2000 Soap Box Archives

Give Us A Choice

After watching the first round of Presidential debates I'm disappointed to say that I'm really not impressed with what either candidate had to say. It seemed that Al Gore spent the whole night trying to convince us that he is a conservative liberal and George W. Bush spent the night trying to convince us that he is a liberal conservative. Why can’t somebody just stand up and say what they believe. Not what the polls say they should say, not what will garner favorable comments from the myriad of talking heads who inundate our television sets, not the party line, not the politically correct line, just a good old fashioned truthful statement from the heart. We end up electing people never knowing how they really feel about the issues because they sidestep the unpopular topics with innuendo and incomplete answers that some egg headed nerd in a think tank has found out from a focus group. I'm so sick and tired of everybody in politics qualifying their answers with, ”Well yes that’s my stand but I also feel thus and so”. I was disappointed in Mr. Bush’s answer to the question about the abortion drug. He didn’t take a stand one way or the other about whether it should be distributed or not. George if you’re going to take a pro life stand, take it and stand on it, not just part of it but all of it. It’s just as wrong to murder an unborn child with a drug as it is with a pair of scissors. And Al Gore stares into the television camera and tells us that he’s his own man. Come on Al, the only difference between you and Bill Clinton is that you’re even more of a flower child than he is. And gentlemen when you speak about social security and fiscal issues don’t bowl us over with all the numbers which are past most of our collective comprehension anyway. Just say simply what your policy is going to be, the math is just too mind boggling. The two party system is supposed to guarantee us two different approaches to the running the business of our country and I truly wish that the candidates would stop trying to walk the middle line. Take a tip from somebody who has been in public life for a long time. You can’t please everybody, nor should you try to. Just tell us what you really think and what your true intentions are. It would be so refreshing to have a president who would not promise more than he can deliver. If Al Gore gets elected and delivers all the things he’s talking about you might as well endorse your paycheck and send it to internal revenue. Mr. Bush why don’t you tell us about that, about how America can’t afford the social programs Mr. Gore is proposing. Mr. Gore talks about building up the military. Mr. Bush why don’t you remind America who it was who tore it down in the first place. Al Gore talks about improving public education and is rabidly opposed to school vouchers, not because he is afraid it would hurt public education, but because he know’s it would offend the powerful teacher’s union. Mr. Bush why don’t you ask him why if the public schools are so good he didn’t send his children to them. Mr. Gore says he’s pro choice, he never says he’s pro abortion. Why don’t you call him on this Mr. Bush? Why don’t you remind people what partial birth abortion is all about? The brutal murder of a live fetus. I think I know why you don’t. You’re afraid of offending someone. Well let me tell you something Mr. Bush. When you don’t, you’re offending me and a lot of other simple, God fearing, hard working, tax paying citizens who love America who fight her wars and raise her children, who operate her blast furnaces and drive her trucks, who enforce her laws and saw her lumber, who fish her oceans and raise her crops. We’re not intellectuals in the traditional sense of the word, but we have more common sense that all the pedigreed, condescending George Stephanopolous and Peter Jennings put together. We’re America Mr. Bush. We’re the uncut diamonds and untapped resources of this nation and we want someone who will take our views and passionate beliefs and fight for them tooth and nail, no matter what and not be afraid of offending those who oppose him. Are you this man Mr. Bush? I think you can be and sir it’s high time you started acting like it.

What do you think?

God Bless America
Charlie Daniels