Boston Globe: Kerry's 'Anybody But Bush' trap

[Larkspur]

By Derrick Z. Jackson, Globe Columnist | April 20, 2004
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2004/04/20/kerrys_anybody_but_bush_trap/

I RECENTLY received a screaming piece of fund-raising mail paid for by John Kerry for President. It was on the letterhead of Democratic political consultant James Carville.

The first page read in part:

"If there are limits to how far the Bush political machine is willing to go to savage an opponent, you could strain your eyes trying to find them.
<snip>

"In 2002 they had no compunction about challenging the patriotism of Senator Max Cleland and showing his photo next to those of Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden _ even though he lost three limbs while serving his country in Vietnam ...

"We're up against a bunch that has $150 million in the bank and no shame when it comes to using it to distort the truth. Why are Bush and the Republicans so desperate to mislead people about John Kerry's record and impugn his reputation?

"Because they know that, in a fair Kerry versus Bush contest, we win - and they lose.''

What was striking about the letter was that the entire first page was about how Bush misleads, but not a single sentence about how Kerry would lead. Even as Bush flounders in self-righteousness, you have to wonder if the ABB (Anybody But Bush) crowd is lulling themselves into a reverse trap. Letters like this make you wonder if ABB also means All But Blind.
<SNIP>

[Larkspur]

1. Here is my LTTE to the Boston Globe.

Looks like Derrick Jackson encountered the inevitable fact that the Kerry Campaign mantra -- "Kerry is electible!" -- is not testing well in whatever general election focus groups the campaign is using.

Derrick's ABB definition -- All But Blind –is the inevitable end of the Anybody But Bush philosophy.

ABB is being packaged to the Left and to Left-leaning Moderates, like myself, the way Liberal bashing is being packaged to the Right and Right-leaning Moderates -- a Totalitarian tool to breed blind followers and silence dissent.

Assuming Kerry wins the election, his gaggle of minions will morph ABB into a mantra to pressure the Left and Left-leaning Moderates from criticizing a President Kerry -- Support Kerry, else the Environment, women’s rights, etc. will be lost to the Republican-neo-con challenger! – just as the Neo-conservatives use abortion, gay marriage, tax cuts, etc. to pressure their base from deserting Bush.

How do we repudiate this brand of totalitarianism?

Historian Henry Steele said, “Loyalty is the realization that America was born of revolt, flourished in dissent, became great through experimentation. Our tradition is one of protest and revolt, and it is stultifying to celebrate the rebels of the past while we silence the rebels of the present.”

Let’s keep democracy alive via political activism and continual questioning of our leaders, regardless of whether we vote for them or not.
-----------------------------------------------------------
I got an email back from Mr. Jackson, who I also emailed this LTTE to and he said "Thank you for reading the column and thank you for your thoughtful Letter to the Editor."

[KissMyAsscroft]

2. I disagree...

'' I think the ABB is the only thing we have...

We need to whip up fervor, and do everything we can...we are fighting an ignorant populace that doesn't care. They wouldn't understand why Kerry would make a better leader if it were explained to them...and the media would never report it.

So ABB it is...and it's going to work.

[emulatorloo]

7. Please, don't feed the right wing 'columnists'

they might bite you later.

Only on DU is one of the most liberal senators around an advocate of totalitarianism.

Why fuel the right wing's fire with your LTTE?

[blm]

14. Some of the Kerry-haters just don't care.

They want Kerry to lose because they need validation for their misplaced, irrational hatred. It's THAT important to them.

[muriel_volestrangler]

13. I think Jackson defines Anyone But Bush differently from you

In Jackson's article, he's saying that Kerry needs positive, definite messages to convince the floating voters that he has plans - that it's not enough to tell them Bush is a dangerous moron. Kerry can't just be branded as "I'm Not Bush". People need a positive reason to vote for someone - otherwise they might just not vote at all, if they don't like the other guy.

To you, ABB seems to mean "don't you dare criticize Kerry" - and that's what it often means on DU - don't bleed Kerry's vote by advocating other policies, because that might frighten the floating voters.

Jackson was writing about how to increase Kerry's vote. Your concern is that Kerry is a 'totalitarian' with a 'gaggle of minions' and a 'mantra'. Obviously, you despise Kerry - I think Jackson likes him. Did Jackson say anything more than 'thank you'? I'd be interested in his take on your letter.

[unblock]

3. re-elections are ALWAYS about the incumbent

it wouldn't hurt for kerry to define himself better, but at the end of the day, re-elections are overwhelmingly referenda about the guy in office.

