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Certainly the main theme
of this year’s presidential election for the Democratic Party is “Get Bush
the fuck out of office.” The f-word would have to be censored from their
platform, of course, because they have been very careful to avoid all
controversy, thereby eliminating much of the potential excitement of the
campaign. Let’s hope that they don’t follow the same boring path of Al Gore
in 2000. Even Gore seems more animated these days, but my main concern
after watching four days of Democratic Convention coverage on C-SPAN is that
the party seems to be scripting every move of the entire campaign. This
included that vast majority of the speeches at the convention, where each
politician magically spoke on the same issues, had the same opinions, and
all made sure you knew about John Kerry’s heroics in Vietnam.
The highlights of
the convention came in three speeches that veered from the repetitive
rhetoric of most of the event, and provided humor, passion, and different
ideas. On the first night, Bill Clinton warmed up the crowd like no one
else in the party can do, joking that he resented John Edwards’ Southern
charm (being so similar to his own). He acknowledged Kerry’s war record,
but did it in a self-deprecating fashion, explaining that Kerry stepped
forward when he and President Bush avoided the conflict. Clinton is also
one of the few politicians who can keep people interested when
he delves into issues, explaining
that for the first time in his life, he is in the top 1% of wealthiest
Americans that benefited from recent tax cuts. “When I was in office,” he
continued, “the Republicans were pretty mean to me. When I left and made
money, I became part of the most important group in the world to them. At
first I thought I should send them a thank you note—until I realized they
were sending you the bill.”
Illinois State Senator Barack Obama stole the show on the
second night of the convention, even in the midst of more familiar names
like Howard Dean, Tom Daschle, and Ted Kennedy. Obama, who is running
for a U.S. Senate seat this year, was granted the honor of being the
keynote speaker despite never having held a seat in Congress, never being a
Governor, and being completely unknown to the vast majority of the country.
He clearly is the rising star in the Democratic party (apologies to
Edwards and Hilary Clinton), and I would even venture to speculate that they
are grooming him to be the first black President of the United States. The
highlight of Obama’s speech came when he chastised the government for trying
to simplify the issues and divide
America into
“red” (conservative) and “blue” (liberal) states: “But I’ve got news for
them, too. We worship an awesome God in the Blue States, and we don’t like
federal agents poking around our libraries in the Red States. We coach
Little League in the Blue States and have gay friends in the Red States.
There are patriots who opposed the war in
Iraq and patriots who supported
it. We are one people, all of us pledging allegiance to the stars and
stripes, all of us defending the United States of America.”
The final brilliant performance of the week was ironically
the most heavily criticized speech at the convention. It also drew some of
the largest and most frequent applauses by the spectators at Boston’s
Fleet
Center. Former Presidential candidate Al Sharpton, given a six-minute time
slot, ended up preaching for 20 minutes about critical issues that everyone
else seemed to have ignored, including gay marriage, inhumanity in Sudan,
and D.C. statehood. Confronting Bush, he answered a series of questions
about why the black vote always goes to the Democratic party, explaining
that “we got the Civil Rights Act under a Democrat, we got the Voting Rights
Act under a Democrat, we got the right to organize under Democrats…” With
the rest of the party torn over how to address gay marriage, and certain
party leaders shying away from speaking out at all for fear of bad
publicity, Sharpton announced, “the issue of government is not to determine
who may sleep together in the bedroom, it’s to help those that might not be
eating in the kitchen!” And as the crowd erupted and Sharpton’s sermon came
to a climax, he declared, “Mr. President… the reason we took Florida so
seriously, is our right to vote wasn’t gained by age. Our vote is soaked in
the blood of martyrs, soaked in the blood of Goodman, Chaney, and Schwerner,
soaked in the blood of four little girls in Birmingham. This vote is sacred
to us! This vote can’t be bargained away. This vote can’t be given away.
With all due respect, Mr. President, read my lips: Our vote is not for
sale!”
As the speech concluded, those of us watching
sat mesmerized and energized about what seemed like a revolution that was
about to take place. People care about this election like they’ve never
cared before. This hope quickly turned to astonishment, though, when
analyst after analyst criticized Sharpton for speaking too long, and ruining
the “timetable” for other speakers. One commentator in particular joked
that “apparently Al didn’t get the memo to tone it down for the convention.
Everyone else seemed to be on the same page.” They just didn’t get it. Al
knew early on that he wasn’t going to be elected President of the United
States. But he continued to campaign, spoke his mind at debates,
interjected humor but always kept the real candidates honest and focused on
issues that were important to minorities. He said months ago that he would
take his delegates and come to the convention, continuing to fight for the
issues his campaign stood for. Why would anyone expect him to suddenly
ignore these issues and fall in line with a very united, but frightened
Democratic party?
Despite the memo that apparently told Democrats, “Don’t
interject any personality into this campaign. Don’t get emotional. Don’t
do ANYTHING that might be controversial to ANYONE,” the strong presence of
Barack Obama and Al Sharpton gave me hope that even if their opinions don’t
mesh with the majority of Americans, at least they are getting heard.
Democrats should be appalled that Washington D.C., a largely poor, black,
liberal community, has no electoral votes in our current voting system.
Most Americans aren’t even aware that little girls are getting raped and
killed every day in the Sudan, while we are stuck in a quagmire
about 1,000 miles away. This election is more important than any in the
last half century. People understand that even if some liberals have
slightly different opinions than others. Since millions of Americans have
been duped into believing that George W. Bush has a great personality, that
he’s just an honest, every day guy, it is especially important that John
Kerry and the Democrats show some personality of their own, without being
fearful of the consequences.
Note: I would encourage anyone who missed these speeches to go to the
website of the Democratic National Convention and view them.
http://www.dems2004.org
-Joe Kostelnik
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