts weren't about to apologize for it. No way.
I am now a man without a political
party. I will never again register as a Republican unless the party
returns to what it was before the fascists took it over. I'm
certainly not a Democrat or a liberal, but I might just register as
a Democrat to help them avoid mistakes in the next primary, like
running another John Kerry for president. Any moderate, pro-gun
southern Democrat would have easily swept Bush aside this election.
As it is, the race is so close it could go either way at this point.
My decision to vote for Kerry was a vote
to get Bush and his [damned]administration out! I could have voted
for a third party candidate who couldn't possibly win, but that
would have translated into a vote for Bush, and I just couldn't do
that. Too many kids in uniform have already been killed and
maimed for nothing, and I see it as my primary duty to save as many
of them as I can. If my vote for a third party candidate means Bush
wins and more kids come home dead and mutilated, then I have
abrogated my duty as an American, as a Christian and as a decent
human being. I didn't know better during the Vietnam War, when I
voted for Nixon twice, but I would be without excuse if I did it
again now.
This election is different: In this
election, we all have to answer the call to vote
wisely. Lives depend on it, and
God is watching how we vote as well. When an individual sins, God
deals with him individually. When a whole nation sins, God deals
with the nation nationally. It's right there in the Bible.
The way I see it, the threat
Bush presents is just too great. I know what Bush did with his
first four years on good behavior, and so do you. What scares the
bejeebers out of me is what Bush would do with four more years with
nothing to lose -- and an assumed mandate from the people for what
he did the first four. At least a Kerry Administration would be
strapped down by a Republican Congress, so I'm not too worried about
major gun control bills being passed, and as far as abortion is
concerned, it really doesn't matter what a president believes,
because that issue is decided only by the Judiciary Branch now.
Regardless of the proclaimed Bush
position on abortion, he never issued an executive order banning any
form of abortion because he knew such an order would be overturned
by the courts. Oh, and that phony Late-Term Abortion Ban Bush
signed? It's as good as dead -- and I have a niggling feeling it
was intended to be killed even as they wrote it. The lower Federal
Courts are already finding it unconstitutional, and why?, because
the people who authored it left no possibility for a woman to use
late term abortion to save her life, let alone to preserve her
health. In lieu of that provision, any first year law student knew
the federal courts would overturn it, so why did seasoned
lawyers/legislators write it that way? Don't even try
to convince me they overlooked something as obvious as that.
I still believe this election is going
to Kerry, no matter what the polls predict. Last time, it was so
close the Supreme Court had to decide the outcome. This time, a
huge number of former Bush Republicans like me have bolted to
Kerry. Unless a large number of former Gore supporters are going to
vote for Bush this time, I don't see how Bush can get re-elected.
Add to that the massive numbers of young voters who are registered
to vote for the first time under threat of a draft, and I see Bush
being shown the door by more than a close vote. But we'll see...
What I do know is that any party that
would find the words, "Protect Our Civil Liberties" offensive or
even threatening, is a party I won't belong to anymore.
That was the last straw.
