Letters

• Share

The American people have spoken, and they want President George W. Bush, a man of moral and ethical integrity, to continue to lead them [Nov. 15]. Compassionate conservatives clearly won the day. In spite of two years of constant partisan attacks on the President, the electorate wasn't fooled. They know when they see a strong leader. The American people gave the President more Republicans in Congress and the largest popular vote any President has received, which amounts to a governing mandate that will create a stronger U.S.—at home and abroad.
Willis Papillion
Silverdale, U.S.

I have always been proud to be an American. But after seeing this nation choose Bush for another four years despite all he has done to endanger our health, prosperity and reputation, I am embarrassed and frightened to be an American.
Virginia Pasquarelli
Roswell, U.S.

Thank god our President was re-elected. I worked very hard on his campaign and was proud to be part of his team. This country truly needs a man of faith who stands by his promises.
Linda Postel
West Palm Beach, U.S.

In my suburban area of Ohio, what we liked was Bush's determination to take action to protect the U.S. from enemies who are certainly not ambivalent in their hatred of us. John Kerry's insistence that he had plans for everything, even though he couldn't explain any of them, just seemed like too much high-and-mighty wind without substance. Most people chose Bush's clearly expressed agenda instead of taking a chance on a Senator with a rather weak track record.
Amy T. Bidwell
Plain City, U.S.

I now believe that Bush is a brilliant man. He persuaded many of my fellow Ohioans to vote against themselves not just once but a second time as well.
Adam Michael Rosenberg
Cincinnati, U.S.

Counting All the Moral Votes
In a remarkable display of naivete, a majority of Americans voted for Bush, thinking they were voting for moral values [Nov. 15]. They have instead elected a duplicitous group of war profiteers whose only interest is self-interest. The Republican juggernaut has seized control of all three branches of government. Religious conservatives will dictate how we live our lives. Toll the bells, my fellow citizens: democracy is dead in America.
Francine Pasetti
Tampa, U.S.

I sorely wanted to vote for Kerry but voted for Bush because I could not, as a matter of conscience, vote for someone with Kerry's attitude toward abortion. I am not alone among silenced pro-life Democrats and other social conservatives who have gone unnoticed.
Jimmy Quach
Cambridge, U.S.

Many voters failed to consider the morality of a pre-emptive military action that has resulted in the death of thousands of Iraqi civilians. It's wrong to label people as unpatriotic or lacking in traditional values because they are just as saddened by those foreign deaths as they are by the lives lost on 9/11 and the ongoing American military casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan. The term morality and all that it connotes should not be cheapened into a divisive, nationalistic, political device.
John Miller
Baltimore, U.S.

A lot of Americans who regularly attend church believe that gay marriage, abortion and stem-cell research are sins. Many others don't think those are really sins and don't go to church much but do believe that invading a small country and causing thousands of deaths and incalculable misery to innocent people is a sin. I wonder whom God will forgive.
Harriet Robinson
Doylestown, U.S.

let's see if i have this straight. it's O.K. to lie about the reasons for invading another country but not O.K. for two men or two women to marry. It's O.K. to hand our children a budget deficit that will choke them but not O.K. to use stem cells to fight disease. It's O.K. to duck the real war on terrorism, jeopardize Social Security and take a pass on fixing the health-care system but not O.K. to believe in the separation of church and state. Would those be the famous "moral values"? Thanks, but no. You keep yours; I'll keep mine.
Denise Dunne-DeVaney
Sekiu, U.S.

Dining with the Devil
Columnist Andrew Sullivan's "Let's Have a Truce" [Nov. 15] urged both parties to put the election behind them and work together. However, we have a President who has alienated half of this country and most of the rest of the world by his irresponsible actions. Asking those who are sickened by Bush's past four years to declare a truce is like asking a fundamentalist Christian to have lunch with the devil. It's not going to happen.
Richard Moberg
Philadelphia

Are we supposed to wave the flag and rally behind our President so that he can finish the job he had no business starting—launching some new wars against other countries we think threaten our God-given right to rule the planet and bleed it dry, all while turning the U.S. into a cross between a theocracy and an oligarchy? I'd move to Canada first.
Martin Kracklauer
Austin, U.S.

