To Those Voters Who Turned Their States Red:

It is very difficult for me to face, or understand, why you reelected Bush. Yes, you repeated the mantra of the Republican party, “Don’t change horses in mid stream”. But look, you live in the American heartland, where you are almost immune from terrorist attacks. So, did you really vote for his “moral” values? The country, thanks to the religious right and other conservative groups you belong to, has swung back to a 50’s style conservatism. A number of you Red Voters voted whole-heartedly to outlaw gay marriage, and many more are poised to make abortion illegal the moment Roe v Wade is overturned by the soon-to-be conservative Supreme Court. Everything that this country has gained towards social progression and acceptance for all its citizens, more than four decades worth of struggle, may be easily overturned under your president’s administration.

Sure, you’re saying, that’s exactly what we want. Get rid of the homosexuals, and God forbid, don’t let them ruin the sanctity of marriage by letting them wed; no, you’ll watch reality TV “marriages” and J Lo’s revolving door chapel, but don’t let people who love each other get married! It’s far too threatening to your way of life. And you’re saying, you’ve always been against abortion, make sure that all of God’s children, whether they are wanted or not, survive. It doesn’t matter that they might grow up abandoned or in foster care, it doesn’t matter if the parents abuse them because they never wanted them in the first place, and it really doesn’t matter what happens to them once they’re born, so long as they are born. You don’t care about people, you just care about the rights of the fetus—and please don’t mention the word welfare, ‘cause you’re not going to pay for them as children or adults.

Well, let’s take a look at your president’s moral values, which this “man of the people” has prided himself on and gotten him reelected by you. He is a rich son of privilege who ducked the war, whose daddy secured numerous “jobs” for him where he barely even showed up, and then somehow Bush Jr. gained the White House despite the fact that he wasn’t technically elected by the people. His administration has screwed the environment, helped the extremely wealthy individuals and big business get wealthier (Can we say Halliburton or Cheney?), has done nothing for the working class, and that’s you by the way Red Voters, besides put and keep you out of work (unless you count the army). If you watched Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11, and being a Republican you probably skipped it, you may have had to face the possibility that your president’s administration might have allowed the largest terrorist attack on US soil to take place, in order for him to push through his war on Iraq (which was planned before Al Qaeda hit us), a multi-billion dollar war which was started without reason or provocation (and even after they proved there was no reason, as they had done before the US went into Iraq, Bush and Cheney still say it was the right thing to do because if Saddam had the weapons they insisted he had, well he sure would have liked to use them). Thousands of Americans, and who knows how many Iraqi, are being killed or wounded. Meanwhile the true culprit of the attack, Osama Bin Laden, who’s family is tied very closely to the Bush family and business interests, taunts us via videotape.

Your president’s administration has actively taken rights away from its citizens. Bush and the sensationalized media have created an atmosphere of overstated fear and paranoia for the imminent “next attack”, and pushed through measures that gave the government more control and interference into the private lives of its people and visitors, moving quickly away from democracy toward fascism, in the name of your “safety”. It’s not just the Patriot Act, and it’s not just to catch terrorists, they can go after all of us now.

And one thing you might be turning a blind eye to is that your president is draining our country dry. His manufactured war on terror in Iraq and fiscal mismanagement has created the largest deficit of any previous administration ($7.4 trillion as of 11/5/2004), and the government is going to borrow $147 billion for the first three months of 2005 in order to stay open, yet Bush is still planning massive tax cuts for the wealthy (not you, Mr. and Mrs. Red Voter), one that will eliminate $1.9 trillion of tax income over 10 years. Though the budget might seem something beyond your control, its impact will be global. Not only has the dollar fallen sharply against other currencies during the Bush administration, but the economy, at best sluggish, is generating substantially less money than can support Bush’s overspending, and you call the Democrats “Tax and Spend”. With all of our money going to pay Halliburton to rebuild a country we helped break, and to this war on terror (by way of comparison, did Reagan’s war on drugs really make a difference except to make more money for the government to turn a blind eye?), our sputtering economy will shortly stall and cause a massive, perhaps global, recession. For you see, we owe everyone else a great deal of money, and they’re about to tighten the purse strings and demand payment, and we can’t pony up the dough.

Despite all these flaws, you elected him for a second term.

Take into consideration, Red Voters, the only two places where there actually were terrorist attacks, New York and Washington DC, voted overwhelmingly for Kerry. Does that send any message to you? If it doesn’t, I’ll spell it out. We’re tired of being a target, we’re disgusted by Bush riding in and alienating not only the Islamic faith (which might as well all be terrorists, so far as Bush and you Red Voters are concerned) and padding the roles of actual terrorist groups who are trying to protect themselves from us, not the other way around. And we’re tired of hearing him and his administration lie about it. Let them just admit that they staged the war in order to make truckloads of money and to protect the oil in Iraq and be done with it? We’re not going to see any of the money they make, and certainly not you, Red Voters.

Now, I have two conflicting responses, do I ignore and even boycott you Red Voters for being so blind to reality in favor of the lines your party fed you, or do I try to embrace you and teach you how far off the mark your party is? I admit it, Kerry was a weak candidate, he is an elitist and the only thing distinctive about him was his marriage, but come on, isn’t it better to elect a president who wants to build relationships between governments and world leaders in order to protect all of us, than a cowboy who went into a manufactured war alone to benefit a very few (certainly not the Iraqi who are being killed daily) and made America one of the most reviled countries on the planet? What’s it going to take for you to see what’s really happening? Does your son or daughter, your wife or husband, need to be killed in Iraq or put out of work in the US? Do you really need for it to go that far?

Answer me, Red Voters, what am I supposed to do with you? You’re like stubborn children who refuse to see the truth. I know, most of the people who voted for Bush are Catholic and Protestant, and you are used to having the church make your decisions for you, but wake up already. This is your country too. Protect it from this guy. It’s not too late.

And to those of you who are saying, “It’s only four more years, what difference does it make now?” Take a look back at the last four and say let me know if he didn’t do enough damage already. Can you imagine four more years of this, and without the fear of having to be reelected to a third term, or Cheney running for president (not with that heart condition), they’ll do as much as possible to push through their own profiteering agenda. So don’t cry to me, Red Voters, when the recession hits the American heartland, where it will hit first and linger longest, because you wanted him to protect you from the homosexuals and terrorists who didn’t want anything to do with you in the first place.

My only consolation, Red Voters, is that history will be his judge, and yours too.