Why Some Republicans will Vote for Kerry

June 19 2004

Recently, some Republicans have been thinking ahead and this is unusual in an election year. These people believe in their party and want it to succeed and because of this, they are going to vote for Kerry.

This has nothing to do with Bush. They are ardent supporters and believe he is a good guy and the negative things said about him, are just liberal whining backed up by the liberal media bias. They think Bush is a great guy and president.

You have to slightly admire such unwavering support in light of the facts about Bush and his Administration. It really makes little sense.

However, what did make sense is why they will vote for Kerry.

They don’t like Kerry not because of his positions which are few and far between, but because their Republican party says he is a bad guy and Bush is good. It is that simple. However they want Kerry to win because Hillary Clinton wants the presidency and the Democratic Party will certainly help her when she decides to run.

You see, they feel if Bush wins in 2004, the Republican Party will not be able to front a strong enough candidate who can beat Hillary in 2008.  They bemoan the fact that their party is only focused on the short term goal of staying in power with Bush and not seriously thinking about blocking Hillary’s to be president.

Many TV talking heads and pundits have said these things before, but until now it wasn’t really something to think about. Few regular party faithful have openly expressed their fears until now and in that context.

Kerry is running neck and neck with an incumbent and his chances of winning this fall are better than expected. This is worrisome. They didn’t think the Democrats could get their act together to do make a serious run against Bush this year. Even with a strengthening economy Kerry is doing very well.

They figure if Kerry wins, and he might, then Hillary would not run against an incumbent Democratic president in 2008. Kerry would be too powerful in his party to allow such a thing to happen.

They may be right.

So a vote for Kerry this year would be a good choice to stop Hillary in the future. Though the number of Republicans voting for Kerry will be few, it might tip the scales.