Forum: John Kerry speaks on campus
Its official: John F. Kerry is an unabashed liberal. Of course, we conservatives knew it all along. During the anti-Bush, leftist love fest, led by the still enraged – and deranged – Howard Dean, Sen. Kerry finally shed his “centrist,” “anti-Dean” fa?ade and proudly revealed himself as the radical, ultra-liberal he really is. Sen. Kerry has effectively masked his staunch liberalism for months now, running a successful primary campaign as the supposedly mainstream Democratic alternative to Gov. Howard Dean. Yet, with the endorsement by Dean, a man who is perhaps the biggest loser in American political primary history, Sen. Kerry is no longer even trying to hide the liberal skeletons in his closet. Apparently, he and Howard Dean have agreed on everything all along and to reference Kerry’s own words – “you have to look long and hard for the differences (between him and Dean).” As if the botched “foreign leaders” comment was not harmful enough, Kerry now openly supports the failed and overwhelmingly rejected Dean ideology.
The Dean endorsement should be seen as just the latest round of bad news for Sen. Kerry’s already faltering campaign. This time, no ski trip will be able to obscure the harsh reality that Kerry is not only a liberal, but, worse, a devoted Dean leftist. We now know exactly what to expect from a potential Kerry presidency and, quite frankly, America cannot afford it.
The mere presence of Dean is a grim reminder that a Kerry presidency would only mean a rebirth of the tried and failed Clintonian policies, which severely weakened America’s national defense capabilities and created an economic recession. Kerry is just the latest in a long line of Vietnam era, “blame America first,” liberal politicians who would willingly sacrifice the sovereignty of American foreign policy – our very national security – to the whims of a historically ineffective and blindly anti-American international body. Mr. Kerry would much rather “play nice” with fanatical Islamic terrorists, countering them with indictments and other futile multilateral forces. But we saw these policies at work during the disastrous Clinton years, while terrorists attacked America time and again without consequence.
Liberals had their chance to defend America, and they failed miserably. We can now safely say that “feel good” liberalism has no place in the War on Terror; the stakes are just too high. We need conservatives, like President Bush who will do “whatever it takes” to prevent the next 9/11, even if it means – God forbid – France and Germany are mad at us.
Dean’s ideology is not only too outrageous for mainstream Americans, but also mainstream Democrats, who soundly defeated him in the recent primary. No wonder, then, GW was chosen for the Dean endorsement rally. Only with an impressionable, progressive and rebellious college audience, can Dean still get a meaningful reception. However, by siding with Howard Dean, Mr. Kerry has done irreparable damage to his campaign, for he has alienated the moderates and independents who will surely decide the upcoming election. Maybe it won’t be so close in November after all.
-The writer, a freshman majoring in political science, is a Hatchet columnist.
