Armed Liberal has posted a challenge adapted from that of Dean Esmay. The test is, essentially, whether or not we will be willing to bury the hatchet if Kerry wins. Well, to bury it I'd probably first have to extract it from where Michael Moore has stored it, deep in the skull of the Republic. But assuming that's possible, and that something about the connection between Moore's Chomskyesque distortion of America and Kerry's own similar rhetoric during the Vietnam era hasn't permanently tainted the soul of the Democratic ticket, I could probably bridge the gap.
I think I've already passed the test once, in fact. In the last election I was a Nader voter who sided with the Gore campaign in the Florida recount controversy. My first instinct, even after 9-11, was to assume that Bush was incompetent or had ulterior motives. Nontheless, whatever the motives or level of competence, I was eventually able to intuit that in order to reduce the long term threat from mass terrorism we need to leaven the culture of the Arab Middle East somehow. And we also need to take on and challenge autocracy and tyranny wherever and whenever we can... even to the point of war, if necessary.
If Kerry/Edwards buy into this strategy I'd have no problem supporting them. If they don't I'd have no problem opposing them. And I'm not likely to change my mind, either.
But having said that I think it'd be tough for Kerry/Edwards to "buy into the strategy," because they have certain commitments, and because Kerry has a history that tells me his "deep convictions" might have an element of opportunism. Roger L. Simon points out that Kerry was deeply anti-war before he enlisted. And we all know what position he adopted when he returned. It isn't really so much that he flip-flops, but that he makes commitments that are deep, and also rather narrow. I guess the chief quality of the "flipper" analogy is that his commitments are shallow. I see little evidence of that, however. He put his life on the line a number of times in Vietnam, yet his one big "play" on the political stage was to oppose precisely the sort of democracy-building strategy that I think we need to pursue in the War on Terror. What "big picture" does he see now, if any? Does he see big pictures, at all?
Nonetheless, I am intrigued by this capacity to become deeply commited over narrow intervals, and it seems precisely the sort of aptitude that's required of an expert rock climber, an analogy that I think decribes what we need to do to win this extended and difficult conflict with the "New Totalitarianism." Unlike Roger, I don't think Kerry is exactly insincere. Instead, he appears to have more faith in himself than in his ideals. But in the context of US political culture is that insincerity? Is it a bad quality? That depends. And I don't say that lightly.
Critically, before I could support Kerry I'd need to see some evidence not only that he has what I can construe as an appropriate aptitude for the critical task. I need to also see that once commited to the climb he won't stop until he reaches the top of the precipice, and that he's skilled enough to reduce the odds of outright failure. I simply have no idea, at this point, whether he fits the bill. None whatsoever. And I think his life has been precisely the sort of enigma that's designed to hide or conceal that quality, or lack of it.
Update: If this is true it's not going to play very well with the undecideds. He'd better have a damn good story for why he conducted those reenactments. "Clintonesque" is the term that leaps to mind, and not in a good way.
To hazard a guess, I would imagine that Kerry would do very nearly what Bush is doing, except that he'd get hugs and kisses from both overseas and the international media.
At least in the short term. My fear is that he may not intellectually grasp what may be the truly titanic nature of the struggle we find ourselves engaged it.
At least with the Cold War, we got it after the first few years. For folks to get it, it may take not only another 9/11, but one that happens fairly late in a Democratic administration.
Posted by: Bravo Romeo Delta at July 29, 2004 05:43 PM