Yes, it’s the political silly season, when media experts hyperventilate over oddly assorted, often trivial controversies (George Allen’s “Macaca”-gate; the allegedly racist Harold-Ford-at-the-Playboy-Party ad; Rush Limbaugh’s “insensitive” mockery of Michael J. Fox) that loom large in the run-up to a major election but stand little chance of qualifying for long term historical significance. The explosive dispute over John Kerry’s dismissive, insulting comments about our troops in Iraq may, however, constitute an important exception and could mark a notable turning point in the vicious, decades-long battle between Democratic and Republican image-makers.
For several reasons, Kerry’s crack matters. Those reasons are:
1. He clearly meant it.
The day after his breathtakingly clumsy remarks at Pasadena City College suggesting that the uneducated and unsuccessful got “stuck in Iraq,” he made a laughable attempt to clarify his sentiments by insisting he meant to insult President Bush, not the troops in the field. Unfortunately for Mr. Kerry, videotape captured his actual observations (“You know, education, if you make the most of it, you study hard, you do your homework, you try to be smart, you can do well. And if you don’t you get stuck in Iraq.”) and so did many eye-witnesses. One of those reporters on the scene, Cortney Fielding of the Whittier Daily News, described the Senator’s statement and the context in which it appeared: “Kerry charmed the crowd with tales of surfing at Mission Beach and got laughs for a series of one liners, including telling the crowd he had just returned from Texas, ‘Where the president used to live –now he lives in a state of denial.’ Kerry then told the students that if they were able to navigate the education system, they could get comfortable jobs – “if you don’t, you get stuck in Iraq,’ he said to a mixture of laughter and gasps.” If Kerry had meant his comments as another jab at Bush, why the gasps? And why not any attempt to explain his lame attempt at humor on the spot by adding, for instance, words that specified, “and a prime example of somebody who didn’t do his homework, and didn’t try to be smart, and who didn’t do well, is George W. Bush…. “or some comments to that effect. The actual tape shows Kerry delivering his fateful (and perhaps politically fatal) remarks, getting the decidedly mixed response, and then racing on without hesitation to fulsome praise of his Senatorial colleagues, Boxer and Feinstein. If the context of his words about getting “stuck in Iraq” had in any way exonerated him from the charge of insulting the troops then why, even twenty hours after the event, had his handlers failed to call press attention to the full tape (which most of America still hadn’t seen, as of this writing)? Only the blindest partisan could fail to acknowledge the Senator’s intent to portray the U.S. forces “stuck in Iraq” as pitiable losers, while he tried to encourage his student audience to avoid their fate by concentrating on educational success.
2. Kerry’s Comments Highlighted the Democrats’ Longstanding (and uncomfortable) Position on the Wrong Side of the Nation’s Key Cultural Divides.
Despite their flamboyant efforts to masquerade as Church-going, duck-hunting, gun-loving, flag-waving, NASCAR fans, the leaders of the Democratic Party clearly feel more at home with the values of San Francisco or Nantucket than with the down-home mores of Biloxi or Boise. In June, an important Gallup Poll asked respondents to rate 15 institutions in terms of “public confidence.” The military came out on top, followed by police and then preachers. As the survey reported: “At different times in the past, banks, the presidency, the Supreme Court, newspapers and public schools have commanded a high degree of confidence from at least half of Americans. However, this year the top tier group is limited to the military, the police, and church or organized religion.” The key GOP advantage in this political campaign (and all other battles in the near future) involves the accurate, unshakable public perception that Republicans display far more genuine and consistent support than their opponents when it comes to the three institutions that Americans embrace most enthusiastically. How can Democrats pose as “friends of the police” when they regularly endorse the agenda of the ACLU, and show more concern over police brutality and the rights of the accused than for aggressive, effective law enforcement (energetic interrogation – or wiretapping –anyone?). When it comes to religious institutions, liberals not only split with most believers on big issues like abortion and the defense of traditional marriage, but also warn of the dangers of “theocracy” when their opponents promote even the most innocuous displays of religious symbols.
It’s no surprise that weekly church-goers generally favor Republicans over Democrats by margins of nearly two to one. It’s also long-accepted that military families tilt overwhelmingly toward the GOP, despite Kerry’s ostentatious and incessant references to his own time in the service more than 35 years ago. During the current controversy, his initial statement responding to White House demands for an apology declared: “If anyone thinks a veteran would criticize the more than 140,000 heroes serving in Iraq and not the president who got us stuck there, they’re crazy.” But insanity isn’t required to note that at least one celebrated veteran, Kerry, has compiled a long history of criticizing our “heroes” in shockingly intemperate terms– beginning with his celebrated (and slanderous) claims to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that our forces in Vietnam committed widespread atrocities on a daily basis. Just a few months ago, the Massachusetts Senator slammed members of the US military in Baghdad for “terrorizing innocent Iraqis” in their homes. Despite the assumptions of Kerry and company, military personnel aren’t stupid: in fact, recently released Defense Department figures show that 2005 recruits are more intelligent, better off financially and, yes, more educated than their counterparts in the public at large. These willing warriors in an all-volunteer military understand that the loud-mouthed lunatics who want to cut back on our defense budget, see American power as a threat to world peace, and regularly deride our troops as baby killers, all find their natural political home in the Democratic Party.
3. Kerry’s Words Expose the Essentially Fraudulent Nature of Contemporary Liberalism: Expressing Disrespect for the Very Americans the Left Claims to Defend.
Most people understand the difference between pity and respect. You may well feel sorry for the drunk collapsed on the street corner but you don’t, in any meaningful sense, respect his current condition. You probably look on a nursing infant with tenderness and affection but given his helpless, utterly dependent state you don’t view him as an equal. In similar terms, the Democrats who claim to care only about the less fortunate among us, who insist that they speak for the struggling victims suffering from cruel capitalist excesses, view these masses as helpless, unlucky, unintelligent and, ultimately, pathetic. On my radio show today I spoke with a caller from Santa Monica, California, who defended Kerry’s comments and noted that in his opinion the military option represented a “last resort” for unfortunates with no other options in life. To show his sympathy for the young soldiers, the caller said he sent “care packages” to the troops in Iraq. I noted in response that he might also send care packages to starving villagers in Africa, since the gesture suggested he felt sorry for our soldiers rather than inspired by their example. The consistent theme of Democratic propaganda is pity for the purportedly helpless and hopeless, including the middle class as well as the poor, all of whom can’t succeed or even survive without the efforts of liberal activists and the government programs they promote. If the Dems insist that ordinary citizens can’t succeed without government help, and the GOP emphasizes that hard work and decency still bring the American dream if bureaucrats and do-gooders stay out of the way, which side demonstrates the greater respect for the ability and potential of American strivers?
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