Right POV

Political Dilemma

By: Sandra Price

We have a President with low numbers. There are many reasons for this and after looking carefully at his actions and lack thereof, his numbers should most certainly be low. I keep reading that his Congressional Republicans are also riding below the tide and that shows many of us, that they have failed in their job descriptions.

Many books are being written about how they went into an emotional spin after 911 and did not take time or make the effort to look at what they signed off in bills such as the Patriot's Act. President Bush pressured them to sign the Bill without reading it. Had the House stood up and told the President they would need time to read through the project, we might not be in a fight today for our rights. It was not simply the Republicans who signed off on this unconstitutional bill but the Democrats as well.

I was shocked to learn that our elected officials sold us out on our 4th and 10th Amendments to make a show of support behind the President who scammed them into signing a program that will end up hurting every single American. President Bush learned that day that his House and Senate would sign anything put in front of them to show support for a man who had lied and manipulated the facts surrounding Saddam's Iraq. This has set up a list of actions including torture and holding prisoners without proper warrants and of course spying on Americans without limits.

Even as a long time Republican I never trusted Governor of Texas G.W. Bush and worked hard to locate another Republican Candidate for President in 2000. He smelled of hypocrisy in 2000 and today many of us realize he is not what he claims. The religious right cares only that he is not bopping interns in his office, but other Americans are seeing a weak man who should be ashamed of himself for his terrible presidency.

We are 5 years after 911 and we find ourselves in a war that was not based on honest facts. The Intelligence Committees in the House and Senate simply ignored the possibility that our President wanted the war and had planned on invading Iraq long before 911. If the American voters keep that House and Senate intact, they either don't know the facts or they don't care.

The focus of our legislators is still on abortion and gay marriages. These are private individual problems that should be turned over the States and get it out of our federal legislation. Our House and Senate members are not equipped to handle the emotional crap handed to them by the members of the religious right. None of them seem to realize that our American servicemen and women are dying on the battlefield; their emphasis is on the unborn. .

Much of our media is no help as they seem to have an agenda of making news rather than reporting it. They seem to have more fun reporting missing blonde teenagers and the rape of a black girl by a bunch of white athletes and simply running a news ribbon on the attacks in Afghanistan and Iraq.

If I could do it, I would vote no on all incumbents in November 2006. I read my morning paper to read how much money my Senator Kyl has gathered for his reelection and one look at his voting record of pork spending and voting against our freedoms should throw him out of the action. But he is a kindly man who is pro-life and the voters of Arizona can overlook his voting for the Patriot Act and many other programs that would simply give the President of the United States complete dictatorial control over the country.

Had he taken time to read the Patriot's act and discussed it with the people of Arizona I might have overlooked his spending issues. But he signed without reading it and has fallen below my expectations on all the issues handed to him.

We have 6 months before the November election and I wonder how many Americans will vote only for pro-lifers and homophobes and allow the war to go on another 2 years.