Thoughts on Election Eve...

As I sit here in the waning hours of Election Eve, I find myself with mixed emotions. On the one hand, I’m just tired. Tired of the commercials. Tired of the phone calls. Tired of the junk mail. Tired of the pundits. Tired of the mud slinging. Tired of the yard signs. Tired of the bumper stickers. Total. Election. Fatigue.

On the other hand, I’m excited. The election is finally upon us. I’m more informed on the issues and the candidates than I have ever been. I’m proud of that. And I’m eager to learn the results of this plodding national pageant. I’ve been a good boy and I’m ready to unwrap my present.

Then there is the thought that tomorrow might not be the end. That it will go on and on, the way it did in 2000. My sense is that, as a country, we’re just not up to that. I know I’m not up to that. So I will add my prayer to what I suspect are millions of others tonight: Let it be over. Let the winner win by a lot. Oh, please, let it be over.

I made up my mind months ago, of course. For the first time in decades the choice between the two candidates is crystal clear to me. In truth, I haven’t voted for president in many years because I haven’t been impressed with a candidate since Ronald Reagan. But I’m impressed with George W. Bush.

No, this isn’t one of those “hold your nose” votes. I’m not compromising or voting for the lesser of two evils. I see a good man, with a clear vision, and the resolve to see it through. I see a man who has accomplished in 18 months what his critics said couldn’t be done. Like Reagan, I believe history will judge this president a great one. Bush’s legacy, of initiating the transformation of the Middle East, and by extension the world, will have profound positive effects for generations.

At the other end of the equation, we have John Kerry. I am not engaging in hyperbole or partisan hackery in the least when I say that he is about the worst candidate I can imagine, particularly at this time in our history. His global-community vision may have some relevance at some point in the far distant future. His multi-cultural perspective may have merit in some alternate reality. But in the here and now, John Kerry is a blind man. He fails to see that American values are far superior to those of Europe and the Middle East. He fails to appreciate that America is that “city on a hill” that Reagan spoke of, and that it is no exaggeration to say that America is the single most powerful force for good in all of human history.

We live in a dangerous neighborhood. “Friendly” nations seek to weaken us. Tyrants wish to conquer us. Extremists vow to exterminate us. We are at war, and shall remain at war for generations to come. We cannot make the mistake, as we have in the past, of assuming that others share our values and good intentions, that conciliation will be met in like kind, or that the current conflict is an aberration. Nazism wasn’t an aberration. Communism wasn’t an aberration. Islamo-fascism isn’t an aberration. There are, and will remain, bad people in the world. Their challenges to our values, to our very existence, are the norm. Long after the conflict in Iraq is won, we will be dealing with the likes of Iran, Korea, China, Venezuela, and unforeseen others.

John Kerry doesn’t understand this. He plans to demonstrate our good intentions by letting down our guard. He promises to scrap our missile defense program, our best defense against modern warfare. He vows to end our “bunker buster” program, our best defense against those who develop chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons under ground. He believes that making ourselves weak will reassure other nations and cause them to disarm as well. This is utter foolishness. Should we disarm our police officers so that criminals might be persuaded to put down their guns?

History has shown us that others do not hold our values. They are not interested in our good intentions. They wish to harm us, to destroy us. American weakness is only reassuring to them in the sense that it is an invitation to attack.

We don’t know where the next threat will come from, or what form it will take. What is a terror threat today could quickly become a conventional threat tomorrow. We can’t afford to open up holes in our defenses. Our enemies are searching for those holes, and will adapt their strategies to take advantage of them. John Kerry has promised to open those holes, and doing so will put our nation at risk.

And so, when I consider all this, I’m quite distressed that, apparently, half our nation simply “doesn’t get it.” It may seem admirable to oppose war, and to suggest that it be used only as a “last resort.” But I submit that wars fought as a last resort are wars fought much too late. Such wars are longer. Such wars are more costly. Such wars are more bloody. The time to disarm a foe is before he’s loaded his gun, not after he has fired it. I fear our nation has yet to learn this lesson.

Let me conclude by saying something that, sadly, many are embarrassed to say: America is the greatest nation on the planet. No nation has done more good or made greater sacrifices for the unselfish betterment of others. Our character, our values, and our intentions are uniquely noble in all of history.

And so I embrace George Bush, who understands this, and who unabashedly promotes American virtues and values, not bending to other nations, but encouraging them to stand beside us in what is right. And so I utterly reject those who, like John Kerry, would have us yield to and adapt our values to those of the “global community.”

Put simply, it is infinitely better that the world become more like America than that America become more like the world. Now you can say that it’s arrogant and self-righteous to say such a thing, and maybe you’d be right. But you’d be wrong if you said it isn’t true.