Kerry: Typical Massachusetts Liberal

By Alexander Talcott | Wednesday, February 5, 2003

On January 10, Sen. John Kerry made a campaign stop at Dartmouth's Rockefeller Center as part of his run for the 2004 Democratic presidential nomination. The Massachusetts Democrat appeared very comfortable talking about the environment and civil rights to a fawning liberal audience.

He arrived over a half hour late, and several impatient students threw paper airplanes and started claps of frustration. But Kerry apologized when he arrived at the first floor lounge of the Rockefeller Center, where he spoke against an American flag backdrop.

The first major applause came when Kerry said that he wishes to offer 'an alternative to Bush's foreign policy.' He remarked that based on the high number in attendance, 'Either many of you want to change the world, or it says something about social life in Hanover.' He recalled getting his 'rear end kicked around' on the soccer and lacrosse fields at Dartmouth as a Yale undergraduate.

Kerry shared JFK and RFK assassination memories and expressed his admiration for the men. And in classic RFK style, he quoted George Bernard Shaw: 'Some people see things as they are and say why. I see things that never were and say why not.' The 'why not' approach, Kerry said, has led to the environmental, women's, and peace movements, and the EPA and Clean Air and Water Acts, and now it is time for the same question to be asked of other goals—universal health coverage and becoming energy independent in our generation.

Kerry said that he's attended most of the major world environmental summits including the 1990 Rio Conference, and others at Kyoto and The Hague. He pointed out that environmental efficiency is important for national security, evoking the hazards of dependence on Middle Eastern oil.

Kerry credited President Bush for making a good point in one of his debates with Gore. After laughs he scoffed, 'He was at Yale at a different time.' He then agreed with Bush's debate statement that we should proceed with humility, not unilaterally, in world affairs. He said that we could make the nation more secure 'by making some friends on this planet.' He also touted $1.2 billion funds that he secured along with Senator Bill Frist to target AIDS in Africa.

Kerry said several times that he wants to make the environment a 'voting issue.' He issued a call to 'go to the moon right here on Earth' by developing alternative energy sources. By 2020, he wants twenty percent of America's electricity to come from renewable resources. He said that when aircraft carriers were needed during the Cold War—'when the leadership saw a defined threat'—it led to the development of Boeing and other companies, thus creating jobs. He said that the same can and must be done with environmental development. Kerry charged, 'Go to Madagascar, see the forest clearing; go places here.' According to Kerry, energy awareness that began in 1979 under Carter was forgotten under the Reagan and George H.W. Bush administrations.

'Fundamental fairness is what this country is built on,' he said. However, the country has deviated from this: the worker-CEO salary ratio was 12:1 fifteen years ago, but it is now 531:1. This a 'breach of faith in fundamental fairness,' and reform is a matter of economic common sense, fairness, and trust.

'The Greatest Generation gave us fifty years of peace and prosperity,' he said. But, 'What about our generation?' He questioned whether we will be remembered as 'unwilling to do something other than for ourselves.' He called for 'citizen soldiership,' and active contributors to bettering society. He touted the heroism exhibited in another book, David McCulloch's John Adams and shared the story of an Iwo Jima survivor who went to the mother of one soldier who fell raising the flag. Kerry said that we must feel a sense of obligation and engage in such commitment here and now.

Speaking on national security, he called the situation in North Korea a 'trumped up' crisis and 'engagement all of a sudden.' He also expressed concern for rising anti-American sentiment abroad, citing candidates who won in Germany and South Korea on an anti-American platform. Concerning the Middle East and potential diplomacy partners, Kerry replied tersely, 'Not Arafat.' But, in Egypt President Mubarak is now responsive to homeland security issues because he sees that it's in his interest. According to Kerry, twenty-five years ago, Egypt was the same as South Korea economically and now South Korea is the eleventh economic power while Egypt has remained stagnant. Concerning Iraq Kerry wants 'the UN to hold Saddam accountable.'

Kerry favors affirmative action and supports the controversial University of Michigan program. 'The U.S. should intervene to keep the program,' he said. However, he does not support quotas but would like to 'make universities look like America.'

Kerry favors unions and partnerships, but does not support gay marriage as marriage is 'the oldest institution.' He cited historical and religious reservations about same-sex marriage.

While he favors school reform, he did not propose a plan, but only called public school education 'separate and unequal' since school funding suffers from an over-reliance on property taxes. Vouchers, he said, would not provide a fast enough solution.

When confronted about Massachusetts as a liberal home-state handicap, Kerry invoked Daniel Webster on the Senate floor who when debating the Missouri Compromise in 1859 said, 'I come to this floor not as a man from Massachusetts, but as an American.'

Kerry: Typical Massachusetts Liberal

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