Alan's Berkshire Eagle Column
Hi Bloggers! Here's my column from this week's Berkshire Eagle. Have a wonderful day.


Berkshire Eagle
I, Publius

It takes a meanie
By Alan Chartock
Special to the Eagle


Saturday, January 24, 2004 - The Iowa caucuses are now behind us. Tuesday, all eyes will be on New Hampshire. In Iowa, U.S. Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts raced to the front of the pack. I've been thinking about what that means.

It is clear that Kerry's status as a Vietnam veteran will help him and he hasn't been shy about pointing out that he really knows a thing or two about aircraft carriers. What's more, the guy comes off as not a little arrogant and mean and that has to help him in a post 9-11 world.

The American people are not unique in understanding that fear can often motivate people. If you don't believe that, just think about what you feel every time you get on an airplane. Do you mind waiting if it means that every person and piece of baggage will be thoroughly inspected? I I don't.

The problem is that when you give up your basic rights and liberties in the name of protection and "homeland security," can you really have a democracy or a free society? When is the antidote more deadly than the poison? In the midst of the great Civil War, Lincoln suspended habeas corpus, one of our most cherished civil liberties that prevents detention without a hearing on the legitimacy of the charges. During the Second World War, the country put Japanese-Americans into internment camps in the name of security. Now, we are not satisfied with the first round of the Patriot Act and are looking for a second, more draconian set of laws and rules.

Many Democrats and independents are furious about U.S. actions in Iraq. We have read letter after letter to the editors of this paper about the mistakes in foreign policy. You know the drill. "We were led into the war by a deceptive president who lied to the nation." "It' s all about oil." "Who made us the policeman?" "Why is the world community so opposed to what we are doing in Iraq and Afghanistan?"

In the beginning, there were very few of us who had the wherewithal to take on the administration, despite the fact that Democrats and a lot of others were infuriated and had no spokesman. Then along came former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, who was immediately embraced by the core of the Democratic Party. Incredibly, he rose to the top of the pack and stayed there until just days before the Iowa caucus. So what happened?

Dean's problem is one of perception and presentation. Does he have leadership potential? Can he keep singing the one note -- Iraq -- that brought so many people under his banner? Should he try to diversify, and if he does, how will he differentiate himself on other policy material from the others?

You could see in the days before Iowa that he was caught in a vicious cycle. He tried to get out of the "one-note trap" but that left him at the mercy of the competitors. Kerry's nastiness to Dean was over the top. The problem is that a lot of people are looking for a candidate like Kerry who will clean Bush's clock. They want someone who will do battle and show no quarter. Too bad.

My bet is that George Bush doesn't like the way things are unfolding. He gave us a State of the Union address that contained some very dubious material. The fact is that we really did lose more than two million jobs in the United States. He simply can't make that go away. To throw some loose change to some community colleges for job training is hardly going to meet the competitive problem of Chinese workers in filthy environments with no real unions who are willing to work for incredibly substandard wages.

We all know Bush's secret of success is his ability to speak the people's language -- I've always said that his pronunciation of "nuclear" as "nuke-queue-lair" is a ploy designed to make the working folks identify with him -- while at the same time feathering the nests of his rich friends.

So what we have here is a classic -- and so far successful -- exercise in political communication. The rules are to play to your conservative base to make sure that they show up. That's why the president put so much emphasis on the sanctity of marriage and that's why he' s been so steadfast in opposing potentially life-saving stem cell research. If your base sits on its hands, you lose the election.

The trick for the Democratic Party is to talk basics to the members of the middle class, who are the ones up for grabs in this election. If Bush can convince them that tax cuts for the rich, at their expense, are a good thing, there will be no winning the election. But if the American people can see that it is in their interest to elect a president who will deliver on health care, education and the environment, there is a chance that the president can be driven from the White House.

Bill Clinton had it all figured out. This time it may take a no-holds-barred meanie like John Kerry to do it. Sad.



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Alan Chartock, a Great Barrington resident, is chairman and executive director of WAMC Northeast Public Radio and a professor of communications at SUNY-Albany.

- posted by Alan @ 1/25/2004 07:05:00 AM