Kerry’s Acceptance Speech

National Politics 247Comments (3)http://mickc.whizardries.com/archives/2004/07/29/kerrys-acceptance-speech/Kerry%27s+Acceptance+Speech2004-07-30+04%3A29%3A37MickC

This speech was long on rhetoric and short on substance. Most political speeches are, but this one more than most. There was exactly one reference to his Senatorial record and that came near the beginning, sandwiched between his stint as a federal prosecutor and his campaign.

But there were some other interesting points that he has raised.

1) It’s now the war on terror again. At one time, Kerry insisted that “[i]t’s basically a manhunt.” (Katherine M. Skiba, “Bush, Kerry Turn Focus To Each Other,” Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 2/13/04) I’m actually happy that Sen. Kerry has joined the rest of us in this war.

2) Sen. Kerry talked about the wonderful things that happened in the 1990’s. In listing those things, he mentioned much that happened after the 1994 Republican Revolution, but gave no credit to the Republican Congresses that were in place following that off-year election.

3) “We will not go to war because we want to!” Maybe I missed the memo from the day when the President woke up and decided that we wanted to go war. Not only that, I must have missed the memo from the day when the country (note the pronoun “we”) decided that we wanted to go to war. Again, it’s rhetoric, and it’s expected, but that’s beyond the pale.

4) I want to see the specifics of John Kerry’s “plan to win the peace.” Also, remember that we entered into World War II not because we wanted to, but because we had to (Kerry’s criteria) but without a plan to “win the peace.” Does Sen. Kerry now argue that our entry into World War II was a mistake because the Marshall Plan (named for John Marshall, Truman’s Secretary of State) was not known as the Hull Plan (Cordell Hull was Franklin Roosevelt’s Secretary of State) and wasn’t put into place until 1947 (two years after the end of the war)?

5) Social Security is not a way to “honor your father and mother.” That Biblical injunction was a personal responsibility, not a national one. So, unless he’s planning on privatizing Social Security (which he says he will not do), mentioning Social Security should be a slap in the face of people of the Judeo-Christian “faith systems.”

6) In discussing jobs moving overseas, he talks about closing tax loopholes for businesses that move jobs overseas, but he then talks about competitiveness. If he had only shutup I wouldn’t have had a complaint. But when he fails to recognize the fact that those jobs are not moving overseas because American workers are less competitive quality-wise, but much less competitive compensation-wise, he gives people false hope. So, Sen. Kerry, are you planning on repealing the minimum wage so that our workers can compete on the wages scale as that found in other countries? Yes, it’s a bit crass, but it’s the truth. If you can get the same product for slightly less quality but for much less money and you have to answer to your stockholders, what do you do? For most companies, you move the jobs to the people who will work for you in a more cost-effective manner. If we want those jobs back then we need to make our workers more cost-effective and that often means working for lower wages.

7) Health care is not a right. Health care is not a privilege. Health care is a service. Stop phrasing the debate into terms which do that debate no justice. If we make the decision, as a nation, to declare that health care is a service that is best provided by the government, then that’s one thing. Some services are best provided by the goverment. Our Constitution recognizes this when it makes the provision of defense and postal services as provenance of the federal government. So, what makes the government a better provider of this service than the private sector? THAT is the debate we should be having, not over whether health care is a right or a privilege.

Oh, and Senator? It’s not that you were born in the West Wing. You were born in the left wing. A place you remain today, even within your own party.

MickC @ July 29, 2004