They hate Kerry for his adulthood

[dsewell]

The Salon.com piece today on GWB's wastrel year in Alabama prodded me to a realization that is unfavorable to Bush but not necessarily to his electoral chances.

The "Swift Boat Veterans" and their ilk who will never forgive Kerry for his anti-Vietnam War testimony and activism hate a young man who was completely, in their mind, an adult. And of course we'd agree: you can't watch his 1971 testimony without being amazed at how poised and mature Kerry was then. Even Nixon admitted as much in his grumbling way. But GWB, as we all know, was a child back then, and a child for a long time after. He became a man only when he was saved, that's Christianity 101: "When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things."

Most of Bush's base is not going to care no matter what he did as a twenty-something; they're just not going to apply the same standards that they will to Kerry. And for that matter, they aren't asking too closely whether GWB ever really did enter into manhood after all. They like having a bad-boy-turned-choir-boy in the White House. There's lots of Scripture about how the fool is wiser than the wise, and GWB is the poster boy for all of it.

It's not a choice for us Democrats to revert to childhood ourselves, to the "nanny-nanny-nanny, you're another" of the Sean Hannitys and Dick Cheneys of the world. (You thought Cheney was a grownup? Maybe he used to be, but he has been retreating into infantilism at an alarming pace this past year.) It's our gift and our burden to appeal to mature ethics, mature spirituality, and mature intellect. It's our year to be the grownups, whether we're 18 or 81. (And one thing that is wonderful about being a Democrat this year is the bonds that have sprung up among the generations, all those grandmotherly Deaniacs arm-in-arm with the high-school kids; the best line I heard during the Democratic primaries was from a recent college graduate who told the story of going to his first Meetup: "It was enlightening to hear white-haired ladies call Bush a mother*****!")

[lanparty]

1. They resent that Kerry ...

Became an adult at age 19. Bush barely passed adolescense at 40. The man is STILL a fucking child.

[Sannum]

2. Great Article

When JK speaks, it is like you are hearing an intelligent and thoughtful human being.

When W speaks, it is like you are hearing the drunken guy who followed you around Campus and heckled you.