Keep your eye out and you're bound to see this argument -- now floated by many conservative columnists -- that Kerry may win because voters need a breather -- a time-out, if you will -- from the turbocharged rush of history we've experienced over the last three years under George W. Bush. The president has simply accomplished so much, bent the world so mightily to his will, that Americans are craving a return to normalcy, as that campaign neologism once had it.
-- Joshua Marshall
Are they preparing for November 3 already? Seriously, that is almost too funny. Marshall and others, including Amy Sullivan, guest blogging for Political Animal, provide good coverage of the convention. For instance, Sullivan discusses some of the religious imagery in Bill Clinton's speech. Legal Fiction also discusses its importance, its rhetorical power to supply a positive counterpoise to the Republicans. Simplistic, but shades of wisdom, spoken wonderfully:
Democrats and Republicans have very different and honestly held ideas on that choices we should make, rooted in fundamentally different views of how we should meet our common challenges at home and how we should play our role in the world. Democrats want to build an America of shared responsibilities and shared opportunities and more global cooperation, acting alone only when we must.
We think the role of government is to give people the tools and conditions to make the most of their lives. Republicans believe in an America run by the right people, their people, in a world in which we act unilaterally when we can, and cooperate when we have to.
They think the role of government is to concentrate wealth and power in the hands of those who embrace their political, economic, and social views, leaving ordinary citizens to fend for themselves on matters like health care and retirement security.
Surely, the "Republicans" are not all so stereotypical, but sadly enough, the current leaders do lean that way. It leads Andrew Sullivan to speak out in tones that would fit in pretty well at the Convention, one he is loving so far anyway:
The voters who will decide this election have already, I think, made up their minds that they could live without a second Bush term. This is not because they necessarily hate Bush (many don't, including me); nor because they believe that his war and economic policies have been failures (again, I think the record is mixed); but because his conduct of the war in the last year has been wracked with error and hubris, and his economic policy relies upon tax cuts that we simply cannot afford with the kind of spending levels Bush has also enacted. I think it's also clear that, in so far as some swing voters are libertarian in outlook, Bush has shown his authoritarian, anti-federalist colors. This administration is uninterested in restraining government power, in balancing the budget, in winning over opponents (as opposed to sliming them), and in allowing people to live their own lives free from government moralism.
One noteworthy aspect of this year's Democratic Party Platform is the removal of the pro-death penalty plank. Sen. Kerry has been a consistent opponent of the death penalty, bending only in the area of terrorism. His home state is one of twelve that bars executions, many of the others are key "swing states," including Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota, Michigan, Maine and West Virginia. Many other states only have it in name only or have been particularly concerned about it of late (Illinois). Compared to the President's record on the subject, who is more "mainstream?"
Bill Clinton again:
Since we're all in the same boat, let us chose as the captain of our ship a brave good man who knows how to steer a vessel though troubled waters to the calm seas and clear skies of our more perfect union. We know our mission. Let us join as one and say in a loud, clear voice: Send John Kerry.
As Josh Marshall notes, for many of us "the rejection of this president is so total, exists on so many different levels" [the speakers might not be dripping with venom, but the anti-Bush stuff is there, sure enough] that the answer is clear. Clinton's words might have a bit of hope in them, a sense of potential, but the basics are clear: we know our mission, our need to join together, and an important moment is at hand. Lest we ever forget, that must always be kept in mind.