Friday, November 11, 2005
Everybody's Talkin'
about the Democrats who're suddenly, finally, saying that yes, the war was a mistake they wouldn't have made if they'd known better, and how they're all suddenly looking better as candidates because of it. Kerry did it the other day, and the latest is John Edwards.
This is a good thing, I guess - certainly long overdue. But elected leaders are supposed to lead, not follow, the electorate. They are supposed to tell us things we don't know and may not want to hear, and do it in a way that makes us feel better for knowing - better about ourselves, better about them, better about the country and our place in the world. And none of these folks are doing that. They're watching where the electorate has moved, and scuttling over in that direction as slowly and reluctantly as they can get away with. The only (relatively) mainstream politician who WAS a leader on this issue was Howard Dean, and we saw what the the ever-dutiful-to-power press did to his candidacy.
This is a good thing, I guess - certainly long overdue. But elected leaders are supposed to lead, not follow, the electorate. They are supposed to tell us things we don't know and may not want to hear, and do it in a way that makes us feel better for knowing - better about ourselves, better about them, better about the country and our place in the world. And none of these folks are doing that. They're watching where the electorate has moved, and scuttling over in that direction as slowly and reluctantly as they can get away with. The only (relatively) mainstream politician who WAS a leader on this issue was Howard Dean, and we saw what the the ever-dutiful-to-power press did to his candidacy.
