Tony Scott, as a burgeoning pundit, you’re a discredit to your ilk. Are you implying you haven’t made up your mind about your choice for President? In this, what some call the most polarizing election in history, you’ve cast your lot in with the small slice of fickle undecideds who must have slept through the last four years to not have an opinion two months before the election? And this based on your unhappiness with Kerry’s campaign style? What about issues? You won’t make it far in the blowhard business with this attitude.
Still, your conservatism must be inching past your disaffection, as you were quick to rehash plenty of misconceptions that Republicans have been all too happy to perpetuate:
1. Kerry and Edwards can’t win because they are too far left. Since when was John Edwards the most liberal candidate, anyway? I know we’ve already consigned Howard Dean to the scrap heap of history, but still. Besides, I don’t know where you were, but Edwards joining the Kerry team was arguably the biggest boost Kerry has received yet. If he’s a problem, it’s only because he’s disappeared since the Democratic convention, but not because he’s to far left. And why does the Republican Party get to enact a staggeringly hard-right, socially conservative platform, but Democrats are told they need to move to the center to succeed? Can someone explain this to me?
2. Kerry’s leadership is an issue in this race. Ok, fine – let’s put Kerry’s struggle to come up with a position on the war that voters would respond to up against President Bush and his morphing explanations of why we need tax cuts (first to give the surplus back to taxpayers, later to stimulate the economy) and why we needed to invade Iraq (first because Saddam sought nuclear weapons, later because we would be welcomed with roses). Did I mention that the tax cuts resulted in billions of dollars in deficits while the war resulted in thousands of dead bodies? And doesn’t true leadership mean admitting when you’ve been wrong?
3. Left-leaning organizations such as moveon.org are a danger to democracy. No, you didn’t say that exactly, but you safely implied that by equating them with fascists. I’ll just mention here that I think it’s safe to say that most impartial observers would put the Bush Administration a little closer to 1930’s Germany than the progressives at moveon.org. It’s also curious that you compared them to sheep and Nazis in the same article. Don’t be too embarrassed; a lot of people don’t understand what fascism means.
Hey, I’m the first to admit that I don’t like the way Kerry is running his campaign. It might be too late for him to save it. But don’t blame Kerry for bringing up Bush’s record when Bush himself knows better than to run on it without ignoring his failures. And you beg the question yourself – if Kerry is playing down to Bush’s level, how low exactly is that level? Shouldn’t we care? Kerry has done a lousy job enunciating his agenda. Bush has done a lousy job running the country.
Peter McNallyClass of ’99CT Syndications Editor, 1998
