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<< back to Fire & IceLetter to a Bush Supporter
Hi [Name Removed],
I'll tell you right off that I'm not replying to express my support for Bush, but rather to express my dissent. Everyone is, of course, entitled to their opinions, and I respect that. If you are a Republican, I don't need to agree (and I don't), and I also don't feel the need to try to convince you to believe something you don't. That's one of the greatest things about a democracy: we are allowed to disagree.
So my issue is not with your political orientation, but rather with your support of Bush himself. That democracy I just spoke so highly of? He's destroying it. A democracy cannot exist under a leader who lies outright to his citizens. The Republicans were up in arms when Clinton lied about Monica, but nobody seems to care so much that Bush lied about why we went to Iraq. I'm not debating whether or not that was a good choice, but Bush basically decided to go to war and THEN fabricated intelligence that would implicate Saddam and connect him to 9-11. It's not an issue of whether or not we should have gone to war, but he lied about why, and he told the nation things he knew were not true. A dishonest government is not a government I can support.
I am especially appalled by support of Bush in light of his recent proposal to amend the Constitution to prohibit gay marriage. You may be personally opposed to gay marriage based on some religious belief, but the highest law of the land should not (and indeed CANNOT) be based upon religious doctrine. The separation of church and state is one of the things that make this country great. So even if one does not support equal rights for same-sex couples, it still is not right to tinker with the Constitution in this way. Using the Constitution to squash civil liberties (when the document itself was created to protect civil liberties) is simply deplorable. The last time the government tried that was with Prohibition. See how well that worked? In the 2000 election, approximately 1 million gay people voted for Bush. You can be sure none of them will be voting for him this November.
I didn't mean to write a long and angry essay, and I hope that's not how this sounds. As I said at the beginning of this email, we are each entitled to our own opinions. But Bush has gone way too far, and he's hijacked all the tenets of equality and justice this democracy was founded upon. I urge you to consider the facts, consider historical precedent, and consider the implications of another four years of Bush. Then decide if you really want to support him, and if you really want to rally together supporters from Bryn Mawr, an institution that values equality, democracy, and respect.
Thanks for your time, and feel free to reply if you want.
Lauren Friedman