Why John Kerry Is Losing Democrats
By Max Burns
Sept. 13, 2004
This election has hit a new political low. It cannot even be called political at this point, and saying it is a low would signify that there is no room to sink further. All of the smear and trash from both sides, I say both side to remain as nonpartisan as I can, has disenchanted more voters than any campaign before. The smear attack against Andrew Jackson wasn’t even this low.
What does it say about the state of our Union when Vietnam, a war that has been over for thirty years, is still a major campaign issue? What does it say? That we have no problems to worry about now, so we had best go back in the past? So John Kerry served his time in Vietnam and got some medals. So George W. Bush’s service seems a bit foggier. It is completely and wholly irrelevant. I, like many voters, do not care anymore.
In 1992, 1996 and 2000, issues were at the core of the political game. God it was hard-fought in 1992 and 2000, when Republicans and Democrats were at sharp contrast and at each other’s throats constantly. Things were heated and passionate, but they were about issues. The 2000 election, before “national security” and “defending the homeland” became campaign buzz words, was a hotbed of competing, headline issues.
Bush and Clinton ran decent, professional, respectful campaigns that attacked concrete issues, not character foibles. Never were the words “AWOL” or “Flip-Flopper” mentioned. Dole put up a bold defense of his views for the United States, and Gore and Bush in 2000 fought like gentlemen, spiritedly and focused in a way that made this writer interested in the entire political process.
So thank you, George H. and even Dubya; thanks to Al Gore, Slick Willy Clinton, Billy Bob Dole and Ross Perot. Thank you, especially, Ross Perot, for you proved that economic issues, while boring, are what will inflame the independent minority to bolt left or right.
No thanks goes to you, John Kerry, because you have not put forth anything but your time in Vietnam and how you are not George W. Bush. You have not put forth any issue I can remotely latch on to. I was there when you spoke in Boston; I went as an ardent supporter of the party. I still am. You, however, squandered an opportunity to get your message out.
It was our race to lose; now it’s ours to win.
I am a Democrat, registered and proud. However, that does not mean I must support every candidate we bring out. I will not vote for the party over the man. That is not government as it should be. That is not, as Bill Clinton said, good government.
A while ago I begged you not to screw this up. What a waste of postage. |
