I have had an evolution in my feelings for Kerry over the past year. I have gone from worshiping him to hating him to liking him again. As most of you know, I was a Dean guy all the way. But before my blogging days here at Kos, I actually was a Kerry fan. I liked him because I thought that he would be the most capable person to take on Bush. I remembered videos that I saw of the young Kerry who fought in a War that most chickened out of and fought against it once he knew that it was wrong.
Then I saw him in his early campaign and I was disappointed. I felt strongly, as I still do today that the power to declare war belongs in Congress' hands. This was written into the Constitution because of forefathers knew that absolute power corrupts absolutely. I thought that a man who fought in Vietnam and then fought against it should understand this more then anyone. I thought that one of the biggest lessons that we can learn from Vietnam was that you do not give the president a blank check to go to war,
ever.
I also felt that his voting for the Patriot Act and NCLB without taking into account their faults was a total mistake and a mark of someone who lacks leadership. It isn't that I wrote him off. It was that I was disappointed in him, the way someone is disappointed in those that they look up to. I thought that the Kerry who blasted John O'Neil would kick the ass of the Kerry who voted for the War. I felt that if he showed half of the leadership that he showed in fighting against the Vietnam War or bring Iran-Contra to the forefront, then I would go to the mat for him.
Then, I started listening to Dean a little more. He was saying everything that I wanted to hear. He talked with great emotion about how the Democratic Party let us down. He talked about how young people, like myself, are the future of this great country, and we cannot mortgage their, or dare I say my, future in order to score a temporary political point. He talked about how the Democratic Party has taken Black people, like myself, for granted. As a young Black man, I felt then, and I still do today, that the politicians in both parties have disgraced the past, disregarded the present, and mortgaged the future in order to appeal to fickle middle. They would say, "Oh, we can't talk about Civil Rights because that would upset the invisible middle aged white suburban voter with a picket dense and 2.5 kinds." Then they would basically say, "Fuck young people because they don't vote." Dean said the hell with that, and for that, I will forever be in his gratitude.
But we all know what happened to Dean, and now I think that it is for the best. I think so because I know that it isn't about Dean, or now even John Kerry. It is about me. It is about a techy software engineer (me), a former peace activist, and a former Marine and current crusader for working people sitting down, having a beer, and talking about how we are going to change our country. It is about a guy, myself, who was either too lazy or too uninformed to get involved in local politics. He would go home and bullshit on his computer or veg out in front of TV before he got off his ass to do anything. It is about a guy, me again, who now knows that it is his job to stay in his community no matter how successful he gets and not leave it until everyone is afforded the fruits that he has received. This is my country too damnit, and my community is my community. And it is my job to not sleep until my country and my community can sleep.
So, after all this and a little bit of complaining, I forgave the Kerry of a few months past. I also saw the Kerry of the 70's. In his DNC speech he was that Kerry again, and in my mind he was the president. He came out in these debates and fought as if his life depended on it, but we all know that our lives depend on it. I am now seeing the Kerry that I admired, and I am at peace. And now, if we should be lucky enough to elect him, the fight begins in November. I will go to the mat to make sure that the Kerry that I see is the Kerry that we all know that he can be. That is the real fight, because it is so easy for him or any of these guys to do what is easy. And if Kerry lets me down again, it will not be his fault; it will be mine, because he can only answer me if I scream loud enough for him to hear me. That is what Democracy is all about. Those who scream the loudest get the most.
So, we can all get drunk and be merry on November 2nd, but once we get over our hangovers on November 3rd, we must fight to make sure that this country and this president can be as great as we know that they can be. We must scream until they do what we say and beg us not to scream anymore.