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Eisenhower's Son Supports Kerry

John Eisenhower, son of our late President Dwight D. Eisenhower and the author of nine books — largely on military subjects — has voted Republican for over 50 years. This year, however, with so much at risk in the presidential election, he's decided to break a lifetime habit.

"With the current administration's decision to invade Iraq unilaterally, I changed my voter registration to independent and, barring some unforeseen development, I intend to vote for the Democratic Presidential candidate, Sen. John Kerry." He made the announcement in The Union Leader and New Hampshire Sunday News on September 29.

Following are some additional excerpts from his "Guest Commentary" article:

CORE VALUES. "The Presidential election to be held this coming Nov. 2 will be one of extraordinary importance to our nation. The outcome will determine whether this country will continue on the same path it has followed for the last 3-1/2 years or whether it will return to a set of core domestic and foreign policy values that have been at the heart of what has made our country great.

"Now, more than ever, we voters will have to make cool judgments, unencumbered by habits of the past. Experts tell us that we tend to vote as our parents did or as we 'always have." But, he wrote, "there are times when we must break with the past, and I believe this is one of them.

"Today, many people are rightly concerned about our precious individual freedoms, our privacy, the basis of our democracy. Of course, we must fight terrorism, but have we irrespon-sibly gone overboard in doing so? I wonder.

FISCAL RESPONSIBILITY. "In 1960, President Eisenhower told the Republican convention, 'If ever we put any other value above (our) liberty, and above principle, we shall lose both." Back then, John Eisenhower said, the Republican Party put heavy emphasis on fiscal responsibility, including balancing the budget. "The Eisenhower administration accomplished that difficult task three times," he added, and "it did not attain that remarkable achievement by cutting taxes for the rich.

"Republicans disliked taxes, of course, but the party accepted them as a necessary means of keeping the nation's financial structure sound." He said that his party used to be concerned about the middle class, but the current GOP leadership encourages the loss of American jobs through its tax laws and "heads us in the direction of a society of very rich and very poor."

TRUSTS KERRY. Eisenhower said he was willing to put his trust in Senator Kerry, who "has demonstrated he is courageous, sober, competent and concerned with fighting the dangers associated with the widening socio-economic gap in this country.

"I will vote for him enthusiastically," he concluded.

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