Another stupid political entry
I've stayed away from livejournal for the last month or so. That may be because I have been watching a steady diet of ABC, CNN and Comedy Central. I just feel like saying that, because I want everyone to know that I wrote this down Wednesday night and worked on it this morning. I had not read the bevy of political journals posted over the last two days until a few moments ago. This may sound like it is retaliatory or reactionary, but it's not. While it wasn't written in a perfect vacuum, I formulated my ideas seperate from livejournal. I wrote this out not to preach to anyone and not because I think I know best, but because I have been giving this speech to everyone who brings up the subject. I wrote this down to organize my thoughts. I'm posting it to let the three people who read this know what I think about politics right now. If you think that I will a)piss you off b)bore you c)speak the absolute truth, you should probably go ahead and skip this. If you don't fulfill any of these requirements then you should probably skip it too.
It's not that I think my comments are inflammatory at all. It's just that I don't want you to think I'm stupid.
Oh, well.
I have a lot of friends who are disheartened and disillusioned by the Bush victory. In some ways I am too. I can get over it though, because we do need a leader in this dangerous new era. It's also silly to assume that the actions of a small group of evil people (And these people aren't evil. At best the neocons are misguided and at worst you're wrong and they're right) can destroy America. Nearly half of America voted for Kerry, the Republicans don't have free reign to burn gay people. Calm down.
All of these liberal friends are pissed about how Bush won the election. I was too. That's not right though. Kerry supporters need to be pissed about how Kerry (and the rest of his campaign) lost the election. The people who are so disillusioned with the American majority need to turn that disillusion inward and focus it on the Democratic machine.
I don't think my conservative friends are mindless sheep any more than I think my liberal friends are robots who have been hypnotized by posters of Che Guevera. The angry belief that the other guy is dead wrong and going to hell for his beliefs will get you nowhere in a democracy. If you're a Democrat, you can't blame people for voting for George W. Bush. You can't blame Karl Rove and his barely legal tactics. You have to blame Kerry's campaign for doing so little to convince people that he is capable of being president.
Kerry's campaign was such an inefficient and slow morass that it rivaled the Democratic Party itself. When the Republican machine called him a "waffler", Kerry took a long time to deny the charges and then came back with meticulously scripted answers. He played right into a trap that anyone with the balls to actually talk about their beliefs can avoid. A week before the election I read that Kerry never discussed his time in the Senate because the work he did was too technical for the average American to understand. That might be true, but he played right into the stereotype of a snooty liberal by not trying to tell us. The right wing machine found itself doing tons of damage to Kerry with a word that doesn't mean much outside of a Belgian culinary school. The American people want a candidate who listens to the will of the people, but they also want a man who thinks for himself. For much of his campaign, Kerry appeared to word his message in carefully constructed and field tested sentences. A lot is to be said for the plainspoken man. Kerry knew what he believed and he knew what the people wanted to hear, but he still took the time to assess and reassess both until his message lost all of its emotional impact.
The culmination of the Kerry campaign's inability to deflect comments that aren't really insults came in late fall. Bush and Cheney began to drop the word "liberal" as if the word was an attack on Kerry. Kerry ran away from the term like they had called him a blood sucking chupacabra in a Puerto Rican debate. He is a liberal! He should have embraced the "charges" of liberalism. Instead he stayed quiet like he thought liberalism was a bad thing. He's a Democrat from Massachusetts. Anyone who thought he wasn't liberal lives in the USSR. Kerry vilified himself when he had an opportunity to take control of the word liberal and return it to "the mainstream of politics". When he didn't just come clean about who he was, people found Kerry dishonest and gave him no room to speak on the issue of moral values that won Bush this election. Kerry didn't seem dishonest because he didn't tell the truth, but because he denied who he was.
