Endorsement
If it isn’t blindingly obvious to my dozen faithful readers, I’m fairly liberal in my political leanings. It should come as no surprise, then, that I endorse John Kerry for President. Now it’s on the record.
If Kerry wins next Tuesday (as I fully expect him to), in the upcoming years, I will try and be a fair observer of his performance, and judge him no more or less harshly than I have Bush. I want you, my readers, to help keep me honest. I thank you all for challenging my opinions in the past few months that this blog has been operational, and I hope that you will continue to do so in the future.
That said, when I started this blog, I didn’t mean for it to be entirely political. That’s just been the main issue on my mind for months, so it’s been mainly what I’ve been posting about. From here on out, I’ll try harder to shift my mind away from politics to other topics occasionally, and make thoughtful and entertaining posts about them.
I’ve been busy with the transition between jobs for the past few weeks, so updates have been scarce. My life will probably be settling into a more regular pattern in the next couple weeks, and there ought to be more regular updates soon thereafter. Thank you all for your patience.
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Well, you can, of course, always count on me, but I have to be honest and say that since it doesn’t seem like you’ve been particularly harsh–or harsh at all, really–on Kerry until this point, why should I believe that that will suddenly change if/when he becomes president? I honestly believe you think you will be just as hard on Kerry, but I really don’t think you will. You’re going to be willing to forgive him certain things you aren’t willing to forgive people you disagree with. That’s just the way it goes. I wish it weren’t the case, but it is, and it’s something–to some degree or another–we all do. But I’d really like to encourage you to not try to make promises you won’t keep, just because you think it sounds good to make them.
But, regardless of what happens on Tuesday (and we don’t seem to believe that the same thing will happen), it’s going to be an interesting four years, that’s for sure.
I am not a moral relativist. I will not give Kerry a pass if he does something that I don’t approve of. If it’s wrong, it’s wrong, and I won’t hold back my criticism. To suggest that I would do so seems like a rather pointed attack on my integrity, which I find insulting.
I’m not making a promise because “it sounds good.” In fact, I’m not making a promise at all. I said I’m going to try, and I want help with that. I attack Bush now because he’s the one running things, and he’s the one screwing up. When Kerry’s running things and screws up, I’ll attack him.
Matt, Bush is one of Ryan’s elected officials. Kerry is not yet. I live in New York. I assess the performance of the New York State legislature and governor with far more care than the Rhode Island legislature and governor (incidentally, the worst leader in NYS is the Democratic Assembly Speaker).
I fully expect Ryan to judge Kerry by the same standards as Bush. That’s different than saying he’ll judge him just as harshly.
I don’t expect Ryan to be as harsh on Kerry for the simple reason that Kerry’s values are much closer to Ryan’s than Bush’s are. I expect you, Matt, to be harsher on Kerry because his values are further away from yours than Bush’s.
He’s inviting his readers to hold him accountable in the future. To make sure he keeps his promise. Rather than embracing this openness to criticism and debate, you attack him for making the promise in the first place.
And incidentally, Matt, if people only set goals that they were sure to reach, no one would achieve very much. Striving is good, even if one doesn’t make it all the way.