A Good Reputation

This week George Bush decided to veto a bill that would have taken away the CIA's ability to torture suspects, claiming this was essential to keep America safe. He's wrong.

The present "war on terror" is a war of reputations, and we need to be the good guys. If we're the good guys, people will help us and not the extremists. The harder it is to tell us apart from the extremists, the more people will take sides based on tribalism, religion, and race. The more that happens, the worse the world will become, for everyone.

Later this year we'll be voting for a new president, and I will not be voting Republican. While that's not unusual, it's very unusual for me to have made up my mind so far from the election - before the Democrats have even decided on a candidate. I think electing a woman or a black man to the white house would be a great thing for the United States, but even that wouldn't be enough to make up my mind this early.

I'll be voting Democrat because of George Bush, and I'll explain why. The purpose of having parties like the Democrats and the Republicans is to stand for something - smaller government, or social justice or whatever - but also to find competent people to stand for office. We do not have time to assess every single candidate for every single post that we vote on; and we don't have the opportunity to find out everything we want to know about the candidates, even in this age of information. The parties stand in for that; they say to us, by running a candidate, "this person will do the right thing, and do it well".

By running a candidate like George Bush - twice - the Republicans have damaged that reputation with me. He is a fair bid for the most incompetent president in US history; he has done enormous damage to the economic and security positions of the United States; and he is still trying to do things that will make these problems worse. There must be a price to be paid for this - the Republicans have to think, in future, "let's not run this guy - he's not that good - and if he gets in we'll be out of power for a long time". It's not enough to get rid of this president, which will already happen. We must make sure that future George Bushes are weeded out before we even have to vote against them.

Eight years ago the Republicans told us that John McCain was not as good a candidate as George Bush. How could we even think of voting for him? They need to be booted out of power, and take the time to rethink how they choose candidates.

The only thing that makes me even hesitate slightly is that the Republican machine clearly don't like McCain. He, after all, is opposed to the use of torture, among other things. I would hate for them to take the drubbing that they deserve as a vote against that sort of principled stand. So I'm writing this, to go along with my vote.

A good reputation is a hard thing to win back, and the Republicans need to learn that for themselves and for the United States.