"I once was blind -- and still can't see"
It seems that the Democrats are insensitive to "moral values." This puzzles me because I think that opposing a war, or working for economic justice, or making health care more available in America all derive from a moral vision. Apparently, it is not the moral vision -- the set of faith and family values -- that helped re-elect George W. Bush.
I am now taking seriously the theory that we mainstream journalists are different from mainstream America. "Different" is too pale a word. We are alienated. We may live in the same country, but we treat each other like aliens. Maybe it's worse than that because we usually see and suspect the alien in our midst. The churched people who embrace Bush, in spite of a bumbling war and a stumbling economy, are more than alien to me. They are invisible.
"Confessions of an Alienated Journalist" by the Poynter Institute's Roy Peter Clark. Clark, a journalist, is writing for journalists here, but others might relate.
Comments
Quick reaction:
There's a big difference between what most people who support the Democrats believe and the vision that Kerry was articulating.
The quote above illustrates that. I mean, Kerry ran on a PRO-war platform, not an anti-war one. The majority of the electorate was not exposed to a genuine anti-war position. Similarly, Kerry wasn't running on an "economic justice" platform either.
On the issues that the Republicans were able to mobilize their base (abortion, faith, family values, gay marriage), Kerry did not articulate a cogent counterargument. In some of those (abortion, gay marriage) Kerry went to great pains to explain his personal opposition to abortion and gay marriage.
So if you're out there opposing abortion and gay marriage and one candidate articulates that clearly and the other comes in just slightly to the left, but not trying at all to convince you to be pro-choice or to support gay marriage, who are you going to vote for?
Kerry's strategy enabled opposition to abortion and gay marriage to get stronger because he didn't challenge or debate people on those issues. He basically supported them.
The worse part is that the Left allowed this. And now we have all this head scratching about what happened. The Left kept apologizing for Kerry's horrible positions and now it is acting as if people voted against Kerry because he was pro-choice or pro-gay marriage when he was neither of those things. The Left wasn't out there arguing for these things either. Rather it was stumping for Kerry despite the fact that he offered nothing to people that believe all the stuff Clark's talking about.
Posted by: zagg | November 5, 2004 5:44 PM