2004 Presidential Survey of JET Alumni

(Spring 2004)

The results are in!  If the U.S. Presidential Election were held tomorrow, and only JET alums (including Canadians) with e-mail access who actually responded to the survey were allowed to vote, John Kerry would beat George W. Bush and Ralph Nader in a landslide.

Here are the overall totals along with comments from your fellow JET alums and a breakdown of JET alum survey results by state.

Many thanks to all of the JET alums who participated in this survey.

BUSH
11
KERRY
72
NADER
2
NEITHER
1

WHAT DID YOUR FELLOW JET ALUMS HAVE TO SAY?  READ ON…
Thanks for asking! I will be voting in November to reelect President Bush. Although I do not agree with him on every issue, I know that he will be able to continue to attack terrorism and, hopefully, eventually, we will all live in a more peaceful world, more like the life we knew prior to September 11, 2001.

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Basically, I would vote for Woody Woodpecker if he was the Democratic candidate. As long as Bush is not president for another god-awful four years, I will be satisfied.

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Neither option is good.  We have a choice between someone who wants to control our personal lives and someone who wants to control our economic lives (and, of course, the two cannot be separated.)
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Basically Bush frightens me, so while I know little about Kerry, the choice is more “not Bush.”

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Bush is a man of convictions, regardless of the daily struggles to achieve them.  Kerry is a man of no convictions, attempting to please everyone.  A true leader is willing to take the difficulties with the rewards, and Bush is a true leader.
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I’d have to go with Kerry.  Bush has disgraced himself, his own country, and is now slowly working on his allies.
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While Kerry may not be the optimum Democratic candidate, I fail to understand how any educated individual could fail to choose him over the disastrous alternative. How can we re-elect a President who has done nothing since he came to office except purposefully divide the country, and carelessly squander the abundant goodwill and sympathy the world had for us after 9/11? How can we elect a President who would consider amending our sacred Constitution to take away people’s rights and who seeks to forcibly inject religion into our proud secular tradition? How can we elect a President who has sacrificed American lives in combat so that his supporters can reap financial benefits? As a former Republican, I have left the party because I am sickened by the devil-may-care attitude of this administration.

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Honestly, I don’t much care for Bush at times (I’m a registered Libertarian), but he’s a far better choice than Kerry.  Kerry’s inconsistency to even answer simple questions about himself (was it ribbons or medals?  does he own an SUV or doesn’t he?) makes me deeply suspicious of him.  In a word, I don’t trust him.  I don’t agree with Bush all the time, but at least with him I know what I’m getting.  Bush’s consistency (both good & bad) is a stark contrast to Kerry’s lack of ability to take a consistent stand on anything.
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Kerry, of course, because outside the USA, Bush is seen by most people as more of a threat to world security than Al Qaeda. He and his cohorts have thoroughly squandered the good will felt toward the United States after the tragic events of 9/11. The Japanese government may back Bush’s policies, but the people here, in general, do not. It is, frankly, one of the most embarrassing times to be an American abroad. We are working hard here to get people to vote with absentee ballots. I ask all Americans in the USA to vote and vote wisely in November.
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Bush has proven he can make critical decisions in a timely manner. He has made clear his moral values and is predictable.  Kerry on the other hand has made himself clear as simply opposing Bush, offering little of his own direction. Rather than worrying about what will be best for the USA, he is set on taking decisions to the UN, which the American public does not trust. He’s also too wishy-washy – simply recall the confusion over his SUV – or was that his family’s?

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Nader, because he doesn’t receive millions of dollars from special interests therefore he doesn’t owe any favors once he gets into office.

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I can’t keep my comments about Bush limited to 5 sentences or less.
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Thanks to the many other JET alums who shared their comments.

CROSSING THE LINE?

Is the JET Alumni Newsletter an appropriate format for a political survey?  And where’s the line delineating what constitutes a legitimately JET-relevant topic?

Two JET alums felt moved to raise just this question, and others may have felt similarly.

