October 12, 2004
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Kerry, the right wing Democrat
national politicsConservartive pundent Andrew Sullivan sees electing Kerry as a potential step towards eliminating the progressive wing of the Democratic Party. Not in so many words, but read it for your self and tell me what you think:
The major objection to this, of course, is that Kerry simply cannot be trusted. He won’t simply change tactics in the war; he’ll change direction. His long record of appeasing America’s enemies certainly suggests as much. And I don’t blame anyone who thinks that’s enough evidence and votes for Bush as a result. But it behooves fair-minded people also to listen to what Kerry has actually said in this campaign: that he won’t relent against terrorism. He isn’t Howard Dean. And 9/11 has changed things – even within the Democratic party. Moreover, the war on terror, if we are going to succeed in the long run, has to be a bipartisan affair. By far the most worrying legacy of the Bush years is the sense that this is a Republican war: that one party owns it and that our partisan battles will define it. Simply put: that’s bad for the country and bad for the war. Electing Kerry would force the Democrats to take responsibility for a war that is theirs’ as well. It would deny the Deaniac-Mooreish wing a perpetual chance to whine and pretend that we are not threatened, or to entertain such excrescences as the notion that president Bush is as big a threat as al Qaeda or Saddam. It would call their bluff and force the Democrats to get serious again about defending this country. Maybe I’m naive in hoping this could happen. But it is not an inappropriate hope. And it is offered in the broader belief that we can win this war – united rather than divided.
Well, that’s an interesting way to look at it. Consider everything he’s saying here. Kerry may be able to unite the country behind the war on terror and will weaken the “Deaniac-Mooreish” wing of the Democratic party. Personally, I’m not too concerned about Dean or Moore, but the implication is that the more progressive elements of the party will be undermined.
