Why I am voting Democratic this year

The Democratic Party is no more liberal than the Republican; it is now simply benefiting from not having been the party in power when we were attacked by Saudi Arabian terrorists. Terrorists who had been identified and whose plans had been intercepted. Terrorists who had been allowed to train in the US and to carry out their plans without any action by the US government.

It was not the party in power when our government’s leaders lied to us, asserting that the Saudi terrorists had been allied with Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, who was developing nuclear weapons. Democrats were not in power when Donald Rumsfeld declared that he knew where the weapons of mass destruction were, that American troops would be welcomed as liberators, that sales of Iraqi oil would finance the invasion, and that the conflict would be settled in six months.

Vice President Cheney warned his fellow Americans that their patriotism would be suspect if they did not support the invasion of Iraq. So, with a few notable exceptions, Democrats voted with most Republicans to authorize the President’s use of military force in Iraq. However, our forces found no weapons of mass destructions and were hated by Iraqis because we had invaded their country. Proceeds from the sales of Iraqi oil were nil.

Despite this, most Democrats voted many times to continue the funding of the conflict, at a rate of $10 billon a month.

Democrats were not the party in power when our troops started torturing prisoners of war, which was a violation of the Geneva Convention and our national honor. Most Democrats decried the lies, the torture, and immorality of the Bush administration. However, when the Democratic Party regained the majority in the House of Representatives, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi declared that impeachment proceedings against the President and Vice President were "off the table." The government of United States of America, shown to be among the worst of agressors, now hated by its former allies, and financially strapped by the waste of military personnel and material, was not going to hold anyone responsible for this debacle.

I agree with much that Ralph Nader says, but he has never been elected to a city council much less a state or national office. He has no experience satisfying his constituents and his political allies while contending with his opposition at the same time. I will not vote for him.

I will not vote for John McCain either, who supported the Bush administration for almost eight years. McCain wants to reverse Roe v Wade, wants to tax employees medical benefits as income, and advocates a tax cut for the very American corporations that have ruined our economy. He also advocated the shredding of federal business regulations, but now that our economy has virtually been destroyed by the lack of regulation, he promises to get rid of greedy Wall Street insiders and Washington lobbyists. I don’t believe him

McCain’s running mate, Sarah Palin, wants to replace evolution with creationism in our classrooms. She too is an opponent of abortion rights. She believes that soccer moms are the backbone of America. She never mentions working moms. I not only can't vote for her, I am disappointed that such a person would ever be selected as running mate in a national election.

So, I will vote for Democrats in the next election. They are partly responsible for the mess we are in, but the Republicans led us, gloating and sneering all the way, to our moral, political, and military bankruptcy. The people who created our problems should not be re-elected to solve them.

I hope that the Democrats replace Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid.