Finally - Conservatives for Kerry

Conservatives Speak Out Against Bush

Here at Conservatives for Kerry, we’ve gotten a lot of mail recently, and most of it is positive. Sometimes, however, we get messages from readers who just have a hard time believing that it’s possible for conservatives not to support George W. Bush.

Confusing partisanship with principles, these folks seem to believe that it’s just a conservative’s duty to support a Republican President, no matter what the President does. Even when the President oversteps his executive authority, even when the President encourages judicial activism, even when the President disrespects the armed forces, even when the President runs record budget deficits, even when the President designs new big government entitlement programs, even when the President spends taxpayer money like there’s no tomorrow, even when the President erodes our most beloved American freedoms, even when the President lies to the American public.

How can a conservative refuse to support George W. Bush? The real question is how a conservative can stomach having a man like George W. Bush in the White House.

If we conservatives can step back and be honest with ourselves for just a moment, we’ll see that George W. Bush has done everything we used to get furious at Bill Clinton for doing… only worse.

We understand that conservatives feel a bit strange holding back support from President Bush. We feel pretty odd about it ourselves, to be honest. The truth is, though, that as time goes by, more and more good conservatives are deciding that they just can’t stand by the outrageous excesses of George W. Bush any longer.

Don’t take our word for it. Below, we’ve listed just a small sampling of opinions from real conservatives who have had it with Bush. These aren’t our statements, and they’re not from people connected to this web site in any way whatsoever. The collective judgment is growing: George W. Bush just doesn’t speak for conservative America anymore, and it’s time we get a new leader for our movement and our nation.


http://conservativesforkerry.com/conspeakout.html

smooth_guy dude.. atleast add a comment or two in your own words, giving your opinion on the topic and what you plan to discuss. Jazak Allah.

I thought the topic title says it all.

Anyway, its the collective approach of Republicans that are not happy with Bush administration and the differences and dislikeness have taken to this point that they have created a front group within Republican party. A lots of ex-Regan officials are also behind this.

I forgot the term that was used for PPPP in Pakistan. A front group of the party ?????

While we are at the support for Kerry from different groups and communities, here is an interesting one. No other than Bush’s own relatives :smiley:

Bush relatives use website to show support for Kerry

6 second cousins protest policies

SEATTLE – Six blood relatives of President Bush who support John F. Kerry’s bid for the presidency have launched a website to publicize their sharp disagreements with Bush’s policies.

The site, www.bushrelativesforkerry.com, consists of personal statements from a group of decidedly liberal second cousins of the president, none of whom knows him personally. All are grandchildren of Mary Bush House, the sister of Prescott Bush, a former US senator from Connecticut and the father and grandfather of the two Bush presidents.

The introduction to the site opens with the slogan, ''Because blood is thicker than oil!" and states: ''As the election approaches, we feel it is our responsibility to speak out about why we are voting for John Kerry, and to do our small part to help America heal from the sickness it has suffered since George Bush was appointed President in 2000. We invite you to read our stories, and please, don’t vote for our cousin!"

Hilary House, 39, a third-year law student at the University of Washington, put together the site with the participation of three of her six siblings: Sheila House, Tracy Cannon, and Chris House. The four are children of Mary Bush’s son Francis House III, now deceased, who taught English at a prep school in Connecticut and was a first cousin of former president George H.W. Bush. Jeanny House and Henry Kimsey-House, two children of another of Mary’s sons, James House, also provided pro-Kerry testimonials.

The website was put up independent of the Kerry campaign, Hilary House said, adding that an e-mail she sent to the campaign about a month ago had not been answered. Kerry campaign officials in Washington state and Washington, D.C., said they were unaware of the site.

Leah Yoon, spokeswoman for the Bush-Cheney campaign in Washington state, declined to comment about the site. ''They’re entitled to their opinions as American citizens," said Yier Shi, a spokesman for the Republican National Committee

Hilary House said she got the idea for the site when she heard that Jeanny House, a pastor in Wisconsin, had briefly spoken to the Massachusetts senator at a Kerry event after he noticed her waving a ''Bush Relative for Kerry" sign. According to Hilary and her sister Sheila, 49, a mental health counselor in Harwich, Mass., when Jeanny explained the House family connection to the Bushes and said they were nonetheless enthusiastic about voting for Kerry, the Democratic nominee jokingly suggested they start a website.

