This post is from NoSeeUm on the FOOL
He wrote it himself
I think you will like it.
I can see the Republican Mudslinging Machine gearing up for battle and shifting gears as the target environment changes, building a case for their peculiar strain of political righteousness and decrying the unparalleled fecklessness of their opposition.
Change is the one constant in our national political life; and it is interesting to watch the political forces on both sides of the fence adapt to Changing Times. It is a given that we all do things that we live to regret. It is difficult to deal with these regrets in the harsh light of a presidential campaign. Nuances are contorted into black and white positions. Conditions in effect at the time of a given decision are conveniently forgotten or distorted. The clear differences between fear-mongering, lying and Patriotism are smudged by the heavy re-write brush of various spinmeisters and editorialists.
The Democratic primaries and the various candidates have been reviled as a clownish food fight by the Republican press. Great glee is elicited when candidates attack one another on various issues in numerous very public and open debates that make a mockery of the closed-mouth, monotonous on-message drone emmanating from the Administration . These healthy conflicts are seen as the stuff of future negative campaign ads rather than the healthy workings of a vigorous and energized democratic process. Regardless of Republican Creationist credo, the fitttest do indeed tend to survive and their progeny are better suited to the existing environment, which is in a constant state of flux. The candidate who goes up against Bush very soon this Spring is going to be a battle-hardened veteran fully aware of the issues that are preoccupying the public in this particular small slice of national history. And I would have it no other way. The Democrats are honing their message in a brutal and very public way in front of a demanding and critical and ultimately unforgiving audience. The harsh reality of the hustings will trump the complacent arrogance of the current and self-deluded Republican Administration.
Dean was the early front runner. He is an energetic campaigner and a skilled and innovative fund-raiser. He gave the complacent party so-called 'leaders' a real run for their money. Dean is not a polished professional politician, however. He spoke his mind a little too freely. His various positions were not very well constructed. He reflected the anger of the Democratic faithful without the necessary ability to focus that anger into an action plan beyond beating Bush; and that simply is not enough. The Republican press jumped in with both feet on every gaffe no matter how trivial. Howard Dean looked and acted like his collar was a little too tight. It probably is. BUT, he energized the party faithful and stirred up the grass roots.......Bigtime. While the Daschles and Pelosis in Congress were wailing and whining about the Unfairness of it all and sitting on their clenched fists with their thumbs extended and their political minds in neutral, Dean was out there on the stump kicking some butt. The Democratic Party owes Dean a huge debt of gratitude.....he got people off their asses and on to their feet. He was not afraid to point out the emperor's flagrant nudity.
So now John Kerry has emerged as the front runner and suddenly all of the guns of the beady-eyed Republican character assassins are pointing his way. Unlike Dean, Kerry is a consummate politician honed by real service in a real war, a long and productive life in the public eye and a bruising but invigorating primary campaign out there where the rubber meets the road. The ultimate epitet is being whispered....pssstt, he looks like a Frenchman. The Republicans, having no defensible issues to promote, think they are going to undermine Kerry with a schoolyard whisper campaign about the shape of his face and the style of his haircut, his patrician demeanor and the fact that he married an heiress. Beware: John Kerry didn't get where he is by being a schmuck. Don't get me wrong....I have my problems with Kerry, but will go down fighting in his defense if he is selected as the man to beat Bush. There was a time when I thought that he was not the chosen one, but the primaries have convinced me otherwise. There is still a lot of fight and fire behind that rather dour demeanor. This man can energize the faithful and attract fresh blood to the ranks. The coming presidential election is going to be all about numbers, about who can rally the troops to the cause. The Democrats can win that battle. The numbers are in their favor. I have not had time yet to look at the demographics of yesterday's democratic primary vote, but I do look to the massive New Hampshire turnout as handwriting on the wall. The traditional leaders of the out-of-favor political party have sorely shirked their responsibilities for lack of political courage. Thank God Howard Dean was there to pick up the torch and to fan the smoldering embers of discontent awaiting only a breath of fresh air to burst forth in flame.
I met Kerry a couple of times in Vietnam. His Swift Boats patrolled offshore in the blue water. My little PBRs churned the brown water adjacent to the rice paddies and mangrove tangles up-stream. Once in a while, as chance would have it, we would meet and rendezvous at the river mouth to swap food and gossip. People felt even then that he was running for President. By the same token, there is no arguing with his record and his accomplishments. In spite of, or perhaps because of our service, Vietnam vets were a reviled group in the early 70's. I did not join VVAW upon my return here in 1972. I was too busy trying to convince medical school administrators that my age and six years of military service really did not disqualify me from enlisting in <their> ranks. I went to Vietnam fully believing in the Domino Theory and the righteousness of our cause. I was more than a little disillusioned by the whole experience, and I carry that disillusion for what I perceive as biased theories, foolish wars and wasted precious lives with me to this day. Kerry built on his disillusion and rose very rapidly to a position of national prominence. He has never looked back. I tucked my medals into a box in the back of my sock drawer and went in to Medicine. I didn't look back either, but I have never forgotten the bitter lessons that I learned as a result of that utter fiasco.
I have some problems with Kerry, but I support him. To me he has proven his mettle on more than a few occasions dating back some 35 years now. Of course he is a professional politician. That's not a very hefty charge to level at a potential candidate. Howard Dean isn't. Look what happened to him. I believe that the System is such that it can only be navigated by professionals. It is stacked against 'amateurs', though very rarely a charismatic amateur may be thrust to the forefront as we have recently seen in California. Kerry voted for the Patriot Act. Consider the times. Consider the way it was railroaded through the Congress. Consider the blatant Republican adulteration of the very concept of 'patriotism' at that fearful time. Surely at the time I had some serious misgivings about that piece of legislation. Had I been in the Congress I might have voted against it if I had wanted to be tarred and feathered by the Republicans and run out of the town on a rail. I do not agree with Kerry's vote, but I can understand it. I also appreciate that it was not purely motivated by principle. Very little of anything that any of us do is motivated purely by principle, particularly in public life where there is far more gray than black and white, Republican claims to the contrary. Kerry voted to support Bush on the matter of the Iraq war. My same caveats and provisos pertain. There is huge contraversy about the meaning and intent of that particular vote. I need to do more research there. Again I do not agree with Kerry, but at that time in history I am not sure that many if any in Congress interpreted that vote as a carte blanche to go to war. They all fell for the bait and switch. So did we all.
And now Kerry is being painted as a tool of special interests and raising campaign money from them and promoting their causes in Congress. This is a little hard to take from an administration that is intent on building a 200 million dollar war chest and that has compiled a record of kow-towing to special interests unparalleled in the annals of modern American history. Get real folks: like it or not, that's how our beloved system works. The corporations and their politicians wouldn't have it any other way. I would give you that Kerry is a fairly minor pig at that trough when you rank him on the Republican scale. Be that as it may, you need money to win elections nowadays; and when you go to Washington you are transformed into a pig just like ALL the other politicians. If you have a problem with this system then stop whining and dissembling and pointing fingers in the mirror and change it. Howard Dean has showed us the way.
I think Bush can be beaten. I think Kerry is the man to do it. He ain't perfect but he's just about the best we got right now. I think he is going to surprise us. There's a lot more to this guy than meets the eye. The primaries might as well be over, I think. Time to unite behind the survivor and to start beating the bushes. |
