This Blog Formally Endorses
John Kerry for President

Though I have been taking the occasional potshot at George W. Bush in these pages, I guess I haven't bothered to make the positive effort on behalf of his challenger in the upcoming election.
I must admit that I have been against W. since he took office, but for a long time it wasn't even that important to me. I have been living overseas for almost eight years with my partner Tim, the last four years exclusively here in Taiwan. Being gay made it pretty obvious that times would be bad back in the states, and I have to admit that the steady employment and national health care in Taiwan have made it hard for me to see the positive angle to going home anytime soon.

And I have to confess that on September 11, 2001, I was one of those people who in addition to all the feelings of bewilderment and sympathy, also felt like somehow it was America's own behavior in the world that led these terrorists to hatch such a vicious and surprising plan. I didn't feel any rage. I wasn't there, or even anywhere close. I just watched it all unfold from my apartment overseas.

Then, I watched from overseas as the Bush administration wrecked everything they touched. It has reached its most extreme in Iraq, but the hate and fear his posse have generated at home is more personally irritating. He has done nothing to make the world safer. He has ruined the American economy for another generation. And I find it distinctly creepy that he is a teetotaling born-again Christian who used to be a party animal. Those people are not the sort who should run the freewheeling shitstorm that is America.

I wholeheartedly believe that John Kerry would be the best choice for president. I'm not even going to hedge. If someone's got to do it, I would rather that it be someone with 30 years of Washington experience and who doesn't look to the Bible for political decisions. I'm not bothered with any of the allegations about his record. I'm still young enough to think taxes aren't necessarily bad, (and come on spinmeisters--don't you think people would notice if their taxes had gone up 96 times?) I think Kerry's right--we need to do something different in Iraq, and in America. Health care. Education. Civil Unions (I'd take that in a heartbeat. I don't want Tim to be my husband or my wife, so why fight for marriage?) . Balancing the Budget. Protecting workers (We've all got to get off the free-trade thing! Free-trade is good for making big money, but bad for everyone who makes the stuff that makes the money.) Kerry has some concrete plans for improving things. Of course, it won't work out that way, but we have to try.

I think if Bush wins, whatever revolution that starts in America in the next 20-50 years will look to the election of 2004 as its starting point. I think a Kerry presidency will be boring, to be sure, but maybe cool things down a little and delay the revolution until after my lifetime. That would be just fine with me.

Vote Kerry.