I didn't quite know where to stick this letter, but since it's written by a proclaimed conservative, it's as good a place as any..xx..e

The Last Straw

by Carl F. Worden


That's it, I've had it.


I've been a registered Republican since I pulled my first lever in a
voting booth, and I've voted as a loyal Republican for Republican
candidates consistently every year. I am 55 years of age. I am
considered a right-wing Christian conservative and strict
constitutionist who knows the Framers of the Constitution expected
strict adherence to that original document unless and until it is
amended.


You don't get much more conservative and constitutionally-minded than
I am, and that is why I just cast my Oregon vote-by-mail ballot for
Democrat John Kerry as the next president of the United States. So
did my wife -- and she's a very independent thinker. I know there are
thousands of lifelong Republican/Independent conservatives who are
going to do the same thing on November 2nd, because they've written
and told me so.


The absolute last straw for me took place at the Bush rally, held in
Central Point, Oregon on October 14th. President Bush stayed in
Jacksonville, Oregon overnight after the rally, and protesters and
police clashed on the streets. I sent out a photo of a Jackson County Sheriff's Deputy, all Nazi'd up in black leather riot control gear
and grinning evilly as he shoved a woman holding her 5 year-old daughter.

http://www.sierratimes.com/images/bushvisit.jpg


It wasn't the finest hour for local law enforcement, but even that
wasn't the last straw for me. No, the last straw for me happened just before the Bush rally itself.


Three local teachers got tickets to the Bush rally, passed all the
security checkpoints and scrutiny and got in. They never created or
caused a disturbance, and they were perfectly peaceful members of the audience waiting to hear Bush speak. But before they got to hear Bush, they were expelled from the rally by Bush rally staff who
objected to the words printed on the T-shirts they were wearing.


No, the words on the T-shirts the ladies were wearing did not
disparage Bush, nor did they suggest support for Kerry or any other
candidate. The words did not condemn or support the war in Iraq, nor
did they slam any Administration policy. No, the T-shirts the three
women wore showed an American flag, and under it the words, "Protect
Our Civil Liberties". That was all -- I kid you not.


That was it. That was the last straw for me. That was the defining
moment I'll never forget. That was my epiphany.


Bryan Platt, Chairman of the Jackson County Republican Central
Committee, said he stood 100 percent behind the person who made the
decision to exclude the women, removing any doubt that one or two
individuals exceeded their authority and blew it. No, it was solid,
Republican neo-conservative fascist policy on open display, and the
Brown Shirts weren't about to apologize for it. No way.


I am now a man without a political party. I will never again register as a Republican unless the party returns to what it was before the
fascists took it over. I'm certainly not a Democrat or a liberal,but
I might just register as a Democrat to help them avoid mistakes in
the next primary, like running another John Kerry for president. Any
moderate, pro-gun southern Democrat would have easily swept Bush aside this election. As it is, the race is so close it could go
either way at this point.



My decision to vote for Kerry was a vote to get Bush and his
administration out. I could have voted for a third party candidate
who couldn't possibly win, but that would have translated into a vote for Bush, and I just couldn't do that. Too many kids in uniform have
already been killed and maimed for nothing, and I see it as my
primary duty to save as many of them as I can. If my vote for a third party candidate means Bush wins and more kids come home dead and
mutilated, then I have abrogated my duty as an American, as a
Christian and as a decent human being. I didn't know better during
the Vietnam War, when I voted for Nixon twice, but I would be without excuse if I did it again now.


This election is different: In this election, we all have to answer
the call to vote wisely. Lives depend on it, and God is watching how
we vote as well. When an individual sins, God deals with him
individually. When a whole nation sins, God deals with the nation
nationally. It's right there in the Bible.


The way I see it, the threat Bush presents is just too great. I know
what Bush did with his first four years on good behavior, and so do
you. What scares the bejeebers out of me is what Bush would do with
four more years with nothing to lose -- and an assumed mandate from
the people for what he did the first four. At least a Kerry
Administration would be strapped down by a Republican Congress, so
I'm not too worried about major gun control bills being passed, and
as far as abortion is concerned, it really doesn't matter what a
president believes, because that issue is decided only by the Judiciary Branch now.


Regardless of the proclaimed Bush position on abortion, he never
issued an executive order banning any form of abortion because he
knew such an order would be overturned by the courts. Oh, and that
phony Late-Term Abortion Ban Bush signed? It's as good as dead
-- and I have a niggling feeling it was intended to be killed even as they wrote it. The lower Federal Courts are already finding it
unconstitutional, and why?, because the people who authored it left
no possibility for a woman to use late term abortion to save her
life, let alone to preserve her health. In lieu of that provision,
any first year law student knew the federal courts would overturn it,
so why did seasoned lawyers/legislators write it that way? Don't even try to convince me they overlooked something as obvious as that.


I still believe this election is going to Kerry, no matter what the
polls predict. Last time, it was so close the Supreme Court had to
decide the outcome. This time, a huge number of former Bush
Republicans like me have bolted to Kerry. Unless a large number of
former Gore supporters are going to vote for Bush this time, I don't
see how Bush can get re-elected. Add to that the massive numbers of
young voters who are registered to vote for the first time under threat of a draft,
and I see Bush being shown the door by more than a close vote. But we'll see...


What I do know is that any party that would find the words, "Protect
Our Civil Liberties" offensive or even threatening, is a party I
won't belong to anymore.


That was the last straw.


Carl F. Worden


"Better to be a principled athiest than a Christian for show. A man
who employs the Lord as a special effect and makes a public
performance of piety deadens his spiritual life and puts his own soul in danger." Garrison Keillor