Stephen S. Noetzel: My Election Season Recap |  |
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As I sat at my table at Jillian's, the night wore on and my stomach began to sour. "Is my third beer Skanky?" "Was that some bad calamari?" No, not really. The beer and the calamari were fine. I was feeling a touch of Red State Nausea. So I began to reflect on What Went Wrong. I know it's everyone's game now. Especially at the heights of the Kerry Campaign Team. Me? I was only a Foot Soldier. But just like my service in Vietnam, I figure I've earned a right to an opinion on "the war of two-thousand four".
Before looking at what Kerry might have done differently, it's probably wise to examine what the Bush Team did "right". Through his Campaign Architect, Carl Rove, George Bush finally produced Shock and Awe. (Side Question: How much would it cost to get Rove to work for the Dems next time?). Their campaign was brilliant in its simplicity. FEAR and FAITH, produced Shock and Awe. I've seen it work since I went to Sunday School in the days of my Holy Roller, Speakin' in Tongues, Hellfire & Brimstone, Glossilalia, Fundamentalist, Assemblies of God, youth.
"...Onward Christian Soldiers" we used to sing..."marching of to war..with the Cross of Jeeeee-sus, going on before". Fear and Faith. Shock and awe. Especially when you are six years old. Which is precisely the mental age of the American Voter that Carl Rove targeted.
If ya don't get 'em with Fear, ya get 'em on the rebound, with Faith. Best of all..ya get 'em with BOTH!
That Fear & Faith Cocktail is what gets testosterone filled teen-agers to enlist in the Marines, even in the middle of a rather nasty war. Particularly in the middle of a rather nasty war. I saw it many times over, in Vietnam. On my first day "in-country", one of my Green Beret compatriots told me "..I'm here because it's the only place I can kill people, and not go to jail for it." Onward Christian Soldiers.
It's also what emboldens Soccer Moms..to lay their sons on the alter of sacrifice. Most recently, I whiffed the evidence of that phenomena in the strangest of circumstances. On Halloween night, after my grand daughter had filled her plastic pumpkin with candy from a neighborhood "round" of Trick-or-Treating, I sat with her on her own "stoop", as she doled out her parents store-bought candy, to the throng of Trick-or-treaters that bounded up the front steps to her City College area home. Lots of "store bought" costumes these days. Only a handful of "homemades". Little girls in Princess outfits, Snow White, Angels, Butterflies, and Witches. Among the boys, Spider Man was big. Also The Hulk and other heroes. A few Cops.
Hmmmm, I thought. Authoritarian parents. Dad is a cop. And then, sprinkled through the evening, a half-dozen 6 to 10 year old boys.. in Desert Storm Army Outfits. Here, in Liberal, Anti-War San Francisco, Soccer Moms were preparing to lay their sons on the Sacrificial Alter of Fear.
Here's your candy young Private..Onward Christian Soldiers. Was that tinge of nausea the result of too much dipping into the candy bucket? Or the vision of those same kids, eagerly trading their GI Joe Costume..a decade from today, for..another GI Joe Costume..as the War on Terror continues into Decade #2.
Bad economy? Bad Air? Bad Water? None of that matters. It's easily Over-Ridden with the Shock and Awe of Fear and Faith. Gotta hand it to you Carl. Would you consider switching sides in "08?
Don't think it's not a possibility. The Democrats are going to try to "out-Right" the GOP. Just watch it start to happen...over the next couple of years. F'god's sake they are ALREADY praising the Foreign Policy of George Bush Senior!
Which brings me to the Errors of the Kerry Campaign. As John Kerry bent over backwards to "Out-Hawk" the Bush Administration on the war in Iraq and the War on Terrorism, he lost his opportunity to present a clear choice between himself and the "Onward Christian Soldiers" theme of the Rumsfeld Department of Aggression.
The truth is, had John Kerry used the texts of his brilliant anti-war speeches of 1971, and delivered them on the Campaign Trail, with the same conviction as he did "back in the day", he would have done no worse than he did by trying to "out-Hawk" Bush. And he might have given birth to an anti-war movement that caught fire by the time he went to the Boston Convention.
In the bargain he would have avoided much of the Flip-Flop label. Most Certainly he would have had a better answer to the poisoned Question "Knowing what you know now..would you have voted to authorize the Attack on Iraq?"..in a far superior and far more consistent way. As in: "..Hell no George..and neither would YOU have! No sane person would!"
In fact, that answer fits a lot better with "Wrong War, Wrong Place, Wrong Time". Yes John, there WERE mixed messages. We might STILL have lost this election, with adherence to the PEACE plank in the Democratic Platform, but just imagine the size of the PEACE MOVEMENT that Bush would be facing right now.
Imagine.
Do I mean to say he should have campaigned for "Out NOW" as he did as a Spokesman for VVAW? That would be Political Suicide. Should he have announced a Date Certain for the End of the Occupation? You bet! At least as part of a Defined Plan to Win the Peace. Who knows what the electorate might have done with a Peace President versus War President choice. To mix a couple of metaphors, it's all Quarterbacking in Hindsight.
I've learned one thing from experience. As the Peace Movement grows, there comes a "tipping point" when Political Suicide turns to Political Advantage. In 1969, "Cut and Run was Political Suicide. Five years later, it was the Order of the Day. By 1974, "Stay the Course" was political suicide.
I believe this time it won't take us 5 years to arrive at "Cut and Run". Civil war in Iraq, plus a suicide car-bomb or two in the US will have the George Bush Plurality SCREAMING for our troops in Iraq to get the hell out, and start protecting us at home. Democrats won't be leading the Peace Movement. They will have "leap- frogged" over Republicans to the right! By that time, Republicans are more likely to call for it, but they will choke on the words "Cut and Run".
No, the Peace Movement will be led by...Greens. Greens whose ranks have been bloated by Democrats who have "bailed out" as their party lurches to the right. Democrats like me. I believe it is entirely possible that during the Second Reign of Bush the Second, we will witness the disintegration of the Democratic Party as we know it.
There will be MASSIVE defections as the party moves to the right. The Green Party will stand to gain significant volume as the only Viable Alternative. I believe that by the next Presidential Race, the GREENS will represent a THIRD PARTY with a voice that Ralph Nader could not have imagined in his Best Wet Dream. Like 15% of the vote; with a sprinkling of Representation in the Congress of the United States.
The beginning of the Three Party System, and Proportional Representation in America. I believe I'll see it in my lifetime. The Revolution WILL be televised.
Stephen S. Noetzel
Vietnam Veteran Against the War...AGAIN!
San Francisco,(True-Blue)California |
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