October 05, 2004
Curious, George: Need some swing-voter help
I'm looking for a webpage I can show several swing-voter friends that has a simple comparison of the two presidential candidates.
I'm in Florida, and this could bring a bunch of people with it, so any help is appreciated. Perhaps something in chart form? Differences in policy on a multitude of issues put in short sentences. Ideally they'd be able to scan the lists and see which candidate most fits their views. But really at this point I'll take anything that's clear, concise, and direct.
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I feel like I saw lists like this all the time when we were selecting a democratic nominee, but now I can't find one that fits Bush and Kerry specifically.
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How about this
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Or this
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Or this one? (On preview: this may be identical to icarium's link.) Really, though, you should point your friends to the agenda pages of the two campaigns.
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I think it speaks to either the complexity of the current situation or its general f'ed up-ness, but those sites seem to only help people align the candidate that is closest to their economic, cultural, and socioeconomic ideology. But as a Republican who won't be voting for Bush, there is much more to the issue than whether Bush strongly favors prayer in public schools or strongly opposes hunting bunnies for fun and profit (which he probably doesn't). My point is, as a Republican who won't me making the same mistake twice, I will be voting against Bush on his record, despite the fact that a lot of the items on his list I agree with ideologically, and a lot of items on Kerry's list I disagree. I don't know where there is a site that can outline the cost/benefit analysis of voting for someone I disagree with philosophically who may be a competent President versus a President who has established his incompetence time and time again. There is no good choice for us (small l, please) libertarian-leaning republicans who thinks that the government has no place in the private lives of individuals and should not be invoking God at every turn (does not bin Laden believe his is a just and blessed cause?), but has a societal obligation to keep corporations in line, enforce the laws of this nation.
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Thanks for all your tips, everybody. Big help. Chimaera, I sympathize but unfortunately have nothing to add. You put it very well.
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Some help with the swingers eh? Well . . you just gotta open your mind a little bit. Y'know - Ed's a fine lookin' woman! And I bet you'd say the same thing about Dot! Now, you may not know this, but she's a hellcat in bed! T-I-G-E-R! /Glenn *with apologies to 'Raising Arizona' fans*
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Honestly, if someone knew all the crap that the current administration has done, I fail to see how anyone who isn't a hardline republican could be undecided. Some context as to why they are undecided would be good. Do you really want them to just vote for the sake of voting or do you want them to vote for your candidate? (because I'm not sure I would invest much effort in encouraging osmeone to vote if I thought they would negate my own vote)
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Basically most would be voting democrat except they're hardline anti-abortion (in a couple cases it's other moral issues, but that's all it ever is). It's not so much that I want them to vote for my candidate (not that I would mind, I just feel a little bad putting it on that level) as it is that I want them to see there's more to the candidates than single issues. Also several have said they won't vote at all because it "doesn't matter", the candidates are the same, so forth. In doing this I'm trying to bolster my case that voting isn't always about the next 4 years or the change you want to see immediately, but the next several decades and the change you want to see over that time.
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Pendy, maybe you should point them to The Sojourners page. Might open some eyes about the whole single-issue thing. Especially with this pdf of their newspaper ad detailing no fewer than five religious/moral issues to be concerned about when choosing a candidate. Shocker--Bush doesn't do that well on them.