Vote Republican...Or Else

Knowing they have no real successes to point to, the GOP has rapidly sunk into the gutter, resorting to name-calling and similarly juvenile tactics. For example, one need merely look at Zell Miller's rambling attack on all Democrats as would-be traitors. Not to mention the allegedly independent Republican merchandise, from the "10 Out Of 10 Terrorists Agree: Anybody But Bush" bumper stickers to the "John Kerry: Osama's Choice" buttons.

But even by these low standards, Vice President Cheney's latest comment raised eyebrows.

"It's absolutely essential that eight weeks from today, on November 2nd, we make the right choice," Cheney said at a rally in Des Moines. "Because if we make the wrong choice, then the danger is that we'll get hit again, that we'll be hit in a way that will be devastating from the standpoint of the United States."

So let me get this straight: if we vote for John Kerry, al Qaeda will bomb Wall Street, the Statue of Liberty, and Disneyland.

But if we vote for George W. Bush, we'll be safe.

It sounds like something out of a gangster movie. I can just imagine some big guy wearing a suit bulging at the armpit from a barely-concealed .45, muscling his way into the voting booth and growling, "Youse know what youse gotta do, right? Just vote duh right way and nobody gets hoit. After all, youse would hate for somet'in' bad to happen, right?"

Does Cheney really believe that Osama bin Laden (remember him?) is quaking in his mountain cave at the thought of a Bush re-election? Why should he? Remember that Bush all but abandoned the hunt for him a few months after 9/11, and indeed handed him a gold-plated recruiting poster by invading and occupying Iraq.

One would think that bin Laden would be praying for Bush to win. After all, John Kerry might actually take this War on Terror stuff seriously and go after the guys who really hit us that awful September morning. But if Bush wins, bin Laden can be assured of four more years of incompetent bumbling and attacking the wrong people.

Somewhere, Joe McCarthy is smiling. Rarely has a candidate so blatantly and shamelessly threatened people with the consequences of taking democracy seriously. Cheney might as well walk around holding a sign saying, "Vote Republican...Or Else!"

Cheney's remarks show just how desperate the Bush campaign has become to win at any cost. But even more than being simply dumb, trying to intimidate us into voting a certain way is, as Democratic VP candidate John Edwards rightly pointed out, un-American.

If Cheney cannot win votes other than by bullying us with the promise of devastating attacks "if we make the wrong choice," he does not deserve to win this or any other election. It's so simple, even he can understand it.