The worst attacks on Kerry's character were things he could have easily turned into pros (i know a pun about pros and neocons is possible, but I'm getting tired). If he had the balls to actually brag about the way he opposed Vietnam, the Swift Boat Veterans for Destruction would have made no impact. It's not like protesting Vietnam is tantamount to banning Christmas -- a lot of people think the war was a pretty bad idea and are fairly happy we ended it. Instead of talking about his role in working against the greatest conflict of his generation, Kerry tried to drown out that piece of his history with talk of his military service. He should have played up the fact that he was not only a hero abroad, but a hero after he returned home. When people questioned his resolve in the War Against Terror and his determination in Seeing Things Through In Iraq, Kerry should have spoken about his resolve and determination in ending one of the most painful experiences in American history. He opted to only talk about his time in the military. If George Bush was guilty of playing towards his base, Kerry was guilty of playing towards Bush's base as well. People in the suburbs didn't mean they wanted a war hero when they said they wanted a determined and honest president. They meant they wanted someone who would be open about their past -- whether it was spent as an alcoholic or a war protester. Voters were ready to elect either one of those scourges to society as long as the scourge was open about his former scourging ways.
But this is all in the past. I'm just trying to point out what went wrong for liberals this year. If you're upset about this election, don't take it out on 51% of the population or George W. Bush. Don't even take it out on John Forbes Kerry. If you honestly believe in the message of the left wing, don't be mad, sad or scared for the next four years. Do what you can to transform the Democratic Party into a contender with real teeth. Encourage candidates that will embrace who they are and stand sure of themselves. Honesty is the only chance that any party has to appeal to those of us who sit in the middle waiting for someone to follow. Also, it is important to avoid falling into the trap of thinking "Oh, that will be overturned in fifteen or thirty years. The public will naturally accept my way of thinking." Fans of liberalism often say that because the only thing constant in the world is change. Sadly, there is not only one way for things to change and simple optimism won't win the hearts of Americans. Be vocal in your opinions, but don't shout them. Actually discuss your viewpoints with your friends on the other side of the political fence. Don't just talk at them -- listen to what they have to say. Maybe your opinion will stay the same or maybe it will change. You won't care, because your opinion will be your opinion either way. A move away from talking points and towards bold faced conviction is what the Democrats need right now. People don't want to be sold a candidate. The only hope for the future of liberalism is for it to regain its identity and move out of the shadows and back into the left wing of politics.
Well, that's what I think, even though I doubt how effectively I made my point. I don't even know if I have a point, but I sure did write a lot. In case you're wondering, I have a lot of advice for the Democrats, but I'm a registered Independent and plan to stay that way until I find a party that totally agrees with my every whim and fancy or is willing to offer me an ambassadorship.
It's not that I think my comments are inflammatory at all. It's just that I don't want you to think I'm stupid.
Oh, well.
I have a lot of friends who are disheartened and disillusioned by the Bush victory. In some ways I am too. I can get over it though, because we do need a leader in this dangerous new era. It's also silly to assume that the actions of a small group of evil people (And these people aren't evil. At best the neocons are misguided and at worst you're wrong and they're right) can destroy America. Nearly half of America voted for Kerry, the Republicans don't have free reign to burn gay people. Calm down.
All of these liberal friends are pissed about how Bush won the election. I was too. That's not right though. Kerry supporters need to be pissed about how Kerry (and the rest of his campaign) lost the election. The people who are so disillusioned with the American majority need to turn that disillusion inward and focus it on the Democratic machine.
I don't think my conservative friends are mindless sheep any more than I think my liberal friends are robots who have been hypnotized by posters of Che Guevera. The angry belief that the other guy is dead wrong and going to hell for his beliefs will get you nowhere in a democracy. If you're a Democrat, you can't blame people for voting for George W. Bush. You can't blame Karl Rove and his barely legal tactics. You have to blame Kerry's campaign for doing so little to convince people that he is capable of being president.