[PROGRESSIVE1]

4. This is why I supported Wes Clark. He's not ABB! He's a clear....

alternative to Bushler. Kerry can't just rely on this ABB stuff alone.

[Carolina]

9. me too, that why Clark was my guy

gosh, I think we lost a great opportunity when we lost Clark.

Kerry has not been able to define how he will lead better than Bush and he lacks the appearance of strength.

[Skittles]

10. most of us never got the opportunity to vote for Clark

it still pisses me off royally that we are stuck with Kerry

[PROGRESSIVE1]

11. I'll say that we lost a great opportunity too. Wes Clark was....

articulate like Clinton, a great communicator. He could answer tough questions on the spot and never missed. Wes Clark would be cleaning the floor with * right now.

[orwell]

5. Women and Children First

Here is an analogy.

If we are all on the Titanic, and it is steaming toward an iceberg, wouldn't it be better to slightly turn the wheel in time instead of barreling full steam ahead?

The US is a gargantuan ocean liner headed toward ruin. The sheeple will not abide by a major course correction so a Kucinich style captain is untenable. So do we opt to "stay the course" with mad Captain Bligh or enlist Mr. Christian to slightly alter the course. We know that Kerry is not Bush, no matter how much the anti-Kerry camp insists he is. We know Bush is heading us toward the iceberg. We know that Kerry is the only chance for a change in the captain's cabin.

Now do we just continue dancing and drinking champagne instead of sending Bligh to the brig and put Christian behind the wheel?

Or is it women and children first?

O

[Larkspur]

6. We hit the iceberg already.

We hit the iceberg when IWR was passed, with the help of Dems like Kerry. When the Titanic hit the iceberg's spur, the majority only felt a slight tremor pass through the ship. With the passage of IWR, the mainstream view didn't or refused to see the reamifications of that resolution pasing. And with Bush racheting up the deficit to cover costs of the war and fatten the pockets of his major contributors, our economic future has been breached for decades to come.

Our involvment in Iraq is a turning point in our nation and it signals the death throes of a overbloated empire. We won't perish from the face of this Earth, but Europe is not going to trust us anymore and China, with our ex-pat corporate help, will increasingly become a

Kerry, if he wins the election, will be taking over a sinking ship, which he helped to sink, that doesn't have enought life boats for everyone and just like in the Titanic, the elite will survive and the middle and lower classes will bear the brunt of the suffering.

[orwell]

8. Dr. Strangelove

While I agree that the ship of state is sinking, I would set the date of the beginning of the fall as more like 1947.

Be that as it may, I disagree with your IWR statement. I've opposed every US military adventure post WWII. I've marched against both Iraq wars and Clinton's Kosovo adventure. But I see the real iceberg still ahead. Iraq was only the beginning of Mr. Bush's excellent adventure. If he is elected to a second term, the gloves will come off and the real Dominionist agenda will be unleashed.

The frightening thing about Bushie is his lack of intellectual engagement coupled with a narcissistic love of unimpeded power. We essentially have a madman at the controls of a very powerful and compliant military. Sound familiar?

Would Kerry deviate from the post WWII US uber alles mindset? Not if his public declarations are to be believed. But the difference with Kerry as opposed to Bush is his willingness to work within the international cabal of crooked power brokers rather than the go-it-alone strategery of Bushie and his NeoCon Dr. Strangeloves. In other words, Kerry will not rock the boat that, at the very least, keeps deadly conflict to the occasional Grenada/Panama instead of a full blown nuclear exchange. President Gore or Kerry would have never gone into Iraq in the first place, although both would have surely attacked Afghanistan.

Kerry clearly saw IWR as a political necessity. He either backed the resolution, or he faced certain "Dem Wimp" fusillades from the Bush Chickenhawks in the campaign.

The purpose of a campaign is to get elected, to tell sweet lies if you will. The American electorate can not handle the truth. Most of us are in a state of denial, whether we cling to some immature notion that a dove can actually win in the current climate or that we adorn King Bush with the mantle of divine wisdom.

In the end, it is the American people who are at fault. We are spoiled and lazy. We fully deserve the horror which lies ahead. And after the dust settles, the historians still standing will look back upon this empire with the same mixture of fascination and disgust that acompanies all Icarian flights to the sun.

They will laugh at our folly.

O

[Martin Eden]

12. I agree

Kerry is by no means the perfect candidate for those of us who opposed the invasion of Iraq. While many of us at DU believe the mission is doomed by the false pretenses and ulterior motives that spawned it, Kerry is apparently committed to it.

