The most facile argument made by Republicans in this election is that you don’t switch horses mid-stream. Does this dated Western metaphor even mean anything to you, the college student?

When a Republican says “We have to re-elect Bush because you don’t switch horses in mid-stream,” what they’re saying is “The war on terror is too important to end, cutting taxes is more important than providing services, and our agenda is right no matter how much the facts refute us. Disown us at your peril.”

You know, back when there were cowboys, the thought was getting off your horse in mid-stream when you had a problem meant either you or the horse was going to drown. When the water is above the horse’s head, however, should Plan B go into effect?

Or as one sign over an Austin, Texas, overpass said, “Why switch horsemen mid-Apocalypse?”

What we are witnessing this last week and going into the election next Tuesday is a complete meltdown of the Republican candidate.

The news out of Iraq has been terrible and is getting worse. Fifty Iraqi National Guardsmen shot execution-style by terrorists. Missing explosives with the potential to create WMD’s destroy buildings or down planes. A faltering morale among American troops and growing resentment to our presence in Iraq.

What else has been going wrong for President Bush lately? Lackluster economic numbers, a steady unemployment rate, especially in some crucial swing states, and a general funk over where the country is going.

Switching horses seems like the only rational thing to do these days.

What will switching horses produce? How does America look in a Kerry administration?

Well, taxes will go up on the upper brackets in this country. This is brought up to no end by the Bush campaign. Kerry insists he’s going to restore us to Clinton levels of taxation and overwhelm the public.

Here’s a fun fact. When we were in possession of the largest standing army in the world and fighting the Communist menace during the Cold War, what was the tax rate on the wealthiest of Americans? In other words, how did we afford to have such a huge army and overwhelm the Soviets with our spending? In 1980 we had a 70 percent tax rate on income for the wealthiest Americans.

Today, that number is 38.5 percent. Of course, Reagan slashed taxes and ran up the federal deficit to numbers never seen before, until our current president ran them even higher.

Kerry has said we will have a “pay as you go” government. Bush made fun of this in the second debate by saying that this means you pay, and he goes. This comment was A) unfunny, B) almost nonsensical and C) had to make fiscal conservatives blanch.

Bush has insisted that there will be no expense spared on the war on terror. But if he wants to afford a never-ending, global, amorphous war on terror, how is he going to pay for it by making tax cuts permanent?

Kerry has insisted on rebuilding America’s stature in the global community. Frankly, he cannot do worse than Bush has done. Funnily enough, global surveys show that America’s stature has been tarnished a bit in the eyes of the world, but the office of the presidency, specifically this president, has been utterly decimated. To put it frankly, no one on the planet, except for the electorate that voted Bush in, really approves of the president.

Oh, and Kerry said he’ll get rid of that silly color-coded security alert system.

Kerry won’t change this country miraculously. He will improve its financial stability, its international stature and its ability to manage itself. Kerry will obviously inherit a fractured public and divided legislative branches. What is stunningly obvious, however, is that Kerry cannot possibly do any worse than our current administration.

Bush’s approval ratings are less than 50 percent in most battleground states. His numbers are shaky, and undecided voters historically tend to break to the challenger. Bush, locked in a statistical tie with Kerry, appears to be in serious trouble. The American public seems prepared to get itself a new horse.

Rob Deters ([email protected]) is a third-year law student.