Would any DUer like to make a pact regarding (future) President Kerry?

[DerekG]

For the past year, I felt it was my duty to expound on the crimes of past Democratic administrations, because I think that it's morally and intellectually dishonest for one to be a party loyalist in respect to militarism--which has killed over 100 million people in the 20th century.

In lieu of the election, however, and the fact I'm actually going to vote for Kerry, I'm going to shut my mouth for several months. My reasons are two: first, I fear the armageddon Christians (dispensationalists) within the Bush administration, and the world must be spared their madness; second, I have lost all hope that positive change can occur from the top down (if a sane candidate like Dennis Kucinich ever had the prospect of winning the nomination, he would either be murdered by the Right or railroaded by the DLC mafioso).

But would anyone care to make a pact: when Kerry is elected, and presuming he assumes a right-to-center position on most issues (as Clinton did), and the war becomes his own, we pounce on his ass. We're going to have to perform a bitter tete-a-tete with the moderates on this board, who will predictably defend him no matter how zealously Kerry may betray the progressive cause.

Hold his feet to the fire, and if he indeed wants to be Bush-lite, we humiliate and destroy him, as our righteous predecessors did to peasant killer extraordinare, Lyndon Baines Johnson.

[JI7]

1. Clinton had to deal with a republican controlled congress

why didn't the great "left" hold clinton accountable by electing enough democrats to congress which in turn would have left moved the agenda more towards the left ?

[bushwakker]

2. You are already obsessed with arguments that may occur

several years down the line. This will never be John Kerry's war however much you want it to be.

[DerekG]

7. Could Kerry become a latter-day John F. Kennedy?

Kerry might surprise me. After all, he does have an affection for the man who gave overtures for rapproachment with Castro, delivered a masterful American University speech which challenged the Cold War ethos, who signed NSAM 263 and refused to go into Vietnam with a full military assault.

Yes, there is indeed a possibility that Kerry covertly seeks to rein in the warlords. I'm just not banking on it.

And I don't think "obsessed" is the correct word to use, bushwakker. If you are aware of our murderous 59 year old foreign policy, then you might share my low expectations of mainstream Democrats.

[latebloomer]

3. Done!

I am waiting for him to pleasantly surprise me.

If not, he will be challenged continually.

[Brian_Expat]

4. My agenda is simple

Get Kerry in, then get someone better in afterwards.

I've not held my fire in the past and I won't in the future if he betrays progressive ideals (as he and Edwards have done persistently on the campaign trail the last few months).

During the election, I grind my teeth and say nothing, but the reprieve ends the day after Election Day.

[Bhaisahab]

5. Its an enormous loss for America and the world

that a bloke like Dennis Kucinich was reduced to the fringes of the democratic candidacy.

Off topic, but i had to say it.

[Vladimir]

6. You do of course realise

that the moment he is elected you will have to fight those who say that criticising him will harm his chances of a second term, or Democrat's chances in congress or... there will always be a reason to toe the party line. All the more reason for people like you to raise hell.

[kayell]

8. Count on me

[silverlib]

9. I agree...

I'll be working for Senate and House candidates, as well, as it will be difficult for him to be progressive without any support. There will be too much need for compromise to get anything done.

His delegates at the convention were, for the most part, very progressive. He knows what his constituents want, but right now, he also knows what is takes to get elected.

I'm with you on holding his feet to the fire. I will also hold the all Democrats feet to the fire. There is a change coming and we do have the power. Dean and Kucinek will not fade quietly into the night, nor will their constituents.

Thanks for posting this.

[WilliamPitt]

10. To do this is the moral obligation of all of us

We win NOTHING on November 2nd except the chance to clean up after Bush. January 20th is the first day of Year Zero, and if any of you think you're work is done after the election, frankly, you never should have bothered to show up in the first place.

[DemBones DemBones]

11. Agreed. I hope he will emulate the best of

Kennedy and will not get caught in the sort of trap that made a war started by Eisenhower when the French left Viet Nam, and continued by Kennedy, into "Johnson's war." This war on Iraq is Bush*'s war and Kerry must end the damn thing, not let it take him down in flames.


Helen Thomas said it well in her column yesterday:

"Kerry has talked about drawing down American forces and an eventual pullout."

"But he could learn something from two previous wartime Republican presidential candidates who had a better take on the public pulse and won the White House."

"In 1952 during the Korean War, Dwight D. Eisenhower made a campaign promise that he would "go to Korea" and end the bloodshed. He did go to Korea and the war ended with a cease-fire standoff months after his inauguration."

"In 1968, Richard Nixon said he had a "plan" to end the Vietnam War and the voters, wanting peace, bought it. Nixon -- in part forced by Congress -- reduced the U.S. troop commitment to Vietnam, but U.S. forces were still there when Nixon was forced to resign from office in 1974 because of the Watergate scandal. But the war ended the following year."

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/186677_thomas18.html

[JI7]

12. no

[TheRovingGourmet]

13. Target acquired. Locked. Begin firing Nov. 3.