Sullivan tells us we should get over it and support Bush because in wartime we owe him a second chance. Excuse me? Why are we in wartime, and who put us there? As an American citizen, I owe Bush nothing.
Lola Falstad
Seattle

The election campaign was extremely divisive. Voters were called on to recognize fundamental differences between the candidates. The issues of character and values may have given the edge to Bush. So how can one call for a truce if such important issues are at stake, and why should the nation fall in line behind President Bush? If you voted for Kerry, what is wrong with accepting that for the next four years this President does not speak for you? What is wrong with recognizing disunity? Harmony does not come from a nation united behind its leader, giving him a second chance. It comes from responsible citizens working toward and arguing about the principles they want to build their society on. Do not expect the divisiveness to be healed by a leader. That leader, whoever it may be, needs it to win next time.
Peter Molnar
Pezinok, Slovakia

Fasten Your Seat Belts
In "The Uniter VS. the Divider" [nov. 15], columnist Joe Klein stated that "rational political discourse may no longer be possible," in part because of "the Limbaughs and Drudges and Hannitys who proselytized for Bush during the endless election season." Klein neglected to acknowledge the equal number of loudmouths on the left who proselytized for Kerry. Al Franken, Chris Matthews and Michael Moore are just as responsible, if not more so, for the lack of reasoned discussion in the U.S.
Kelly Gallagher
Regina, Canada

Klein wrote that "No one really knows which President Bush will show up on Jan. 20 to begin his second term." Some do. It will be the same arrogant, self-impressed zealot of the past four years. But playground bullies eventually get their just deserts, and now it's going to be Bush's turn. He has alienated virtually all our allies and enraged fully half of the voters. Who is on his side? Radical conservatives and misguided Evangelicals—not a lot of company when most of the world is against you. To paraphrase Bette Davis: Fasten your seat belt, Mr. President. It's going to be a bumpy four years.
Richard Mallery
North Hollywood, U.S.

The Whole World Watched
I am not American, but I respect the choice of those who re-elected President Bush [Nov. 15]. I wish to remind them, however, that the decision they have made will also affect the citizens of the rest of the world, who desperately hope to see a less violent world in the next four years.
Patama Udomprasert
Tokyo

The world stared in disbelief at the election results. Bush lied to Americans and the rest of the world at the U.N. about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. He did nothing to prevent the 9/11 disaster, even after he was warned of an attack. He then failed to catch and kill the most important terrorist who attacked the U.S. He tells Americans that freedom is on the march. Meanwhile, Iraqi cities are uncontrolled, hostages are beheaded and bombs explode almost daily because of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld's ill-conceived military planning. The U.S. budget deficit is exploding. Bush has diminished individual rights in the U.S. And we are told he was re-elected because Americans trust his morals and because he makes them feel safer. As the Americans say, Go figure.
Pierre de Villiers
Johannesburg

This election proves what most of the world has known for a while: the U.S. has become a country of uneducated, fundamentalist-Christian fools who choose to be misled and driven into debt by a crazy cowboy. The U.S. has lost any legitimacy to be the sole world power. Brazil, China, Europe, Japan and Russia should join together to make sure that this irresponsible President does not get away with ruining our planet any more than he and his Administration already have. Even though we are not allowed to vote for the best candidate for the U.S. President, we can exercise some power by letting our money do the talking—by not buying American products—and by requiring Americans to have a visa to visit any place in the rest of the world.
Ruud Steenhuisen
Amsterdam

Europeans went to bed hoping for a better tomorrow and woke up realizing that their dream had lasted only a few hours. I cannot understand how Americans can entrust Bush with four more years in power. Such a victory on the European Continent would be unthinkable.
Jorge Silva
Fânzeres, Portugal

To my utter dismay, Bush is in for another term, confirming the opinion of those of us in the Third World that terrorism scares Americans so much that they have lost the ability to reason. One can only congratulate Bush and his campaign team for capitalizing on 9/11 to secure another rudderless foreign-policy plan for four years. Perhaps Bush's action or inaction will help form a new world order. Should the power of the U.S. begin to wane, China will be waiting in the wings.
Afolabi Babatunde
Lagos

The whole world watched the nail-bitingly close presidential election, but it was followed here in Pakistan with special concern. As the most important front in the war against terrorism, Pakistan had much at stake in the outcome of the election. The man in the street had no liking for either candidate, as both Bush and Kerry seemed anti-Muslim. Kerry's belligerent and aggressive promises to be a much stronger Commander in Chief than Bush further antagonized common Pakistanis. Now they are resigned to the re-election of Bush as the lesser of the two evils.
Colonel Riaz Jafri (ret.)
Rawalpindi, Pakistan