In defense of John Kerry

It occurred to me that I haven't said much in here yet that was overtly political. I guess I assumed that most of my friends are pretty familiar with my views already. But with the Democratic National Convention going on, and the silly season winding up, it's started to be on my mind. So here goes nothing...

"For every complex question, there is a simple answer, and it is wrong." -- Oscar Wilde. If anyone from the Kerry campaign is listening, it ought to be one of his slogans. I've seen him get a lot of flak for giving long, complex answers to questions. More power to him, I say. Anything like a honest answer to the sorts of questions we ask our politicians is going to be pretty complicated. I think it's mainly the (any-wing) media itself that comes down on him for this, because it makes their life difficult when you can't be easily reduced to sound bites. The only other possible the explanation is that the electorate is mostly idiots, and doesn't like it when the smart man uses big words, which I don't believe is the case.

I also get pretty testy whenever someone points out that Kerry has been on many sides of various issues during the course of his career. You know what? So have I. It's called learning. Show me a representative who's voted totally consistently, on every bill, on every issue, and I'll show you a representative who's never had a conscious thought in his life. If he can explain to me why he voted the way he did on any given question, then he has my full support. (All of this, of course, presumes that a given bill only encompasses a single goal which, guess what, is rarely the case.)

Is there really someone out there (cheap shot: other than George W. Bush) who believes that the world is a place of black and white and simple solutions? Please, tell me their address, that I might go and smack them over the head with the frying pan of moral complexity. It's sure as hell not the world that I live in. I don't want my president to be a man whose job it is to gloss over the messy details of messy situations. It's not good vs. evil or us vs. them, and it's entirely possible to be both with us and against us. Bring on the ambiguity, I say.

It has become increasingly clear to me over the years that a president's greatest influence, and greatest legacy, is the stamp they leave on our nation's culture. They set the tone for us all, for years at a time. I'm a bit of an idealist, I guess, but I need to vote for the candidate whose ideal country seems closest to my own. Because, in no small measure, they will push the country in that direction. In that light, for me, it's an almost laughably easy choice...

More than anything else, though, I fear the results if the popular vote and the electoral college go separate ways again. I think it would be disastrous, undermining the already shaky confidence of an apathetic populace, on both sides of the aisle. Nothing could be more poisonous for a democracy than the impression that your vote doesn't matter.

Random tidbit: rumor has it that the Arab network Aljazeera will be broadcasting more of the DNC than any of the American networks. Good for them. I daresay that the average Middle Eastern citizen has an even more urgent interest in the results of the election than we do. It's not life and death for us, but it might be for them.

He'll slay me for this, but I'm going to link to a few of my friend Derrick's various sketches. I think he's a really, really good artist, and that he should hear that from more people than just me.