Commentary
Oregon Daily Emerald
Wednesday, January 12, 2005
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■ In my opinion
When the right was right in retrospect
When I become dictator for life, all
elections will be abolished. Until then,
unruly popularism reigns, leaving
those of us on the left side of the politi
cal spectrum out in a cold deeper than
last year’s ice storm.
More than two months have passed
since the natural disaster known as the
2004 election occurred. Democrats, still
shell-shocked come inauguration day,
are faced with massive hurricane dam
age and the need to rebuild.
Now is the time for the Democrats to
set a New Year’s resolution to strength
en the party. A unique opportunity to
do so is in the appointment of a new
national chair who can bring a new
tone. For this reason, Howard Dean’s
election as DNC chairman would be
disastrous. I may like Dean personally,
and may endorse many of his policies,
but the next nail in the Democrat’s cof
fin is the press slipping the-scream
that-was into every single discussion
of liberal politics for the next three
years, as will inevitably happen
with a chairman so prominent and
so unsuccessful.
No. Let the face of the Democrats be
a smiling one. Public relations is going
to be key to future victories. While the
party may be swept with Obama fever,
I must ask, why can’t Democrats find
a decent candidate with both charisma
and experience? Part of it has to do
with the unnatural emphasis placed on
the organ of democracy most distant
from the people — the federal govern
ment. For Democrats to rebuild, they
must never neglect the local races or
the state races. Former Mayor Rudy
Giuliani’s popularity and influence
show just how important
it is to have national leaders from all
levels of politics.
Democrats should create breeding
grounds free of unnatural Vietnam
fetishes and bad haircuts. But good
state candidates need the boost a na
tional leader can bring; after all, Bush’s
JENNIFER MCBRIDE
QUASHING DISSENT
popularity was enough to bring candi
dates into the Senate, even when those
candidates were emotionally disturbed
or aided via nepotism. It’s an endless,
disastrous cycle: Losing at the top
means losing at the bottom, but win
ning at the top becomes impossible
without good bottom candidates to
draw on.
No two people can completely agree
on why the election resulted in so
many Democratic casualties, but my
theory is not that voters didn’t agree
with Democratic policies (CNN exit
polls show that people whose primary
issue for voting was economics, educa
tion, employment or health care voted
Kerry by margins of 73 to 80 percent)
but that Democrats can’t seem to talk
about these kinds of issues clearly
or without shooting themselves in
the foot.
Too often the party has ceded
ground that does not need to be ceded.
Just putting a soldier in the top spot
does not mean the DNC is strong on
national security — a public perception
of weakness can only be combated by
strength. Negating Iraq was not
enough. The biggest and most correct
criticism of the Kerry campaign was
that it did not stand for anything but
beating George Bush in an election.
Kerry should have been equipped with
international arms control provisions,
lampooning the underfunding of
Nunn-Lugar and screaming about
torture and prison abuse.
Democrats were unable to spin past
Republican allegations that Kerry
would defend the country with spit
balls. When Kerry touted his service in
place of detailing a policy to replace
preemptive warfare, allowing the accu
sations of double-talking on troop sup
port to go unanswered, he might as
well have shoveled his own grave.
Additionally, Democrats have ceded
ground on rhetoric. Why should the
word “community” have Republican
overtones? Why must “values” always
be red? Why is Christianity perceived
as so incompatible with the DNC when
40 percent of Protestants voted for Ker
ry? If anything, Democratic values are
values of communities and of charity.
Liberalism is known for weak-kneed,
watery-eyed compassion. Why can’t a
new party agenda shape this inherent
perception as an advantage instead of
a disadvantage? Caring too much is not
a vice. Some of the best programs to
day are Democratic inventions, and the
underfunding and scrapping of aid to
the mentally ill, inmate populations
and students is downright criminal.
Crime rates dropped under Bill Clin
ton, and military intervention was al
ways an option. For this reason, the
good side of Clinton is the personifica
tion of what the Democrats must be
come in order to succeed: humble, in
telligent, certain and courageous.
Images cannot be changed quickly,
but if every local candidate, state can
didate and person of national promi
nence turns Democratic rhetoric from
opposition to Bush and to policies
which illustrate that liberals value
people — their safety, their rights,
their goods — then, at the very least,
Republicans will be dealing with
a unified donkey instead of a
two-headed monstrosity.
So this I pray: When a new chair
man comes to power, let him or her be
able to step out of Bill Clinton’s shad
ow without stepping out of his legacy.
jennifermcbride@ daily emerald, com
■ Editorial
Dangerous
situations
may hinder
Iraq election
As elections in Iraq near, Prime Minister
Iyad Allawi admits there will be areas too
dangerous for voting. “Certainly there are
some pockets that will not participate in
the election,” he said. “We don't think it
will be widespread.”
This is about as optimistic as it gets these
days in Iraq. A more realistic assessment is
that voting will be sporadic due to mass confu
sion and fear. A United Nations memo ob
tained by Newsday says that major logistical
problems still exist; for example, ballots still
need to be printed and flown into the country,
the names of thousands of candidates are still
being entered into computer databases, and
there have been difficulties hiring enough poll
workers due to threats of violence.
One such threat was made yesterday by a
rebel group that issued a statement promising
to deploy “highly trained” snipers to disrupt
the voting process.
Meanwhile, violence increases by the day.
A suicide car bomber killed seven policemen
in Tikrit, and gunmen killed eight people in a
minibus south of Baghdad on Thesday, ac
cording to Reuters. Insurgents have become
bolder and have increased the explosive pow
er of their bombs. Already in the New Year,
over 30 Americans have been killed in Iraq, ac
cording to CNN. As columnist Bob Herbert
writes: “Nightmares don’t last this long, so the
death and destruction must be real.”
The taking of innocent lives in Iraq is not
limited to the insurgents. U.S. soldiers killed at
least five people, including Iraqi policemen
and civilians, in Baghdad on Sunday. The mis
take came less than 24 hours after the U.S.
dropped a bomb on the wrong home, killing
another five civilians. Countless mistakes like
these make winning the hearts and minds of
the Iraqi people impossible at this point.
Not that the administration seems to care
about hearts and minds. Newsweek reports
that the Pentagon is debating whether to use
the so-called “Salvadorian option” in Iraq. As
the article explains, the option refers to “a still
secret strategy in the Reagan administration’s
battle against the leftist guerrilla insurgency in
El Salvador in the early 1980s. Then, faced
with a losing war against Salvadoran rebels,
the U.S. government funded or supported ‘na
tionalist’ forces that allegedly included so
called death squads directed to hunt down
and kill rebel leaders and sympathizers.” This
won’t come back to bite us in the ass. Nah.
Meanwhile, violence in Iraq is creating vio
lence here at home. Marine Andres Raya, who
served seven months in Iraq, committed “sui
cide by cop” rather than returning to the mili
tary. Raya killed one cop and critically injured
another in Ceres, a small town near San Fran
cisco, before being killed. Raya’s mother said,
“He came back different. ”
As more young men and women, our
friends and peers, return from battle physically
and emotionally scarred, we will see more and
more of these kinds of tragic events in our
communities. Whether the elections are suc
cessful or not, whether we leave Iraq in one
year or in 10, we will be dealing with the reper
cussions of this war for the rest of our lives.
“Nightmares don’t last this long..
EDITORIAL BOARD
Jennifer Sudick
Editor in Chief
David Jagemauth
Editorial Editor
Steven R. Neuman
Managing Editor
Gabe Bradley
Freelance Editor