"I voted for Ralph Nader, and all I got was this lousy President"

        Five months later, I’m still regretting my choice.
        On Nov. 7, 2000, I marked the column titled “Electors for President / Vice President” next to the space allotted for Ralph Nader and Winona LaDuke.  Sure, my vote didn’t matter, because Massachusetts was going to Gore, right?
        Wrong.  My idealistic decision resembled that of some 95,000 Floridians who were tired of the two-party system and wanted to, in the (paraphrased) words of Michael Moore, “throw a political Molotov into the system by voting for Ralph Nader.”  I’m sorry I ever voted for that man, now that I see where our country is going under our current “fearless leader”.
        George Walker Bush has been our President-select for less than 100 days, yet the long-term implications of his early decisions will be profound.  Already Mr. Bush has alienated moderates and liberals and attacked our environment.
        President Bush claimed he was a “uniter, not a divider,” but his actions speak much louder than his words.  By selecting former Sen. John Ashcroft (R-Missouri) as United States Attorney General and appointing Donald Rumsfeld to the position of Secretary of Defense, Mr. Bush has swung our country violently to the right on domestic and foreign policy, respectively.
        Mr. Ashcroft is an outspoken opponent of certain laws which he claims he will enforce (most notably laws regarding abortion), and Mr. Rumsfeld advocates a national missile defense system that will anger our allies and provoke our enemies.  In short, these two people may well lead this country into domestic and international turmoil.  Mr. Bush’s failure to appoint moderate, bipartisan, open-minded candidates to these key positions will only spell trouble in the near future.
        Protecting our natural resources and environment has quickly taken a backseat to the needs of Big Business under the Bush administration.  Mr. Bush has already said that he would not further regulate carbon-dioxide emissions from factories, and he is opposed to lowering the amount of arsenic in water supplies.  The latter ought to be even more shocking than the former because arsenic is a potentially lethal substance!  But then again, Mr. Bush is used to lethal substances being used in Huntsville, Texas at the Walls Unit, but that’s another column.
        As well, his appointment of Christine Todd Whitman, the former Republican governor of New Jersey, as head of the Environmental Protection Agency can only spell further trouble for our ecology and our environment, as she is not exactly a known “stewardess of the earth.”  Our earth, air, and water are under attack, and all we can do right now is watch.
        President Bush has catered only to the right-wing members of his party early in his administration.  Fortunately, the Republican Revolution seems to have come full-circle, and the Democrats are rising again.  It’s Congress in 2002, the White House in 2004, and peace and prosperity for years to come.  The future is coming, one day at a time.  All we have to do is wish, wait, hope, and not vote for Ralph Nader.

Awkwardone

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