For anyone who believes in limited government, civil liberties and restrained foreign policy the choices in November 2004 will be difficult. Or will they be easy?

A vote for Bush will not merely support his past policies. It is not enough to imagine a Bush administration win in 2004 as validation for his current expansion of police powers, secret courts and secret nullification of citizenship. It is not enough to imagine a Bush win as validating his impulsive pre-emptive wars. It is not enough even to imagine the solidification of the new precedents, the current "Patriot Act" made a permanent part of police practice (formal or informal), and a new trigger-happy and scattered approach to foreign interventions, and a permanent assigning of congressional war powers to future presidents.

It is important to remember that in this his first term Bush has always been facing re-election. We are tempted to think he has been only a bit rash in handing out war contracts to favored businesses, only a bit sloppy with the truth of the Iraq threat, only a bit cavalier in abandoning his campaign pledge to be the education president. You may think these are minor lapses of character compared to the truly serious issues of civil rights, constitutional powers and pre-emptive war.

But the real Bush has still not been revealed. However unfortunate his policies may seem now, his administration is still trying to answer its critics and to look ahead to the election. After 2004 there will be no restraint. The man who knows God is on his side will have only our cowed Congress to stand in his way. One can only expect the core impulse against the Bill of Rights and for military adventures to have freer reign. The real Bush has still not been revealed.

So here are the choices. A President who will restore civil liberties, A President who will pull back the State’s police powers to pre 9-11 conditions. A President who will commit US troops only with long, honest and public deliberations. And once committed a President who might even see the job through and will generously support any veterans who come home with permanent wounds. A President hostile to the tendency of every state to become a police-state. But a President who also will support Federal environmental initiatives. A President who may even have ambitions for socialized medicine and strengthened Social Security, and a willingness to raise taxes.

We are back to the classic choice of evils. A President who strengthens the police-state and pursues war or even empire without any humility. A President who sees destruction as creative, whether through war or unsustainable deficits. Or a President who strengthens the welfare state while dismantling the police- and war-state. And who happens to be a Democrat.

If you don't like the choices, then the only alternative would appear to be a maverick Republican candidate for President. Of course such a candidate would hand the election to the Democrats. Indeed this is the only way to guarantee a Democratic victory.

The choice still stands as a choice. If you prefer the welfare-state to the police-and-war state, then it is time to find that maverick conservative patriot to run as a Republican or Independent. The man who loves his country more than his political future. Or it is time to register Democrat and vote in the primary for one of their pro–Bill of Rights and anti-militarism candidates?

All else is a nod to a more emboldened Bush, a solidifying of the police-state, the unending occupations of foreign lands, and the permanent undermining of our Republic. It is time for patriotic triage. Who chooses the police-state and militarism over the welfare state?

July 1, 2003