John Kerry Is the Right Man for America Right Now
Press Action
Saturday, June 05, 2004
http://www.pressaction.com/news/weblog/full_article/holmquist06062004/
By Micah Holmquist
John Kerry isn’t the perfect candidate. The distinguished veteran, former prosecutor and longtime junior senator from a great state known to some as “the birthplace of freedom” has only a distracting speaking style to go along with his charisma, good looks and the ability to take America where it needs to go.
Securing the nomination of the Democratic Party wasn’t easy for Kerry. A previously virtually unknown former governor of Vermont named Howard Dean dashed out to an early lead on the basis of his radical leftist opposition to the invasion of Iraq. Eventually, however, Democrats turned from the crazy Dean, who made strange noises during at least one campaign event, and toward the more sober Kerry, a patriot who understood the real reason to criticize the invasion was, in the brave if candidly profane words of Mr. Kerry, that Bush did “#### it up as badly as he did.”
Senator Kerry has a platform and a program. He stands alone in the race in wanting more jobs for the people eligible to vote for him and America to be respected again, but the most compelling case for making Kerry the next president is he is not one of his opponents.
Ralph Nader is not a serious candidate. The consumer advocate may have done some good in the past, but in 2000 he elected George W. Bush. One could blame the people responsible for butterfly ballots, wrongly purging likely Democratic voters from the voting rolls in the critical state of Florida or the Supreme Court’s Bush v. Gore decision. However, doing that doesn’t make sense. Perfection is a goal rife with peril and bad Supreme Court decisions are the result of bad Supreme Court Justices who might not be in their position if in the past Nader voters had been appropriately enthusiastic about voting for Democrats.
Now, four years later, Nader apparently hasn’t learned his lesson and once again he threatens to reelect Bush. Nader can’t win and should drop out immediately, spending the rest of his life talking to whomever will listen that he was wrong to not support the political party that the American political system designates as being his political party. For its part, the Green Party should disband at their upcoming convention in Milwaukee and join the Democratic Party as silent but active completers of busy work. That or nominate David Cobb before going to work for the Democratic Party... whatever seems easier.
Nader’s banishment will free Kerry up to focus on President Bush‘s record in the White House, a record that speaks for itself.
Tax cuts for the rich, prayer in the Oval Office, failure to prevent terrorists from attacking the United States on September 11, a proposed constitutional amendment that would prevent states from being able to issue marriage licenses to gay and lesbian couples and waging war without enough allies are all the work of Bush.
Most importantly Bush failed to prevent the abuse of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib. “How dare they subject us to such dishonor and disgrace,” America’s real President Al Gore said on May 26. “How dare they drag the good name of the United States of America through the mud.”
It is really amazing all the things that have not harmed the good name of America. Genocide against Native Americans, slavery, institutionalized racism, economic inequality, many military interventions (most unprovoked), the highest rate of incarceration in the world and abuses in the prisons where we hold the incarcerated are just some of the things that have not only not dragged America’s good name through any mud but have not harmed the good name of this country or subjected Uncle Sam to dishonor or disgrace. The Bush Administration’s refusal to preempt these abuses at a time when America is fighting a preemptive war is more terrible than any of these actions and brings a tear to the eyes of anybody who, like Senator Kerry, wants to “Let America be America again.”
“The Choice This Year Is Between Empire and Democracy,” author and radio talk show host Thom Hartmann recently wrote. A vote for Bush is a vote for empire. A vote for Kerry is a vote for democracy. Kerry won’t significantly change course on policy regarding the criminal justice system, the economy or international affairs, but that doesn’t mean he won’t bring significant change.
A vote for Kerry says you think gay and lesbians couples shouldn’t be allowed to get married but that there’s no need to write anything about this in the constitution.
A vote for Kerry says you want the international community and the United Nations to be involved in Iraq. Bush has already brought them in, but not to the extent necessary. U.N. troops have shown themselves perfectly capable of sexually exploiting and harming people while at least theoretically diverting money from projects that could improve the lives of the world’s poorest people. Why should American and other coalition troops have to dish out all the abuse in Iraq? If only they alleviate the real issue of how this scandal makes America look bad, let the brave boys and girls fighting for the U.N. have a turn!
A vote for Kerry means you want a president who will continue the war on terror and do a better job than Bush at attempting to control what countries and groups have weapons of mass destruction.
Nobody ever accused Kerry of being a smirking chimp and that won’t change when President Kerry and his New Army of Patriots bring freedom, peace, prosperity and all other good things to America and all the world.
President Kerry will be just like Bush, only better.
Micah Holmquist, editor of Irregular Thoughts and Links, is a Cadillac, Mich.-based writer.