Jeanny House declined to comment. In her statement on the site, she denounces what she describes as Bush’s ''imperialist cabal" and stated that her understanding of Christianity, based on a concern for peace and social justice, was not compatible with the more conservative brand of Christianity embraced by the president.

All of the House family members writing on the site are sharply critical of the president. Hilary House said she did not feel comfortable telling friends and acquaintances of her family connection to the president, given his conservative views, until putting up the website, which was completed about a week ago. ''I was very quiet about my family relationship," she said. ''I was really, really embarrassed to be related to the president."

Personal ties between this generation of the House family and the Bush family are minimal. As the House children grew up in Windsor, Conn., the Bush family was reestablishing itself in Texas. Hilary House and her two cousins attended the 1989 inauguration of the current president’s father, and met him at a private family luncheon there, according to Hilary House. Both Sheila and Chris House had met George H.W. Bush briefly when they were younger.

''I can’t describe us as particularly close to the Bush family," said Sheila House. ''I’ve never met George W. Bush and don’t particularly care to."

The previous generation of the House family was much closer to the Bushes.

Francis House was friendly with George Bush senior when they were growing up, his children said. Both attended Yale, as did the current President Bush. Though Francis House shared his family’s decidedly liberal political views, he voted for Ronald Reagan after the elder Bush was selected as Reagan’s vice-presidential nominee, and for his cousin during his successful 1988 presidential race.

''His family connections still tied him to the Republican Party," said Chris House, 36, a high school English teacher in Olympia, Wash. ''My dad at heart was a social liberal, but he was constantly pressured by his mom that you’ve got to vote along family lines."

Source: boston.com

Not suprising there is a swing vote against Bush amongst Republicans. The state of the economy is one of many factors which have made these conservatives support Kerry, this could effect the outcome on election day :k:

Republicans gather to bash Bush](http://rockymountainnews.com/drmn/election/article/0,1299,DRMN_36_3281373,00.html) Rocky Mountain News 26 Oct 04

A number of lifelong Republicans gathered at Kerry-Edwards headquarters in Denver on Monday to endorse Democrats this year. Members of the group said they had soured for various reasons on President Bush’s policies and would not support his re-election. At the same rally, Mayor John Hickenlooper, a Democrat, formally endorsed John Kerry and John Edwards, saying he had studied promises, pledges and records of both parties and believed Kerry is the better choice for president. “My decision wasn’t based on partisanship,” he said. It was based on the number of manufacturing jobs that have been lost, the number of households filing for bankruptcy, the rising cost of insurance and the loss of wages during the Bush tenure, Hickenlooper said.

Jon DeStefano, a Republican and former president of the Jefferson County Public Schools board, said, "Bush promised leadership and unifying America, but Americans are not working together. “I am aware of the tragedy in Iraq. I don’t believe there ever has been a president (who) has caused such a tragedy.” Harold Anderson, co-owner of a small medical equipment company who actively supported Republican presidential candidates all his life, said, "This president is forgetting the middle class. “We don’t need a super leader, but a man who can admit when he makes mistakes.”

Bill Winter, a Colorado native who formerly served both in the Marine Corps and Navy, worked for presidential bid of U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. “My disillusionment with the Republican Party started when we watched Congress spending so much time trying to impeach Bill Clinton when there were so many other urgent things that needed to be done,” he said. "I disagree with the Iraq policy and am tired of people who never served a day in the military telling me I am a traitor for it. “I can’t support a party that is that narrow-minded.” For Lou Raskin, a 66-year-old Boulder resident, it was when he saw the GOP shift to the religious right. “I served in the Air Force and worked for 27 years in the aerospace industry,” he said. “And since the 1970s, I’ve seen this country become more and more polarized.”

Maria Azari, a Rhode Island transplant, said it was the party’s stand on abortion rights. “This president wants to overturn Roe vs. Wade and we need Kerry to protect a woman’s right to choose,” she said. Kerry officials said the Republicans came forward asking for a forum after an Associated Press story quoted Mary Lou Halliburton, a retired tax lawyer who worked in the Nixon administration, saying said she was fed up with the direction of her party.