The way I understand it he was pushed aside long ago as being too "liberal" and out-of-touch with red-blooded Michigan Republicans. So I'm not sure that his endorsement means a thing either way.
He is the Milliken of the SC's "Milliken" decision, the one that outlawed involuntary cross-district busing and all but ended any real potential effectiveness of Brown v Board.
---------- Original Message ---------------------------------- From: snit snat <snitilicious at tampabay.rr.com> Reply-To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org Date: Tue, 19 Oct 2004 11:12:34 -0400
>
>
>COMMENT: Milliken: Why I'll vote for Kerry
>
>October 19, 2004
>BY WILLIAM MILLIKEN
>
>
>As a lifelong Republican, I have had mounting concern
>watching this year's presidential campaign.
>
>I have always been proud to be a Republican. My
>Republican Party is a broad-based party that seeks to
>bring a wide spectrum of people under its umbrella and
>to protect and provide opportunity for the most
>vulnerable among us.
>
>Sadly, that is not the Republican Party I see at the
>national level today.
>
>My Republican Party has always been a party that stood
>for fiscal responsibility. Today, under President
>George W. Bush, we have the largest deficit in the
>history of our country -- a deficit that jeopardizes
>economic growth that is so desperately needed in a
>nation that has lost 2.6 million jobs since he took
>office.
>
>To make matters even worse, this president inherited a
>surplus but squandered it with huge tax cuts
>structured primarily to benefit the wealthy and
>powerful.
>
>My Republican Party is the party of Michigan Sen.
>Arthur H. Vandenberg, who helped forge a bipartisan
>foreign policy that served this nation well and
>produced strong alliances across the globe. This
>president has, in a highly partisan, unilateral way,
>rushed us into a tragic and unnecessary war that has
>cost the lives of more than 1,000 of our young men and
>women. In this arrogant rush to war, he has alienated
>this nation from much of the world.
>
>What's worse, the basic premises upon which we were
>taken to war proved to be false. Now we find ourselves
>in the midst of an occupation that was largely
>unplanned and has become a disaster from which we
>cannot easily extricate ourselves.
>
>My Republican Party is the party of Theodore
>Roosevelt, who fought to preserve our natural
>resources and environment. This president has pursued
>policies that will cause irreparable damage to our
>environmental laws that protect the air we breathe,
>the water we drink and the public lands we share with
>future generations.
>
>My Republican Party is the party of Lincoln, who freed
>an enslaved people. This president fought in the
>courts to strike down policies designed to provide
>opportunity and access to our own University of
>Michigan for minority students.
>
>My Republican Party is the party of Eisenhower, who
>warned us to beware of the dangers of a
>military-industrial complex. This president has
>pursued policies skewed to favor large corporations in
>the defense and oil industry and has gone so far as to
>let those industries help write government policies.
>
>My Republican Party is a party that respects and works
>with the men and women of the law enforcement
>community who put their lives on the line for us every
>day. This president ignored the pleas of law
>enforcement agencies across America and failed to lift
>a finger to renew the assault weapons ban that they
>strongly supported.
>
>My Republican Party is a party that values the pursuit
>of knowledge. But this president stands in the way of
>meaningful embryonic stem-cell research that holds so
>much promise for those who suffer from diabetes,
>Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, spinal cord
>injuries and other conditions.
>
>My Republican Party is the party of Gerald Ford,
>Michigan's only president, who reached across partisan
>lines to become a unifying force during a time of
>great turmoil in our nation's history. This president
>has pursued policies pandering to the extreme right
>wing across a wide variety of issues and has
>exacerbated the polarization and the strident, uncivil
>tone of much of what passes for political discourse in
>this country today.
>
>Women's rights, civil liberties, the separation of
>church and state, the funding of family planning
>efforts worldwide -- all have suffered grievously
>under this president and his administration.
>
>The truth is that Bush does not speak for me or for
>many other moderate Republicans on a very broad
>cross-section of issues.
>
>Sen. John Kerry, on the other hand, has put forth a
>coherent, responsible platform of progressive
>initiatives that I believe would serve this country
>well. He wants to balance the budget, step up
>environmental protection efforts, rebuild our
>international relationships, support stem-cell
>research, protect choice and pursue a number of other
>progressive initiatives that moderates from both
>parties can support.
>
>As a result, despite my long record of active
>involvement in the Republican Party, and my intention
>still to stay in the Republican Party, when I cast my
>ballot Nov. 2, I will be voting for John Kerry for
>president.
>
>
>
>
>WILLIAM MILLIKEN was governor of Michigan from 1969 to
>1983. Write to him in care of the Free Press Editorial
>Page, 600 W. Fort St., Detroit, MI 48226.
>
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>
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