McCain = Bush

by Elaine Hillgrove ('10)

The war in Iraq goes on. The economy is in shambles. The earth is running out of renewable resources. And the scary thing is? Citizens of the USA are actually considering electing a man who supported this.

For the past eight years, President Bush has been running our country into the ground. Not every decision he’s made has been bad. He had the highest approval rating ever of a president (90%, in the two days following 9/11). However, most of the major decisions he has made have been bad. He provided tax rollbacks for the top 3% of our country, and limited the amount of regulation on bank loans, both contributing to the economic failure.

Bush also ordered for the military to invade Iraq. The point was to find the WMDs that Iraq was supposedly harboring. However, once it became clear that there were no WMDs anywhere, he didn’t end the war. He kept on sending in more and more troops to fight a war that started with a lie. As a result, over 4,000 Americans have died and over 30,000 have been injured.

As the economy crashes and the war goes on, the earth is failing. We are running out of oil. Rather than figuring out a renewable energy source, Bush has been pushing Congress to reverse the ban on off-shore drilling in ANWAR Oil extraction is an expensive task, and it takes a long time to refine. By the time this is done, solar panel farms could be set up for the same cost. These solar power farms could power over half of the country.

Obama is not the best candidate for president we’ve ever had. He probably isn’t even in the top ten. Obama is very young and inexperienced, and some of his new ideas are a little idealistic. The point is, however, that he has new ideas. John McCain is simply Bush all over again. It’s a number that’s been repeated over and over, but still: 90%. That’s how much of the time McCain voted with Bush. Can America afford another four years of Bush?

McCain wants to continue what Bush has started. He wants tax breaks for everyone, even though the United States is $10.3 trillion in debt. He wants off-shore drilling, even though it will take a while to actually see the oil in the country. McCain wants to continue the war in Iraq, until we “cross the finish line.” The problem with that is that there is no finish line. It isn’t two countries fighting against each other, so there can’t be a clear victory.

McCain, for the most part, is Bush. Americans need to come together and elect someone who isn’t – someone like Barack Obama. In four years, if he’s doing a bad job, then someone else can be elected. But it’s better to elect someone on the chance that they’ll make things better than it is to elect someone knowing they’ll keep things the same.