The Progressive Case for John Kerry

This is an amplification of a comment I made over in Atrios-land, on another endless Nader thread.

John Kerry's getting hammered. Of course he's getting hammered by the Righties--but he's also getting hammered by the Naderites and the odd disaffected Deaniac. Even some who aren't hammering him, and support his candidacy, from the left, are doing so in an hold-your-nose ABB way.

John Kerry's been my senator for 18 years, and I've been trying to figure out exactly how he morphed into a psuedo-Republican.

So, I did some research, and came up with some answers.

He didn't. With a couple of exceptions.

First, the 'bad', the exceptions.

The big exception is Iraq. I truly believe Iraq (and to a lesser extent the Patriot Act) is where the "Kerry's a squishy centrist" meme came from.

I'll say it right here--I agree with anyone opposed to his vote on Iraq. I groaned when I heard about it. But I truly believe he agonized about that vote. The problem with Iraq is why we're there, and that goes right back to Dubya and his administration and cronies. Kerry, like everyone else, got lied to. Yes, he didn't see through it, when a lot of us did. But that doesn't make him Bush Lite.

There are a couple others in there, too--voting for the Telecommunications Act (what was he thinking?) and voting for welfare reform.

Welfare reform, by the way, is the one place where the 'flip-flop' really sticks. He voted against it consistantly, then voted for the last one, and it probably was for political expediency. Both Clinton's, and his own--he was getting blasted by Bill Weld on that one during the campaign that year.

He's also very free-trade, which I know frosts some progressives (not this one, I work in retail. I don't care where it's made as long as I can sell it! But I understand the problems with it, believe me.)

So, he's not perfect. I've gotten the bad stuff out of the way. But what about the rest of it?

I did some research. Some of this I knew, since he's my senator, but I went digging for more. One of the great places to look is on the interest groups 'scorecard' thingies. I found a lot of good info there. Now, the raw number (Senator Blutarski agrees with the Church of Bruce 95% of the time!) isn't the whole story, I know that--and some of the sites I visited don't even give a 'number grade' like that. Some do. But a lot of the meat on those sites is digging in and seeing the individual votes.

Kerry's got a long record. Even though the sites I visited don't go back before (depending on which one) 1996-1999, there's a lot in there.

Let's start with one near and dear to my heart--what Saint Ralph once derisively dismissed as "Gonad Politics". (OK, sorry, that's my one gratuitious slap at Ralph. I'll stop now.) This is one of my biggies.

Planned Parenthood gives Kerry a score of 100%. ONE. HUNDRED. FREAKIN. PERCENT.

They're a little light on actual votes, so some of the info on actual votes came from the ACLU, which supports choice as well. But it's not that Kerry has been consistant in his support of a woman's right to choose--it's everything. Support for making emergency contraception over-the-counter. Support for RU-486. Support for comprehensive sex ed (not 'abstinence only'). Everything.

He's top-notch on gay rights. He's voted for all anti-discrimination measures. He's not perfect on marriage (preferring civil unions) but he was one of the Lonely Fifteen voting against DOMA.

As a brief aside...in the acronym GBLT, I'm the 'T'. (I'm transgendered rather than transsexual--meaning though I do have gender identity issues I chose not to modify my body. I do crossdress.) I write erotica. I have two daughters who will eventually morph into Hormonal Teenaged Girls. 'Gonad politics' is a big deal to me.

And that's my new meme. Anyone that tries to tell me 'what's the difference between the candidates of the Two Established Parties?' gets that one. "When Bush gets 100% from Planned Parenthood, come talk to me."

Anyway.....

Since I've referred to the ACLU in that discussion, let's look at them next. They don't give a number grade overall, just for one year, but give mucho voting results. Along with the Patriot Act, they have one problem with Kerry--his unceasing support for campaign finance reform. (The ACLU's against that.) All of the 'goes counter to the ACLU' votes for Kerry, except for the Patriot Act, were about campaign finance. Everything else, he's right with them. Voted against confirming Ashcroft, even; as well as that judge Estrada.

I next went to the Sierra Club. No numbers, but I went back six or so years and couldn't find a single vote where Kerry voted against them.

Next, and last, was the AFL-CIO. They do give a number grade--Kerry got 91%. He's disagreed on a few things, Welfare Reform being the biggie. But, obviously, he's agreed on far, far more. Consistant votes against tax cuts for the rich. Consistant votes against the Repub's efforts to make it even harder for workers to organize. Consistant votes against repealing the estate tax. Consistant votes for extending unemployment benefits. Vote against that odious overtime thing.
It's all there.

So....100% on 'gonad politics'. Good on civil liberties, great if you take out campaign finance. Top-notch on the enviroment. 91% for labor.

There are more, I know. This is just a quick sample. Look around, look up more yourself, see what else is out there.

As I said, he's not perfect. He's got some blind spots. He's made some votes I vehemently disagree with. But we're talking about a body of work here.

And that body of work tells me that John Kerry is One Of Us. He's the most progressive candidate the Dems have offered up since at least Mondale. Now, we want to keep that quiet from FreeperMadness and Little Green Foofoos, of course (g)...but there it is.

It's not about the rhetoric, really. It's about the votes.