Kerry's campaign was such an inefficient and slow morass that it rivaled the Democratic Party itself. When the Republican machine called him a "waffler", Kerry took a long time to deny the charges and then came back with meticulously scripted answers. He played right into a trap that anyone with the balls to actually talk about their beliefs can avoid. A week before the election I read that Kerry never discussed his time in the Senate because the work he did was too technical for the average American to understand. That might be true, but he played right into the stereotype of a snooty liberal by not trying to tell us. The right wing machine found itself doing tons of damage to Kerry with a word that doesn't mean much outside of a Belgian culinary school. The American people want a candidate who listens to the will of the people, but they also want a man who thinks for himself. For much of his campaign, Kerry appeared to word his message in carefully constructed and field tested sentences. A lot is to be said for the plainspoken man. Kerry knew what he believed and he knew what the people wanted to hear, but he still took the time to assess and reassess both until his message lost all of its emotional impact.
The culmination of the Kerry campaign's inability to deflect comments that aren't really insults came in late fall. Bush and Cheney began to drop the word "liberal" as if the word was an attack on Kerry. Kerry ran away from the term like they had called him a blood sucking chupacabra in a Puerto Rican debate. He is a liberal! He should have embraced the "charges" of liberalism. Instead he stayed quiet like he thought liberalism was a bad thing. He's a Democrat from Massachusetts. Anyone who thought he wasn't liberal lives in the USSR. Kerry vilified himself when he had an opportunity to take control of the word liberal and return it to "the mainstream of politics". When he didn't just come clean about who he was, people found Kerry dishonest and gave him no room to speak on the issue of moral values that won Bush this election. Kerry didn't seem dishonest because he didn't tell the truth, but because he denied who he was.
The worst attacks on Kerry's character were things he could have easily turned into pros (i know a pun about pros and neocons is possible, but I'm getting tired). If he had the balls to actually brag about the way he opposed Vietnam, the Swift Boat Veterans for Destruction would have made no impact. It's not like protesting Vietnam is tantamount to banning Christmas -- a lot of people think the war was a pretty bad idea and are fairly happy we ended it. Instead of talking about his role in working against the greatest conflict of his generation, Kerry tried to drown out that piece of his history with talk of his military service. He should have played up the fact that he was not only a hero abroad, but a hero after he returned home. When people questioned his resolve in the War Against Terror and his determination in Seeing Things Through In Iraq, Kerry should have spoken about his resolve and determination in ending one of the most painful experiences in American history. He opted to only talk about his time in the military. If George Bush was guilty of playing towards his base, Kerry was guilty of playing towards Bush's base as well. People in the suburbs didn't mean they wanted a war hero when they said they wanted a determined and honest president. They meant they wanted someone who would be open about their past -- whether it was spent as an alcoholic or a war protester. Voters were ready to elect either one of those scourges to society as long as the scourge was open about his former scourging ways.
But this is all in the past. I'm just trying to point out what went wrong for liberals this year. If you're upset about this election, don't take it out on 51% of the population or George W. Bush. Don't even take it out on John Forbes Kerry. If you honestly believe in the message of the left wing, don't be mad, sad or scared for the next four years. Do what you can to transform the Democratic Party into a contender with real teeth. Encourage candidates that will embrace who they are and stand sure of themselves. Honesty is the only chance that any party has to appeal to those of us who sit in the middle waiting for someone to follow. Also, it is important to avoid falling into the trap of thinking "Oh, that will be overturned in fifteen or thirty years. The public will naturally accept my way of thinking." Fans of liberalism often say that because the only thing constant in the world is change. Sadly, there is not only one way for things to change and simple optimism won't win the hearts of Americans. Be vocal in your opinions, but don't shout them. Actually discuss your viewpoints with your friends on the other side of the political fence. Don't just talk at them -- listen to what they have to say. Maybe your opinion will stay the same or maybe it will change. You won't care, because your opinion will be your opinion either way. A move away from talking points and towards bold faced conviction is what the Democrats need right now. People don't want to be sold a candidate. The only hope for the future of liberalism is for it to regain its identity and move out of the shadows and back into the left wing of politics.
Well, that's what I think, even though I doubt how effectively I made my point. I don't even know if I have a point, but I sure did write a lot. In case you're wondering, I have a lot of advice for the Democrats, but I'm a registered Independent and plan to stay that way until I find a party that totally agrees with my every whim and fancy or is willing to offer me an ambassadorship.