One Reporter's Opinion


Saturday, November 06, 2004

An abbreviated response to "An Open Letter to the Democratic Party"

1. You didn't give me clear positions on the issues.

You aren't paying attention.

I get the idea that what you're asking for are not clear positions. You're asking for simplistic positions.

2. You didn't convince me that you would defend America against the threats of terrorism.

Where you get your ideas about this, I don't know. Kerry made it very clear that he wanted to hunt down and kill the terrorists. What's unclear about that? Did you miss the part about Kerry wanting to send 40,000 additional troops, create 3 new divisions, and to hunt down those responsible? Did you miss what he said about Afghanistan?

Again, you're simply not paying attention.

3. You insulted my intelligence by the constant mantra of Kerry's service in Vietnam.

Your Republican friends insulted my intelligence by not firing someone over the Abu Ghraib incidents. Your Republican friends insulted my intelligence by constantly referring to 9/11 as if no one remembered what happened on that day. Your Republican friends insulted my intelligence by putting Zell Miller on their stage as a keynote speaker, as if that addled old jerk even represents the Democratic party in anything but name. Your Republican friends insulted my intelligence by endorsing the war in Iraq even after it was revealed that there were no links to Al Qaeda and no weapons of mass destruction. Your Republican friends insulted my intelligence by saying that the war in Iraq was about saving people there from Saddam Hussein. Your Republican friends insulted my intelligence by constantly referring to a liberal media that doesn't exist. Your Republican friends insulted my intelligence by saying Massachusetts like a 4-letter word.

4. Your constant references to the opinions of the rest of the world scared me

You need to wake up and realize that the War On Terrorism requires that we have strong allies -- and that if we alienate them and pursue our own reckless course of action, we will not be able to effectively contain the threat.

Failing that, you really should go out and see some of the rest of the world. There's a lot out there that you should experience, and I believe that if you had a healthier respect for other cultures, you might understand why your fear and arrogance here are completely misplaced.

5. You disturbed me with your demonization of the rich.

I must have missed this. I believe that Kerry talked a lot about taxing the rich -- that they needed to share fairly in the burden of fighting a global war. This is the only time in history where the wealthy were not asked to sacrifice. But everyone else did.

Wherever it is that Kerry said that the rich were evil? You are apparently hearing things that aren't there.

6. Here is something you could work on right about now: I could not stomach to listen to your incessant hatred of President Bush.

Since this is an "open letter to the Democratic Party," I believe what you're talking about are not the opinions of the national campaign, but the opinions of a number of people following the race closely that have strong personal opinions.

Contrast that with the vulgar, immature, incessant attacks on President Clinton. Those were espoused and encouraged by the GOP, right up to the top of the organization.

7. I don't think you really want my vote.

Here, I agree with you. Sort of.

I don't think Democrats would mind having your vote, but I think they're stupid for trying to chase after it.

Why? You're clearly a Republican leaning voter. They don't need you in order to win, but they don't "get" that the solution is to pander less to you and your kind. The reason that more people don't vote Democratic is because the Democrats are trying too hard to win voters like you, instead of focusing on their traditional bases of support. By trying to win so-called right-leaning moderates like you (which I find hard to believe, since your objections could have come straight from a list of GOP talking points), they're forced to adopt positions that alienate people from the process. More needs to be done to get people to feel like they're invested in the results of the election. 40% of the eligible population didn't even bother to vote this time, and among those, I'm certain that Kerry and the Democrats can find the 3% of voters who'd make the difference nationally, with or without you.

What they need to do is to stop feeling so timid about writing off your vote.

Maybe then, they'd feel free to take stronger positions on labor issues like the minimum wage and outsourcing, on minority empowerment, on health care issues, on getting corporations out of Congress, on enforcing voter rights, and so on.

Yeah, we'd lose you.

But I could live with that.


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