|
Things to Come
By Justin Darr
September 06, 2004
There are a lot of misconceptions about John Kerry. How could there not be? Senator Kerry has stood on both sides of almost every conceivable issue and while he may be a fine guitar player, wind surfer, skier, and bike rider, it seems the one skill he has never been able to master is giving a straight answer. However, one common perception about the good Senator from Massachusetts that is not true is that avoids his voting record in the Senate. What? Think I am crazy? During the Democratic Convention even the most strident Kerry supporter could not help but notice the gaping 20 year abyss in Kerry's life where he served in the Senate. It seems that Kerry would much rather have us think he just walked out of a Vietnamese rice paddy than remember that he is a United States Senator. I am personally surprised that Kerry was not towed to the DNC Convention podium on a red, white, and blue swift boat like some float in the Rose Bowl Parade.
So what am I talking about? The fact is that twice in Kerry's recent public life, when polls suggested Kerry was facing imminent defeat, he has fought back to victory by touting the same liberal voting record he is now so determined to conceal. With Kerry again down in the polls, we can expect him to once again revert back to his tried and true methods of the past. However, the third time will not be the charm. Kerry will rage back in an attempt to counteract Bush's Convention bounce, but in the process will sow the seeds of his own defeat.
In 1996, John Kerry managed a come from behind victory for his seat in the Senate over popular former Massachusetts Governor, William Weld. At the beginning of the campaign, Weld and Kerry made a gentlemen's agreement to run positive, issues oriented campaigns and to limit their campaign spending to $5 million each. So much for Mr. Kerry being a gentleman. As the election neared and Kerry was trailing in the polls, Kerry ignored his self imposed campaign spending cap and ran over $2 million worth of advertising peddling his voting record in support of Clinton Administration policies. For good measure, he also tossed in a healthy dose of distorted negative advertising comparing Weld to North Caroline Senator Jesse Helms, a man with whom Weld held almost no ideological similarities. The combination of Conservative fear mongering and grabbing a white knuckled hold onto President Clinton's coat tails played well enough in liberal Massachusetts to swing the vote over to Kerry. In this race, Kerry saw his voting record as a resource, rather than detriment, and used it to mobilize the far left of his Party.
In the Democratic Primaries, Kerry found himself running a distant third to New Hampshire Governor Howard Dean. John Kerry's early attempts to present himself as a strong on defense, strong on social programs Johnson-esque Democrat did not play well against the hordes of antiwar leftists Dean dredged off the Internet and into the Democratic Primaries, so he changed tactics. Kerry co-opted Dean's liberal message and reinvented himself as the "true" antiwar candidate. Once again, Kerry's liberal record was perceived as a benefit to him, so he used his decades long history of opposing defense spending, tax cuts, and the protection of marriage to reinforce his liberal credentials. This is why he "voted for the $87 billion, before he voted against it". It had nothing to do with policy or taxes, but everything to do with pandering support away from Howard Dean. The left wanted proof that Kerry was antiwar, and he gave it to them. Unfortunately for our soldiers fighting the War on Terror, they got caught in the cross hairs of Kerry's blind political ambition. Many on the far left must have the attention spans of gold fish, because Kerry managed swing himself ideologically around 180 degrees and sweep the Democratic Nomination without any comment to his inconsistencies.
At midnight, less than two hours after the Republican Convention ended, history began to repeat itself once again. Kerry made an ill-advised rebuttal speech where he hysterically attacked the Republicans for calling him unpatriotic (which did not happen), attacking his war record (which did not happen), and generally ranted incomprehensibly about tax codes, undefined inventions that will somehow create millions of jobs, and how much he dislikes Bush. I was waiting for him to start stamping his feet and shouting "I hate him! I hate him! I hate him!" Intertwined in all the vitriol, Kerry sited liberal program after program that he would implement that read like it come straight from the "Gospel According to McGovern". Universal healthcare, no changes to a dysfunctional Social Security system, raising taxes, increased entitlement spending, and increased government regulation all have a home on the Kerry/ Edwards ticket.
Kerry will continue with this litany of domestic social spending promises until the election in a desperate attempt to distract America from the War on Terrorism and once again unite the far left of the Democratic Party to his aid. But it will not work this time. In 2004, Kerry is not running in just Massachusetts or the Democratic Primaries where liberals represent a significant voting bloc of support. He is in a national election, and the simple fact of the matter is that there are not enough liberals in the country to win the election on their support alone. Kerry will manage to unite the left to his cause, but in the process he will further alienate centrist and moderate voters who are already beginning to favor Bush. It is said that the truth will set you free, when John Kerry comes clean on his record and tries to present it as a positive message, the truth will free America from a Kerry Presidency.
|
