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Edited on Mon Jan-29-07 11:28 AM by karynnj
Whome - that is an incredible post and like Mass, I agree too. Though I was heart broken when he announced he wasn't running. I have since found it very hard to follow the 2008 race - which is likely for the good. This next year is likely to be beyond nasty - and that will be attacks on each from people on our own side of the aisle.
Comments like yours make it easier to accept. I also thought it very interesting to note the irony of Senator Kerry speaking a few weeks ago about his staffer whose thesis was whether a Senator can make a difference. While a president has more power, there have been senators who have made an enormous difference.
Even if he were leaving the Senate, he has already made his mark on history several times and has made an enormous difference. (Without even considering most of his legislation, he has had an impact on the world. Adding the legislation - that we still find out more about every week because he always chose getting something good done versus having his name on it. I didn't know he drafted the Vietnam treaty that reknewed the relationship - but the fact that it included the huge effort to return American remains does seem way more Kerry, than Clinton.)
-He did shift opinion on the Vietnam war in 1971 (Webb's cherry picked statistic does not convey the truth.)
- he very likely stopped the Contra drug running - because he ripped it into the open (I read that a significant factor in the decline in crime in cities including NYC in the late 80s early 90s was the decrease in crack usage. Could Kerry have helped more on this than Guilliani's attack on the squeegee men?(who "cleaned" your windshield whether you wanted them to or not at all the tunnel to NJ access roads from Manhattan. How many lives did Kerry save from destruction directly or indirectly by chocking off this source of drugs.)
- His investigation of BCCI and his untiring efforts to stop them, likely did weaken the terrorists. Almost as importantly, he saw that having criminals like these having the ability to get Congressmen to protect them was unthinkable and horrifying. I still find it hard to understand how others, including many people I highly admire didn't see the danger because friends had been co-opted.
- His legislation on international money laundering has been probably the source of most of the limited success we have had controlling terrorism. Too bad it was fought for most of a decade.
- His run for President did bring more people to see the truth. It is clear to me that had all the people who went out to vote for Kerry been able to vote as easily as I did in my little Republican suburb and had their votes registered and counted as Kerry, he would be President.
- He really did make a major contribution in 2006. There was a huge danger of losing due to people simply dropping out because it was too painful to have hope dashed again.
- In a replay of 1971, from a much different position, he was instrumental in changing people perceptions on Iraq:
* first with his October 2005 speech which made me able to picture the wrongness of having Americans, who don't know the language or culture doing the policing - could anyone but Kerry articulated so compassionately the fear and danger this produces for the troops and the Iraqis - others chose to show the horror from one side or the other, but rarely was there the same genuine compassion for both.
* then with Kerry/Feingold and for insisting that resolving a war where people are dying takes precedence over the political calendar.
* If Kerry knew in 1971 that speaking against the war could destroy his dreams of even being in politics, he had to know that leading in 2005 and 2006 could make it impossible to run in 2008.
Now, giving up a Presidential run, he can continue to lead on Iraq, and all the other issues important to him. From the committee assignments, coupled with his obvious intelligence and character, he could become an extremely powerful Senator - I seriously doubt that Massachusetts will replace him with Schilling, Corsi or Kerry Healy.
I hope he keeps his johnkerry.com site and continues to be an alternative voice. If he doesn't I hope that he keeps those incredible Faneuil Hall speeches available on his website. They speak to where this country must aspire more than any similar set of speeches I ever heard.
I hope that he finds a way to popularize his overall foreign policy view. As Sandasea quoted last week, even in 1971, his vision was to force the US to turn. That really has been what he has been for his whole career - and that he couldn't lead in doing just that as President is why his loss is so hard to take. It's sad that enough Americans chose fear over hope, anger over love, and amoral power over moral diplomacy that the election could be stolen. Maybe in the wake of the disaster of PNAC and neo-cons, the Kerry view (even if not labeled as such) could take hold.
Even the Davos meeting where he was the sole Western (not just the sole American)is important. The RW is all upset - though nothing Kerry said wasn't what he has said - and the ISG backed - for 3 plus years. I am happy that an American moderate, not in the administration spoke with an Iranian Moderate, not in their administration. Who knows, with each applying pressure to their own countries to step back before it's too late maybe war and the pain and chaos that war will bring can be avoided this time. At any rate it puts action to words - that you need to speak to your enemies. (though Khatomi might be the best Iran has at this point.)
Though less important than world peace, I really do believe that in time, Kerry's story will be told and people will see him for who he is. This doesn't come a naive view of fairness, but because there are always cycles and at some point the winners will not be those who need to fear people knowing that Kerry was right.
There are two more compelling reasons:
- Kerry triggers intense reactions. The people who love him and are amazed by the real hero he has been for about 63 years have to include someone down the line who will feel the need to write a complete biography.
- In addition, his life is way too colorful not to inspire the story being told. In fact, it the giddy post convention days, I remember a diary on DKos of all places about how Kerry saved Senator Hect's life. Responses then mentioned that he saved Rassman and likely all the people on the swiftboat (silver star), that he saved Del S when he was depressed, when he saved 40 some villagers in Vietnam (in defiance of the implicit orders of his commander). A remembered comment was he seemed to save people in every decade, but he would save most in this decade. I was going to put a sad smilie - but that is what he is trying to do now, even though it would have been much easier as President.
Throw in fighting the MAFIA, RW thugs who were guilty of atrocious crimes and who brought drugs into this country, the Bank that facilitated terrorists and drug runners and (last but not least) the "biggest bunch of crooks and liars" he ever saw.
Even without adding his personal life - this is a bolder story than a writer would even suggest for a movie.
So, like whome and Mass, I am less sad than I was last week and nowhere near where I was in November 2004. Seeing the comment on the JK blog that Tay commented on here, where someone mentioned seeing Peggy Kerry helps too. Her honest comment that she hoped he didn't run, noting that he is "such a good and decent man and its a zoo" shows the cost of running. In a way, the fact that he can almost with certainty have a major impact on things that are important, lets him make this decision. He is doing what he thinks will help most.
In a way, though he will still be attacked by the RW, it will have to be easier than in 2004, where he carried the burden of having to counter them more than he will have to now.
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