- You might think from the way the progressive press laments
Al Gore's decision not to run for President again that there had been a
genuine loss to liberalism in America.
-
- But that's not quite the way I see it. Although few candidates
ever came better groomed for high office than Mr. Gore, it is his performance
in the 2000 presidential election that must be lamented.
-
- Yes, he won the popular vote - teaching a new generation
of Americans that being elected is no guarantee of winning under the arcane
and anti-democratic provisions of America's 18th century Constitution.
But with an opponent like George Bush, Mr. Gore should have won that vote
by a large enough margin to make the entire business of Florida and the
Supreme Court irrelevant. He should have, as they used to say, "mopped
the floor with" an opponent as inarticulate, unimaginative, and with
such a questionable background as Mr. Bush. But he didn't.
-
- I remember, once or twice, hearing some tough words from
Mr. Gore and thinking perhaps he had found his voice, only to be quickly
disillusioned over the next day or two. Well, what could you expect from
someone who chose to open his campaign by speaking about family values?
-
- My God, we'd had an earful of that tired, insincere,
and exploitative theme from Republicans over the previous couple of decades.
You might say Mr. Clinton's impeachment was the family values impeachment,
spearheaded, as it was, by a Republican leader who was sleeping with a
staff member and a gross, pompous old phony who used to go nightclubbing
with someone else's wife.
-
- I know some will say the impeachment was about honesty,
but, please, where is there recorded a single honest word from Gingrich,
Hyde, Thurmond, Helms, Armey, DeLay, or Gramm?
-
- Of course, apart from being the phony family values impeachment,
it was an embarrassing demonstration of incompetence. All that massive
effort and expense without so much as having taken a head count on the
likelihood of success?
-
- Mr. Gore's ineffectual campaign never touched this claptrap
and hypocrisy. He was afraid to do so, even though he had a record as one
of the straightest arrows in Washington. He simply ignored a massive, steaming
heap of garbage that had been left on America's front lawn in Washington.
Yet, he managed to blame Mr. Clinton for his loss.
-
- It is with no regret whatever that I wave goodbye to
Mr. Gore, not that I believe there is another at-all-likely candidate of
any real merit waiting for his or her chance. (Note: I include her despite
knowing that over vast stretches of America this is as grievous an error
as denying the self-evident truth that all women should wear frilly aprons
and bake cookies, a la Tipper. She won't be missed either. Is there not
something hopeless in that ridiculous nickname for a middle-aged person?)
-
- Now we have Mr. Lott's remarks about Strom Thurmond.
Suddenly, there is a deluge of articles and comments about how terrible
his words were, about how Republicans are in bed with racists. Well, Mr.
Lott has a very long record, and Mr. Thurmond has an even longer one. The
greatest disgrace concerning these men is that a large body of Americans
has voted repeatedly over decades to keep them in high office. Perhaps,
most ridiculous of all, American liberals seem to forget that Mr. Thurmond
started as a Southern Democrat.
-
- In the 1930s, Eleanor Roosevelt prodded the great Franklin
to speak against the horrible lynchings of black people in the South, but
the President felt that politics would not permit this. Southern Democrats
were a key part of his political coalition, and Southern Democrats were
segregationists, and far worse in a number of cases. So Franklin kept quiet
on lynching, and, in some southern states, lynchings continued to be occasions
for family picnics. I can't resist pointing out the historic family values
connection here.
-
- The evolution of the contemporary "southern strategy"
in American presidential elections is based on little more than the fact
that the same people who used to be Southern Democrats (the Republican
party having become anathema in the south for more than a century after
Mr. Lincoln's "evil" Civil War) switched to being Republicans
after the Civil Rights movement and Mr. Johnson's "evil" voting
rights legislation of the 1960s. Such is the slow path of progress.
