Review: 50 Reasons Not to Vote for Bush

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Review: 50 Reasons Not to Vote for Bush

50 Reasons To Get Very Angry
by L. A. Vess

For some reason, my readers don't seem to like it when I rant about politics. I can understand. Politics is far less interesting than sex (though often dirtier), or relationship issues, or humorous happenings of gay life. Political rants, by their nature, tend to offend and annoy people. So unless you are a so-called 'political columnist' - it is usually best to just ignore the subject. Until, that is, you go stark-raving mad and just can't keep your mouth shut any longer...
I'm stark-raving mad.

This isn't to say that I've gone insane. No, I'm just so pissed off that I'm seriously in danger of having my own head spontaneously combust. I'm angry for so many reasons, and at so many people, that I feel like I'm flying to pieces in a zillion different directions. Mostly, however, I am angry at one person in particular - myself. I am mad as hell at my ignorant, complacent, turn-the-other-cheek, somebody-else's-problem American self.

In the past two weeks, my smug self-assurance that I was one of those Americans who was actually "educated" about politics has all come crashing down. There are three particular things that have sparked my near-incoherent rage at my own lack of political education. First, of course, Michael Moore and Fahrenheit 9/11. Second, the wide, wide world of Blogs. And last, and most notably, a very provocative book entitled 50 Reasons Not To Vote For Bush.

Considering the wide spread media coverage of Moore's epic documentary on George Bush and all things Bush related - I won't go into detail on Fahrenheit 9/11. I will simply say that watching this film was one of the most disturbing experiences of my life. Hell, I'm a born and bred Democrat and I still found it difficult to believe that Moore wasn't making some of this shit up. I hate the Shrub with a personal passion I have never felt toward any human before in my life. Just hearing some of the words that came directly out of his mouth in clips from the film was enough to make me want to run to the bathroom to be sick. THIS man is our President? The President of the United States, land of the free, home of the brave and all that? This man, who sat frozen in inaction and idiocy, reading a book to a bunch of kids for almost ten minutes after being told that the World Trade Center had been hit by terrorists? This man is the leader of the free world???

Regardless of my gut reactions to the horrors of what I saw in the film, it wasn't until I actually did some heavy research - and found all the documented, hardcore evidence from multiple sources backing him up - that I really believed Moore wasn't just blowing things out of proportion. Once I figured out that this rather loony guy was telling the truth, even if in rather a one-sided manner, I got quietly angry.

While researching Moore's documentary, I found a number of new political-oriented blogs that I had not yet come across. Some of these were recommended to me as research sites by a friend of mine in Europe. One is http://www.cosmiciguana.com - a strange name for one of the most fear-provoking web blogs I've ever read. Reading the simple posts and related news stories that grace the pages of this site daily is enough to put terror into the heart of any freedom loving American. Then there is http://www.counterpunch.org/, which is kind of an online magazine/blog filled full of facts, figures and powerful stories of the "real" America - and the real people who run it. After spending a week running around these blogs, even taking everything with a heaping spoon of salt, I went from being quietly angry to loudly angry - very, very fast.

Then I received a copy of 50 Reasons Not To Vote For Bush, a book with a rather humorous cover all about why George Bush and pretty much the entire Bush administration are, well, quite simply evil bastards. After reading only a few pages, I transitioned straight to screaming mad. In fact, my partner had to excuse herself to run to Starbucks several times just to escape my full-volume tirades that exploded uncontrollably from my mouth every few pages. Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 is more boldly provocative than any book, of course, and there is certainly nothing like the in-your-face realness of film. However, there is just something about having 201 pages full of documented information on the Bush administration’s greed, corruption and complete disregard for humanity that makes your blood boil like nothing else.

This very informative tell-all book by Robert Sterling of http://www.konformist.com/. Sterling's site is a mixture of humor and horror, conspiracy theories and shocking truths. Hell, most of Konformist's conspiracy theories probably are shocking truths. Sterling's book, however, is just cold, hard reasons to be very angry at the state of this country - and the Shrub's contribution to it. Fifty of them, laid out in a nice, neat and easily referenced format. Each and every "reason" he lists in this book why you should NOT vote for Bush - is also a reason why you should be extremely angry that Bush managed to get into the White House in the first place. But it isn't Bush that you should be angry at. You should be, like I am, stark-raving mad at yourself.

We should all be angry at ourselves for allowing this travesty to take place. We have a president in office who did not get elected. We have a president (and Vice-President) who uses his governmental office to gift his 'buddies' with seats of power and millions in blood money. We have a president who doesn't give a f*ck about any American who makes less than half a million a year - or less than a million if they don't contribute directly to his campaign fund. We have a President who took us to war over a commodity - and against the will of the United Nations. And we put him there. Those who voted for him are most guilty, those who voted for Nader have their own circle of shame, and even those who voted for Gore are guilty of not making sure their ELECTED PRESIDENT actually made it to Washington. We just sat back and let the founding Democratic process of our nation - the ability to elect the leader of this country - become nothing more than a pathetic mockery.

We marched on Washington for civil rights. We marched on Washington for gay rights. We marched on Washington for women's rights. But when the most basic of our rights as citizens was trodden underfoot like so much garbage - we stayed at home, threw up our hands and said "oh well, that's just how it is."

I say it is time we took the first step forward on that march that we should have had back in 2000. It is not enough just to say you'll vote against Bush in November. It isn't even enough to have John Kerry win that election (if that is even possible considering that our votes mean practically nothing to a rigged, Republican owned electronic voting machine). John Kerry may not be George Bush, but he is a similar creature. Yale bred, Skull & Bones raised, with money flowing through his veins - there is little that is better about John Kerry as President other than that he is not George Bush. If George Bush is the color red (appropriate I would say), then John Kerry is just a pale blush.

John Kerry is not the solution, he is merely a temporary stop-gap figurehead to slow this country from its swift demise into a capitalist dictatorship. Even if he is elected, little real change will happen during his reign. He is just too much like Bush, and too much like every modern president in the last century. Until this country can put real Americans - honest, hard-working, blue collar people in offices of power - no real change can happen. We have to take this country out of the hands of corporate money and put it back into the hands of the American people. As the now lamented former presidential candidate Howard Dean said - it is time to take our country back.