I’m blown away that the issue that re-elected President Bush was “moral values” when he is an immoral man. He won in 2000 with the facade of being moderate, then took two steps to the right. He led us into an unprecedented, unprovoked, unconstitutional invasion of another country justified by lies. Bush knew Osama bin Laden would never affiliate with Saddam Hussein as Iraq wasn’t Islamic. I believe Bush knew Hussein didn’t have weapons of mass destruction and even if he did, he had no way to deliver them and was no direct threat to the U.S. I’m convinced Bush wanted to attack Iraq before 9-11. He seemed to have a personal vendetta to complete daddy’s work.

I’m irritated at the Republicans’ “call for unity.” Bush hasn’t offered an inch of compromise, offering to let Democrats join him if they jettison their values and beliefs for his. The rhetoric in the media is salt in the wounds, not an attempt to heal. Yes, Bush did win, but not by a landslide. Nearly half the country voted against him. I’m not a Democrat. I’m independent, though closest to the Libertarians. I’d be Republican if the Republicans were still Republican! What happened to the party that stood for minimal federal government, balanced budgets, increased states’ rights, and for getting government out of our lives? Now they stand for spying on our own people, waging wars funded by record deficits, and passing constitutional amendments to overrule states’ rights so as to institutionalize discrimination against citizens with a physiological condition – gays (which I’m not, either).

Yes, I too am extremely concerned about the values of this country – the values of those who would follow their blind faith as this country turns into a Christian version of the Taliban.

Jim Anderson

Everett