-
- Poor Trent forgot himself and will now likely pay the
price. Neanderthal Republican hacks like columnist Jeff Jacoby already
have the kettle to the boil for rendering Lott's hide, a fact which should
alert us that some deeper political reason lies behind these rare Republican
chest thumping displays over principles of decency. Again, I will wave
goodbye with not a twinge of regret, although sure in the knowledge that
no better person waits to take his place. I can't help feeling scorn over
American liberals' satisfaction at Lott's pathetic statement - pathetic,
that is, when weighed in a balance against a lifetime's work in the cause
of backwardness and stupidity.
-
- Of course, thanks in part to Mr. Gore, we now have a
President for whom competence is not even an issue. He is the first Disney
World-diorama President, capable only of looking as though his plastic
coated, mechanical jaw actually makes the sounds coming from his computer
chips. He has earned a place in history though, having demonstrated that
the presidency itself is now a Constitutional institution of questionable
relevance. The druid-priests to imperial plutocracy who scurry around the
White House keeping his servomotors running and downloading new sound bites
onto his chips - the creatures actually now running America - could do
just as well or badly if the Bush display were packed up and stored away
in the Smithsonian's basement.
-
- Perhaps most pathetic is American liberals' constant
looking to the Democratic Party as savior. Many progressive sites on the
Internet display counters with the number of days remaining in Bush's term.
"Excuse me!" as many Americans annoyingly say when making a rude
point, but are we talking about the same Democratic Party that has not
said a word about mistreatment of prisoners, torture, and murder since
9/11?
-
- Mr. Clinton's foreign policy, while lacking the Appalachian-throwback
character of Mr. Bush's, was often belligerent, often badly conceived,
and largely reflected the same set of interests. Dare I also mention Mr.
Johnson launching into what was to become the holocaust of Vietnam? Or
the charming Mr. Kennedy trying repeatedly to assassinate Mr. Castro, beginning
the flow of troops to Vietnam, creating the corps of professional thugs
called the Green Berets, and nearly engulfing the world in nuclear war?
Or Mr. Truman's dangerous fiasco in Korea? The same jingoistic, imperialist
impulse remains dominant.
-
- But I suppose there is relief in longing for a friendlier
face like Mr. Clinton's. That way you can feel a whole lot better about
what is going on. And it still will go on, no matter whether Bush remains
or not.
-
- From the world's point of view, there is actually some
painful merit in Bush's holding office. I believe already, without the
President's crowd fully realizing what they've done, forces have been set
in motion for historic realignments in international affairs. Bush's Texas-barbecue-and-lethal-injection
crowd is driving all civilized nations on the planet to reconsider aspects
of their relationship with the United States, something that likely will
have profound consequences over the next few decades.
-
- John Chuckman encourages your comments: <mailto:jchuckman@YellowTimes.org>jchuckman@YellowTimes.org
-
- YellowTimes.org is an international news and opinion
publication. YellowTimes.org encourages its material to be reproduced,
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the original source, http://www.YellowTimes.org. Internet web links to
http://www.YellowTimes.org are appreciated.
-
-
- Comment
- From Eleanor Clarke
- Eleanorclarke879@cs.com
- 12-21-2
-
- While reading Mr. Chuckman's article, I got as far as
the self evident truth that all women should be wearing frilly aprons and
baking cookies a la Tipper Gore.
-
- First of all, I'm confused by his apparent mis-use of
the French language. When people ask for pie a la mode, then I believe
that they are asking for the pie of the day.
-
- Ergo, women who wear frilly aprons and bake cookies a
la Tipper Gore, would be, in English translation, baking cookies of the
Tipper Gore.
-
- As a frilly apron wearing woman, I sit here batting my
eyelashes, and re-applying my lipstick as I ponder the future of this man's
journalism career.
-
- Sigh. I have never heard of, what is it again? The
YellowKnife Times? And probably very few of us will ever hear the name
of, who was that again? John Chuckman?
-
- With a wave of my dainty hand, and a sniff of indignance,
I dismiss Mr. Chuckman, and his little rant as I am sure half of any potential
audience he could have captured will.
-
- Correctly sensing that the article in question is written
by an intellectual light weight, I decided it did not merit any further
study, and happily, I incurred no additional strain to my luminous, dewy
eyes.
-
- Ah...There goes the timer. Brownie, anyone?
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