Bush and Kerry; Chocolate and Vanilla

Essay by sprngllcs4College, Undergraduate November 2004

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Presidential Election 2004

Have you ever tried asking ten different people whether they prefer chocolate or vanilla ice cream? About half of the group, (myself included!) will probably "ooh and aah" over vanilla, and lick their lips at the thought, while the other half, the chocoholics, will not be able to comprehend how anyone could possibly choose vanilla over chocolate. When I approached different people and asked their opinions regarding the presidential candidates, I got a similar response. Basically, everyone had their own opinion and vehemently felt that they were correct. For someone like me, who has a hard time pretending to be interested in politics, I found all the conflicting opinions quite confusing. Let's try to make it simpler and discuss some of the basic differences between Bush and Kerry.

The first major difference between the two candidates is their completely different approaches to the culture war issues, such as gay rights and abortion.

Since Bush is the more conservative of the two, he supports the idea of non-discrimination against gays, but opposes gay marriages and civil unions. When it comes to abortion, Bush is a pro-life advocate, supporting laws which make it difficult to obtain an abortion. Kerry, on the other hand, is more liberal in his views. Like Bush, he is against gay marriage; however, he does support civil unions. Concerning abortion, Kerry says that as a Catholic, he personally is opposed to abortion, but feels that he has no right to impose his beliefs onto others.

One of the privileges and responsibilities of the president is to nominate candidates for court positions. The expectation is that Bush and Kerry are each likely to nominate quite different candidates for the position. Bush, a strict constructionist, would try to find a judge who would interpret laws rather than...