An unrealistic liberal would obviously prefer Kucinich, Sharpton, or Braun regardless of the cost, just as he chose Nader in 2000. The realistic one — and no less liberal — is trying to decide among Kerry, Dean, Gephardt, and Clark in simple terms: beat Bush, and who can achieve it. Liberalism is pointless — Nader didn’t understand this — when a nation is split in half ideologically by two major parties.
If it were divided by four — conservative and moderate on the right and liberal and moderate on the left — it would be possible to establish purity of identity and major influence. Then Dean could have said the hell with the confederate pick-up trucks, let’s appeal to those with common sense who are looking forward to a truly prosperous South that only the left can achieve. The moderates would fuss and fume as they in fact did, but they too must be on the side of common sense.
The irony here is that Dean is far from liberal in the current sense, but is liberal in the traditional aspect wherein a liberal is open-minded and always considers the practicum of politics in the spirit of FDR and Truman. Another irony is that he was and is against the war, yet clearly states that we are stuck with the mess as do the others whether for or against with the exception of Kucinich.
Standing alone Dean looks vulnerable nationally, but with a running mate of either Kerry or Clark he could be very electable. Yet the same holds true for either Kerry or Clark having Dean as a running mate. Gephardt, on the other hand, would gain nothing by pairing with one of the three and would have to go elsewhere and I doubt any senator such as Joe Biden, would care to condescend and run with a mere representative. Actually he would be better off finding someone in the business community to soften his union backing, or the defeated governor from Kentucky to moderate his stance on universal health care.
Hillary, of course, was right about health care as Truman was fifty-five years ago, but that doesn’t make it right for a successful election as the Republicans proved by scaring the devil out of those relatively content with their employer health plans; yet at the same time health is primary and Kerry has the right idea by guaranteeing that everyone at least has the same plan as Congress.
Thus the true liberal cannot be self defeating as a Nader and has to muddle through to beat Bush and win some of the “red states.” Alas, in a self-centered society such as ours that has been bombarded by religious nuts, selfish ignorami, and sub culture freaks there is little hope but to be caught up in the fog of ludicrous decisions and try hard to lift that fog so that the nation has at least some vision for a better America.
