Iowa--Where Ironies and Paradoxes Abound-- It's Kerry, Un-Bush but Un-Dean.

Jan. 19, 2004: PoliSat .Com's Political Satire/ Commentary Daily Update # 01·· ™©·2004··
Where the satire is always commentary, but the commentary isn't always satire (but you'll know the difference)·
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Iowa-- Where Ironies and Paradoxes Abound-- It's Kerry, Un-Bush but Un-Dean.·

Ironies and paradoxes abound in our political process. Iowa caucuses are the centerpiece of political news on Presidential politics today even though with the exception of Jimmy Carter, success in Iowa has not paved the way to the White House for a Democrat. Lieberman and Clark chose not to compete in Iowa, yet the potential muddle in Iowa may redound to their temporary benefits. Among the small percentage of Americans infected with perpetual infatuation with politics (i.e., we who are political junkies), it's an exciting process. To the vast majority of Americans, the process at this stage is unbearably boring. They are busy enjoying the freedom our system provides while we are hyperventilating over who should control the levers of power. Freedom to participate includes the freedom to abstain. In many ways, abstention from this process is a strong vote in the belief that the process will ultimately produce a responsible leader regardless of who wins. With rare exceptions, one could view the history of the Presidential selection process as having proven them right.

I'm Kerry, Un-Bush But UnDean.

I'm Kerry, with lessons I've gleaned
in battl'ing the mad Doctor Dean:
Un-Bush may be fine
but polls show I climbed
much higher as Kerry, Un-Dean.

The current process abounds with more ironies and paradoxes than most of the perpetual conflict of ideas that characterize our political process. Lieberman, one of the more decent and honorable men in politics, has little chance of being selected due to his being Jewish. Why? Too many political activists who sincerely admire him fear his status of being Jewish would make it impossible for foreign policy decisions by him as President with respect to the Middle East to be perceived by most Arabs in the Middle East other than (incorrectly) as the policy of a Jewish supporter of Israel. Paradoxically, the process of sea-change in Middle East politics commenced (though long from finished) by Bush's strategic vision will ultimately increase the chances that a Joe Lieberman of the future become President. To Lieberman's credit, he seems to share Bush's strategic vision despite his disagreement with it at the margins.

Paradoxically, the recent, rapid rehabilitation of Kerry's campaign may signify that the best hopes of the most vociferous anti-war activists may be the candidate who supported the resolution for the war, then equivocated on such support and invoked his former anti-war-warrior status to appeal to the anti-war activists, and then invoked his warrior status to rebuke some of the extreme views of the anti-war activists. Kerry's heroism in Vietnam demonstrated his ability to make the right decision when the chips are down, but his tendency to equivocate on political issues suggests he has less political courage than human courage. One suspects that if Kerry were to have been President instead of Bush, even Kerry-- despite his equivocations in claiming he would have somehow persuaded the French to behave as though they were the Brits-- might well have followed the same course as did Bush. I doubt, however, that Kerry would admit this (and may genuinely not believe it), but it's difficult to imagine that one possessing the personal courage he displayed in Vietnam would -- after 9-11-- choose to wait until a threat is demonstrably imminent to counter it at far greater risks and sacrifice than to deal with it sooner. Rumsfeld stated it best soon after 9-11. The gist of his statement was that our intelligence capabilities are not, and never will be, sophisticated enough to predict precisely the last moment at which we may effectively counter a potentially catastrophic threat; therefore, with respect to gathering dangers of such threats, it's better to act too soon than too late.

In Iowa today, the un-vitriolic activists are on the verge of chastening, even if not defeating, the vitriolic activists. The most vitriolic activists, who have most loudly screamed that Bush and his supporters have been challenging their "patriotism," were themselves the first and most prolific practitioners of such tactic. One could hardly deem their accusations that Bush launched Operation Iraqi Freedom for the personal financial gain of his supporters and/or for his own narrow political advantage as being anything other than challenging his patriotism. Certainly one of the most unpatriotic acts any leader could commit would be to use the lives of our soldiers as pawns to advance such interests.

The vitriolic activists, who scream loudest about the value of free speech, demonstrate how little they understand the concept by labeling verbal condemnation of their caustic speech as "censorship" and as attacks on their "patriotism." One could certainly strenuously disagree with the wisdom of Bush's strategic vision without need to attribute it to the basest of human motives. Such vitriolic attacks detract from, rather than contribute to, serious intellectual consideration of the pros and cons of such strategy. Those of us who favor Bush's strategic vision are more than willing to debate it on its merits rather than on the basis of ad hominem attacks, but we're also disinclined to ignore the vitriolic ad hominem attacks on its supporters by opponents blinded by ideology and/or hatred.

To the credit of John Kerry and William Weld, they both conducted high-minded campaigns against each other. (Perhaps it was because they had so few differences between their political philosophies.) Few people know that before John F. Kennedy was assassinated, he and the man he expected to be his opponent in the next election (Goldwater, an unbigoted man misperceived as a bigot) had tentatively agreed they would schedule joint campaign appearances to debate their differences in a civil manner. Although it's unlikely, it's certainly possible for civility to drown out vitriol. Until such were to occur, serious minded people are obliged to continue trying to expose, condemn, mock and belittle the ideologies of vitriol. It's the difference between hitting first and hitting back. Is vitriol likely to disappear from our political dialogue? Certainly not as long as we have free speech. No free-speech advocate would want to pay the loss-of-freedom price we'd have to pay to eliminate vitriol from public discourse. Could civil debate marginalize vitriolic debate? Of course it could.

Some observers of satire and parody perceive them as the equivalent of the vitriolic polemics. Is that true for some satire and parody? Of course. Are satire and parody inherently incompatible with civil debate? Of course not. Can satire and parody contribute to civil debate? Of course it can and does. Part of what satire and parody can accomplish is what normal debate cannot-- i.e., catch the attention of some who otherwise would remain disengaged from the political process.

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