If I had to name the one greatest thing that everything else reduces down to in this election year, it would be the vision for the future. As my jingoistic title betrays, I believe that the Kerry campaign would do well to focus on this aspect in harmony with an effort to register younger voters.
I feel a strong sense of ambition and anticipation when I think of a Kerry administration. I think that this instinct could be dormant within the minds of many who are moderate or undecided, along with an abeyant understanding that four more years would be more of an atonement for a misguided ballot than a celebration of an enightened choice.
When you consider the comparison, it is an especially strong argument for a challenger in this particular incumbent year.
George Bush stands to bring back a mutated brand of the 1980's in America. For the next four years, we could look forward to a bilateral, cold war type of foreign policy against a threat that is more without definition than the concepts of "socialization" or "communism" ever were.
We can expect an expanding corporatization of America, with a continuation of job losses at home, sacrificed to a globalist free trade policy designed to enrich the rich (a policy that suits those who think that roadside produce stands should practice "free" trade).
An abandoment of science in favor of special interests, where the FDA and the EPA are prostituted to satiate the licentious desires of Glaxo Smith Kline and Monsanto.
A continuation of the conglomeration of speech from the mouths of the many to the mouths of the powerful.
In short, four years headed right to 1984.
In contrast, Kerry stands for picking up the PROGRESS towards a better future. One where the hopes and dreams of all Americans can stand a fair chance against those who have already conquered theirs -- by inheritance, by unscrupulousness, by hook, or by crook.
Today, a google search for "Kerry us forward" reveals no slogan. I think it's a good one to put out there. It sure beats "A Stronger America", though I can see the point there in this wartime election.