Chekhov's Mistress

Somewhere in Texas a village is missing its idiot

by Bud Parr

…and it’s our duty to send him home.



It’s hard to believe that we’re only about 14 months away from the opportunity to vote out President Bush, although I somehow doubt that will happen. Last week, the Democrats held a debate – inauspiciously scheduled for the same day that football season began – that more or less starts the process of narrowing the field to a candidate that could possibly make a credible challenger in ‘04.



Here’s the problem. Dean blazed into the campaign as the single candidate that, if nothing else, seems to represent the sensibility of a disaffected and vocal portion of the US population. My guess is that most of the people attending Dean rallies are the same conscientious folks that futilely marched for peace back in February (of which I was one). That’s great, let’s get excited! But that’s not enough to change the course of the election, or more importantly, move us away from the dangerous course that Mr. Bush’s puppet masters are directing us.



In the last election, some people were excited enough to vote for the Green Party’s candidate, Ralph Nader. These, I suppose, were voters that lacked confidence in Gore’s leadership abilities. That’s understandable. But, unfortunately, voting with your heart may have disastrous results. Arguably, had those that voted for Nader merely voted for the Democratic Party candidate, Bush would never have won (or stolen, depending on your point of view) that election. The Green Party is making impressive inroads in local races, but it is absolutely absurd to think that you can just march into the presidential election as a third party in a two-party system and accomplish anything other than a protest vote. Did Nader succeed in furthering a green agenda? Clearly not. (Just a quick google search will provide a bit of insight into this)



Dean’s candidacy is energizing the media and some voters and probably putting other POTUS wannabes on their toes. That’s good. But ultimately, we need a candidate that will not just say Bush is bad, and the war in Iraq is bad, but a candidate that will present credible strategies to meaningfully deal with the problems in the Middle East (not just Iraq), to get our budget mess back in order, to put the EPA back on track, and to do something about all those jobless people out there. Most importantly though, we need a candidate that can win, and that means appealing to an awful lot of people in this country. I hate to be a bore, but winning means a candidate that is probably a little more centrist and yes, a bit more boring than Dean.



Who that is, I don’t know yet, but I doubt that it’s Gephardt or Lieberman (this is represents little more than my impressions or biases at this point), but perhaps Kerry, or Clark, if he runs, might have the military background that will comfort a frightened country and understand what we are now up against with the hole that we’ve dug in Iraq, and perhaps be a good, honest leader – something that we’ve lacked for a long, long, time.



p.s. According to the latest count in the NYTs, there are 287 dead soldiers from the Iraq war now. Interesting, isn’t it, how those that call themselves patriots, those that exclaim, “we support our troops!” are the first to send those men and women to their death?



p.p.s. I stole the quote I used for the title of this post – but 192 Books, a bookstore in NYC, sells a t-shirt with it inscribed on the front for $20 at http://www.192books.com/news.htm

posted September 06, 2003

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