I am doubtful of success, but I am even more doubtful that a candidate who advocates cut & run would have a chance to win the presidency in the America of 2004.

It may seem like Orwellian doublethink to the anti-ABB crowd that someone could be an anti-war progressive and also support Kerry on the basis of electability, but what they fail to understand is the overriding importance of ousting Bush.

Support of Kerry is, unfortunately, a practical necessity. In this time and place there is no other option. This does not mean we are BLIND -- it means our eyes are wide open to the reality of the situation.

Kerry more or less represents the post-WWII U.S. imperialism charcterized by multinational institutions, whereas Bush represents a radical shift that is turning our ship of state directly towards the iceberg.

We don't know that a change at the helm will save our ship, but we do know that the mad captain absolutely must be replaced. We also know it is madness to nominate someone who has no chance of becoming captain.

Under any circumstance, we will continue working to set a better course for the future.

But that future will be much darker with another four years of Bush.

[Larkspur]

15. We hit the iceberg when Bush stole the 2000 Election

Until then we were dodging the ice flows and skirting with hitting the berg when Newt Gingrich ascended into power in the early 1990's, but SCOTUS's Bush vs Gore decision was the hit that created the fatal pinpricks that will sink the unsinkable behemoth.

In 1998 or 1999, I watched one of the shows on the Titanic and that show interviewed Eva Hart, one of the last survivors of that ill-fated ship. Her mother had had premonitions in 1912 as they settled in their cabin that the Titanic was doomed. Eva Hart said in her last televised interview that we, our generation, was doomed to suffer a catastrophe of titanic proportions because we have not learned the lessons of the Guilded Age -- that Hubris precedes the Fall. 9-11-01 and Iraq are most likely the tip of the iceberg of disaster or the beginnings of the whirlwind that will change the power structure of the world.

In regards to Kerry and Gore on Iraq, I agree neither would have done what Bush did and beat the drums of war to win control of Congress in 2002 and then launch an illegal war. But Gore strongly opposed IWR in 2002 and publicly condemned it before the IWR vote. Kerry should have listend and done what Dean did, take a strong courageous stand in why he would oppose it. Instead Kerry chose the political cowards way out and went with the flow in the Senate.

We have a leadership crisis in America and it's not all the People's fault. Those who have been given more resources, like the wealthy, also have more responsibility to use them wisely. I got to like Dean personally because he did use his resources to help people, which is what he wanted to do. Kerry is an opportunist who uses people as pawns to gain more power for himself. What we have going on now is Robber Baronism and opposition leaders, like Kerry, more worried about staying in or gaining more power than in demonstrating moral courage by challenging the Robber Barons.

[Nancy Waterman]

16. Kerry has to speak th truth

Bush has created a huge mess to clean up and it won't be a piece of cake. Kerry can't promise miracles. He has to promise a return to sanity and fiscal prudence and repsonsibility. Harold Myerson makes the point in today's WPost.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A29218-2004Apr20.html

[orwell]

18. Miracles

The only "miracle" I've seen him promise that made me cringe was the 10 million new job creation "boast". I just don't think that anyone can promise that, short of establishing some gigantic new federal public works program.

As far as fiscal prudence and reponsibility he has already made this a cornerstone of his economic plan. This is sometning the president has direct control over with the veto pen.

O

[orwell]

17. The People

It is the people's fault. The people don't vote. They don't elect leaders who tell the truth. They allow elections thoroughly corrupted by money and influence. They refuse to be engaged. They have abrogated all of their responsibilities in a a democratic society. They allow themselves to be regularly lied to, demagogued, and marginalized-all for the sake of creature comforts and reassuring platitudes about moral and cultural superiority.

The people have the power to change this in one election cycle. Yet they sit at home and watch the ship of state's deck chairs being rearranged so artfully on Home and Garden TV.

This is the inevitable way of empire. We have tasted the fruits of world domination, fruits that as they sour will poison us. No empire has ever been able to forestall its demise. It is the cyclical nature of the universe, creative destruction.

So I would agree with Eva Hart. The die was cast with the establishment of the permanent National Security State post WWII. This is when we officially chose fear over hope, totalitarianism over democracy.

But all that being said, I choose, as possibly my final act as a US citizen, to stand in the way of the tank in Tienanmen. While Kerry will certainly not propose or impose anything radical to the brain dead masses, I believe that his presidency will result in less innocent lives lost, fairer wealth distribution, more aggressive ecological remediation, and a generally more progressive international role for the United States.

I know what 4 more years of Bush will bring.

O