A Slap in The Face, A Brick on the Head

Posted on July 30, 2004 in Campaign 2004

To stick out your head on the Left and say “Kerry isn’t all that much of a change for Bush when it comes to peace or justice” is to ask for many of your friends to pull out the machetes and bludgeons. I’ve kept silent on the matter of the Democratic nominee — not out of approval because I do not approve of this one time antiwar activist who voted for the War in Iraq — but because I did not want to lose myself in answering and rebutting claim after claim about why pacifists and leftists “need” to vote for this man who is neither pacifist nor leftist.

To put it succinctly, I opposed the war in Iraq. Kerry and Edwards both voted for it and they have not come clean. The “a vote for anyone other than Kerry is a vote for Bush” schtick won’t work here: a vote for whoever I choose to vote for is a vote for that person.

Greg Palast, a favorite of those who oppose the Bush Administration and the War in Iraq, spoke out today to the same effect as people like Jeremy and myself have been speaking (in Jeremy’s case continuously, in mine on and off) for several months now:

Yesterday, my buddy Michael Moore and I held a press conference in Boston. Some joker of a reporter asked Mr. Fahrenheit about Kerry’s gung-ho keep’m-in-Baghdad position. Michael fudged and fidgeted. I felt bad for him as he faked the answer, “President Kerry would not have sent us to war.” But as Senator, Kerry did.

I’ve got an easier job than Michael: as a journalist I don’t have to defend any candidate. Nevertheless, I know that my Democratic Party friends will want to ship me to Guantanamo for asking, “You believe in Kerry, but does he believe in you?”

Remember, comrades, I’m only asking questions, here. I’m sorry if the answers make you uncomfortable about your favorite rich guy.

I know what you’re going to say. “Isn’t Bush worse?”

By a long shot. But asking if Kerry is as bad as Bush is like asking if a slap in the face is as painful as a brick to the skull.

Sing it Brother Greg. Sing it loud.

Mark we as one citizen who is aghast at the spectacle of a sincere anti-war activist turned apologist for a grotesque war in Iraq. Shame on you, John Kerry! Shame on you!

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Selectsmart has a quiz. I put in my choices and allowed for the option of Third Party candidates. A couple of issues such as shipping jobs overseas which figure prominently in my own political preferences were missing. This is how I scored:

1. Your ideal theoretical candidate. (100%)
   
2. Cobb, David – Green Party (94%)
   
3. Nader, Ralph – Independent (90%)
   
4. Brown, Walt – Socialist Party (82%)
   
5. Kerry, Senator John, MA – Democrat (70%)
   
6. Badnarik, Michael – Libertarian (29%)
   
7. Peroutka, Michael – Constitution Party (12%)
   
8. Bush, President George W. – Republican (7%)
   

Thank you to Mamageek for this quiz.