Demosophia

Crossing Over With John Edwards

Er, no... this isn't about that low life con man that talks to the "dear departed." It's about the new Veep candidate. Edwards was precisely the sort of politician I'd have supported during my activist days with Citizen Action, and I have no problem with suing insurance companies. From a policy perspective, however, it'd probably be more cost effective to give insurance execs and operatives a handsome stipend to stay home and do nothing (a suggestion once made by R.B. Fuller). But, like Roger L. Simon, I simply don't think there's any way I could possibly vote for that ticket unless there were a really convincing "strategic" reason to do so. (Like giving the anti-war movement enough rope to finally hang themselves for good, or something.)

But basically even if I were inclined to vote for a Kerry/Edwards ticket this time around I'd have to restrain myself, because of the message it would send to the terrorist and terrorist/sympathizing opposition. It would make the appeasement message of the Spanish election look like a cake walk. You see, I actually believe the data suggesting that terrorist recruitment accelerates whenever the US shows a lack of military resolve. That isn't to say that it doesn't grow in other circumstances, but the point is that it doesn't grow at an accelerating rate.

This business of not sending the wrong "message" actually transcends politics, and even ethics to a certain extent. Some have argued that Japanese aggression came about as a result of a mistaken order given by the Roosevelt admininstration to restrict Japanese access to oil. Roosevelt realized that the order was a mistake almost immediately, and it might have been prudent to withdraw it and apologize to the Japanese... but he correctly realized that even though that might have been "fair" in terms of our western ethic it would have sent a message of weakness to the Japanese, and would have actually hastened the confrontation with the Japanese that he thought inevitable.

So he let the order stand.

Simply put, the election of Kerry... no matter the motivation of Americans, will be read as an encouraging victory by the enemy, and will not only hearten that enemy, but will give him increased resources and ultimately would mean more American deaths than would otherwise have been the case.

And that would be true even if I agreed with Kerry's policy positions, which of course I don't. I think we've gone past the point of no return, and if we try to retract we'll end up paying the Devil his due. The dye is cast, and it's time for a little healthy resolve.

[Aside: So Lance is in the yellow jersey again after Stage 4, and the first five riders in the overall standing are from the US Postal team! Not only that, but American Tyler Hamilton is in 8th place, 36 seconds back (well within range), and Bobby Jullich and Levi Liepheimer are also in contention, at 1 minute and 1:08, respectively. Americans are dominating a French institution! Tomorrow the Tour goes to Chartres, for the first time it its 100+ year history.]

Posted by Demosophist at July 7, 2004 08:23 PM | TrackBack