Learn From It

Have you noticed how slippery the slope of smear-campaigning is? Things so quickly descend into the dank, septic lands of "why the other guy sucks", far away from the nobler, more sublime heights of "why I like/admire/appreciate the guy I intend to vote for".

Now, I call that place septic and dank because I've been there. It's nothing but name-calling and subterfuge and low-effort (but high volume) attempts to frustrate any initiative the other guy might have. In that land, there's not enough space to, in turn, create enough time to stop and to listen. Not enough time to think, consider and perhaps respond on any level above appropriating insults that apply to both sides and selectively applying them only to the enemy.

And make no mistake: there is no opposition, only enemy. No opponent, only nemesis.

Inference is overrun by interference, discourse goes to disrespect, idea goes to dogma.

Things get all turned around. The practice of free (read: contrary) speech somehow turns into accusations of Soviet- and Viet-style communism where, ironically, opposing speech is not at all welcomed. Even irony doesn't get a chance to breathe, doesn't get a chance to do its usual work of exposing the not-so-universal aspects of Accepted Universals.

The moment at which old-school conservatism hitched its wagon to religious zeal is not exactly known, but its effects are. Bureaucratic Theocracy answered a long-standing philosophical question a long time ago: when the irresistible force of the human need for adolescent absolutes meets the immovable object of human diversity, bureaucracy swallows them both. Put another way, when 'god' and the system converge into the same entity, the system always wins. Belief gets shifted from the god to the government, because, let's face it...no matter how ill-equipped and feckless, the present mother beats the absent father any day. It's sad, really, because it's the offspring who suffer at the hands of she who bore them.

But sometimes the offspring create a new thing. Or remember an old alternative: positivity.

I can, with a sober and earnest and candid face say that, as far as I know him, know of him, I really like John Kerry. I like that when you see those bits of 'real' pop through (like I did when Kerry appeared on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart), the difference between off-script and on-script is noticeable, but only extends to a change in tone, not demeanor. He's the same guy whether he's campaigning as he is when the political composure breaks and his person comes through. I like his wife a whole bunch; I admire her and her taste, her bearing, her words and so I like John Kerry because Teresa does. I cannot imagine her being with someone she does not respect. The Heinzes never worked that way.

I like that he respected the UCMJ while he was subject to it and I love that he honored the ideals of free speech in this country by exercising his own speech after the UCMJ no longer had its claws in him. He may have broken a promise to his former shipmates, but those kinds of promises are bad-faith anyway (where I'd define a bad-faith promise as one which seeks to hide truths rather than maintain them). Quite frankly, whether he served in the military or not, I don't care. I don't see how taking orders without question and having the opportunity to do your own thing only in limited, local contexts makes you better prepared to lead the "free world".

I like John Kerry because of his positivism. This is not to say he hasn't been critical of the opposition, but his criticism comes in the form of refutable fact. His criticism is aimed at the behavior of the person, not the person himself. And no one is free from criticism, not even John Kerry.

I wish John Kerry would risk more sound-bytes (e.g., "I support marriage for same-sex couples because...") that would nonetheless be lifted from their original context by the rabid mobs who will then see it splashed all over every "liberal media" outlet. Go for it, I say, it will just hasten their end. Let them foam at the mouth and let them continue on their path because their path is finite. It will end because it has ended every time, whether the rabid mob has been conservative or liberal. It will end because that is its nature, its fate.

I'm not voting for John Kerry solely or even primarily because I believe that President Bush is frightfully inept and intangibly corrupt, even though I believe those things to be true. No, I'm voting for John Kerry because I like the man and I have confidence in his abilities right now in 2004.

I'm also not saying you should vote for "Anybody But Bush", but I understand if you do.