Affirmative Action

I think that it’s important for rank and file Democrats to begin to develop a positive, everyman water-cooler argument for Kerry’s candidacy. Frankly, I think that ABB is going to propel us into the White House, but it’s important, nonetheless, to develop some real support and belief in the man we are sending in. It is going to be very difficult to govern, the problems are enormous and I’m hopeful that the Democrats will have sharp enough memories of the horrors of the alternative that we’ll at least give Kerry a chance before we set upon him like sharks for failing to be all things to all people — as we always do.

Today,Tristero posts a very interesting e-mail from novelist Amy Tan in which she admits to being less passionately for John Kerry than passionately against George W. Bush. So, she asked her friend, lawyer and novelist Scott Turow, what the affirmative reasons for voting for Kerry are:

I could say the following without blushing: He is running against a man who was not fit for duty in 1968 and is not fit for duty today, a man who lacked the qualifications for the office when he was elected and has demonstrated it. We have been through a skein of national disasters, for which he accepts no blame, because he literally doesn’t understand enough about the job to realize how a better President would have responded. John Kerry has been in public life for 35 years. He was a prosecutor when GWB was running an oil company into the ground. And he was already a seasoned United States Senator when GWB decided it was time to give up abusing substances. JK has a sharper grasp of foreign policy, and more experience with it, than any candidate for President in the last 50 years, with the possible exception of GHWB (see today’s NYT). His dedication to the cause of our military and veterans is long established. And his commitment to economic and social justice for all Americans cannot be doubted. A man can’t be the committed liberal Bush sometimes maintains Kerry is, and also the unprincipled waffler. Life and public service are complicated, as GWB doesn’t understand. JK does. He has a sense of nuance, and the experience and values to improve the life of the country.

For another affirmative argument for Kerry, I [im]modestly submit this.

There are many to be made and I hope that we bloggers, at least, will continue to try to make them. He’s out there making the speeches, developing the policies, taking the punches. The least we can do is try to make a citizens argument in his favor.