Political Manipulations

My inner cynic remembers my senior-year high school government teacher being one of those overbearing teachers who taught me that voting with the Republican party was the only true sign of patriotism, and that Americans cannot handle more than two choices: every election has to be black and white. (This was 1989, before Ross Perot tried to shove a third party candidate down our throats.)

The speeches at the Republican National Convention last night made me remember another thing that Mrs. Young taught me: The "No Winners" Bill as a political tool. The Republican keep harping on John Kerry saying "I voted for the $87 billion before I voted agaisnt it" as a sign that Kerry just flip-flops. Naturally, they don't point out that when Kerry voted for the money, the Republicans voted against it. The real issue of the bill was not providing body armor for the troops. The bill was going to be funded by rolling back some of the tax cuts for the rich that Bush claims has helped every American, so Kerry saw it as a win-win situation. Roll back the cuts, help the troops. The Republicans voted it down. Then they funded the bill a different way, Kerry said no, Republicans said yes. The bill passed and a Win-Win bill for Democrats became a Lose-Lose bill.

Now both sides can say that every member of the Senate voted agaisnt providing the troops with body armor. Why don't we point out that the Republican Senators supporting Bush are also guilty of not supporting our troops?