First is a response by Dave Dillon, a JETAA Portland chapter representative, printed with his permission, after the survey was posted to the JETAA Chapter Representative user group and chapter reps were requested to forward the survey to their respective members.

This must be the worst idea ever hatched by a JETAA organization. It is apropos of nothing central to the JETAA mission or purpose, and at best will only foment discontent among members while likely driving many of them away in the face of perceived agenda-pushing that has no place in this type of organization.

The success of organizations like JETAA is based on disciplined adherence to relevant issues and a focus on the purpose and goals of the organization. Nobody participates in JET or JETAA for any reason that has the slightest connection to presidential or other elective politics. NOBODY. There are many nice organizations that do focus on politics. I suggest that these organizations are an appropriate avenue for this kind of survey. JETAA is not among them.

The only possible outcome of this effort is damage to JETAA, most notably through the embarrassment it will cause to the local consulates and CLAIR who fund the organization.

In response to a follow-up e-mail:

I don’t dispute your right to do the survey, and I don’t necessarily question motives (though I think doing such a survey will raise in many others’ minds the question of motives).  I mean no offense with my comments, but I can see the outcome producing no valuable benefit for JETAA while at the same time alienating (or worse) both participants and JETAA’s Japanese government benefactors. I put my thoughts out there, so if you wish to publish them that’s fine. On the other hand, if you’d rather print them out and burn them, that’s fine too. Just sharing an opinion, but a strongly-held one.

For the record, this was not the only comment questioning the appropriateness of the survey.  New York JET alum Chris Doyle wrote in to say:

I still think that this is an issue that you should not delve into because it is a slippery slope.  Why should it be of any consequence to JETAANY on how the people who choose to reply to this email vote?  What goal will it accomplish?  What shall be next….who is pro-choice or pro-life?  It just seems to me to be an issue that is best left out of the JETAANY mission.

The JETAA New York Newsletter welcomes additional comments which may be sent to newsletter@jetaany.org.  No submissions will be used without the author’s permission.

THE METHOD
How was the JET Alumni Presidential Election Survey conducted?

The survey was simple and straightforward:  Bush or Kerry?  Some JET alums decided to go outside the box, but then if you went on JET you never followed the regular crowd anyway.

The results are obviously pretty unscientific and purely anecdotal.  And the survey was open to all JET alums, not just Americans.

We used several different electronic channels for getting the survey out to the worldwide JET alum community.  We started with the New York chapter, then sent the survey question out to the Newsletter editors Yahoo group, and then to the JETAA Chapter Representative Yahoo group.  After that it was pretty self-selecting.  People who felt so moved sent us an email, and some offered short comments.

Was it an appropriate use of JETAA communication channels?  Not everyone felt it was.  (See elsewhere on this page.)

However, on another level it turned into a terrific experiment in how to communicate with the larger JET alumni community.  Special thanks to all the chapter reps and other conduits who helped with the communication process.

STATE OF THE STATE-BY-STATE BREAKDOWN

Here’s a breakdown of the geographic locations of all of the respondents.  Read into it what you like, but
perhaps the primary significance is simply the number of locations submitting responses.

California
Kerry 3

Canada
Kerry – 4
Nader – 1

China
Kerry – 1

Connecticut
Nader – 1

Hawaii
Bush – 2

Illinois
Neither – 1

Indiana
Bush – 1

Japan
Bush – 1
Kerry – 2

Kansas
Kerry – 3
Maryland
Bush – 1
Kerry – 2

Massachusetts
Kerry 1

Minnesota
Bush – 1
Kerry – 2

Missouri
Bush – 1
Kerry – 5

New Jersey
Kerry – 3

New York
Bush – 1
Kerry – 24

North Dakota
Kerry – 1

South Carolina
Kerry – 1

Spain
Kerry – 1

Texas
Kerry – 1

Thailand
Bush – 1

Virginia
Bush – 1
Kerry – 3

Washington
Kerry – 8

Washington DC
Bush – 1
Kerry – 4

Wisconsin
Kerry – 2

No Location Given
Kerry – 2