There's gonna be alot of anger thrown around in the next eight months....
The very fine line we have to walk...
a line highlighted by the differences in the Kerry and the Edwards campaigns...
is the division between a carping anger at the state of the country that is incompatibile with a positive vision...and a patriotic anger that resonates with everyone who feels that something is awry with our government and it's policies.
Basically, this is why I think Edwards should be on the ticket...John Kerry should be NO MORE angry than anyone who has chosen Mr. Positive as their running mate. And Edwards, the day he signs on, should fuel up his patriotic anger battery cells....because that is all he is going to be doing for months.
In effect, bait and switch, freaky friday time...
with John Kerry morphing positive and doling out the 'heavy hitting' at critical moments and in TV spots...and John Edwards morphing into the aggressive trial lawyer role and taking BushCo. to the cleaners, while, I hope, maintaining a sense of humor.
Our greatest danger in this campaign is if the Rove machine slips a sumo on us....and pins us a the party of "negativity" leaving Bush the high ground of sunny speaking engagements in Republican suburbs. You know the kind: where all is well and good and smiles until the smirk comes out and Bush says "Now, some people don't like, don't want, don't understand...." and the whole crowd turns into fanged Republi-zombies...
and this WILL happen if the moveon.org ads are TOO partisan, if Kerry sticks to his predictable negative sound bites without enunciating a positive vision or, if the liberal side of the party forgets the difference between...patriotic anger and humorless, self-righteous nabobism. Can we liberals and left Democrats really do that? Uh, yes...we can. So I pledge to look in the mirror every morning this campaign season and repeat this Daily Affirmation a la Stuart Smalley:
I am angry with George Bush and his administration, I'm angry with the way this government is handling things, and, dangnabbit, I'm angry because I love this country. I love this country, and, dangnabbit, I'm angry....I love this country....dangnabbit....