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Whitaker's Weekly Articles – October 16, 2004
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October 16, 2004 –
Age, Elections and War
October 16, 2004 –
Political Strategy, Elections and War
October 16, 2004 –
Living in History
October 16, 2004 –
Who This Time?
Fun Quote:
Any native-born citizen who will stand for someone calling his country "a nation of immigrants" has surrendered his birthright.
I wonder how many readers have the same general attitude to this election that I do? I HATE liberals, so I always find myself rooting for Bush and his partisans when I am watching talks on television.
On the other hand, my attitude is different because I have been through so MANY presidential elections, not to mention all the other ones.
I was just counting the number of presidential elections I remember well. I was counting them on my fingers, and I ended up taking off my shoes. I have been through fourteen so far. This is the fifteenth.
The same thing goes for Iraq. I remember sitting in school during the Korean War wondering if we would ever get out of it. Then there was Vietnam. Now there's Iraq.
Most people alive today have some vague memories of Vietnam, but Korea is just flat forgotten.
So Iraq is a big deal to people younger than me, and damn near everybody is younger than me. The 2004 election is a big deal to most people who are interested in politics. I often forget it is going on.
When the news gets to Iraq, I change channels.
Political Strategy, Elections and War
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In 2000, I certainly hated just about everything Gore said, but when they first announced he had won the 2000 election, I cheered. The economy was going down, but the Clinton Administration was going out on a record of pure prosperity.
In terms of political strategy I felt it would have been better if Gore won and he took charge of what he had inherited from Clinton's Magic Four Years. He would have made an incredible mess of September 11. I didn't know about 9/11 but I knew something was coming.
There is an article in the WhitakerOnline archives called "Superterrorism." It was reprinted almost three years later on September 11, 2001.
Superterrorism - Originally published November 21, 1998
Clinton's whole approach was visibly falling apart. I felt that four more years of a Clinton successor was just what was needed to sink the liberals.
But if this is the first election you vote in, it is very hard to have that sort of view. For a younger person, four years is a long, long time.
Most of my discussion of this election has concerned what Bill and Hillary Clinton are thinking. Their only are interest in 2004 is how it affects 2012, when Hillary will make her big run. If you're in the business, you look at elections in a very different way.
So the fact that I forget there is a presidential campaign going on is because I am in the business of politics and have been through so many.
Chances are, if you read WhitakerOnline you are among the 1% of Americans who are most interested in politics. You are far more in the category of those of us who made a living at it than you are a part of the general population.
Another reason I forget there is a presidential campaign going on is because I live IN history.
Please notice I did not say I was interested in history or that I know a lot of history. I said I LIVE IN HISTORY.
If you keep saying, "This is 2004" as if that were some kind of magic year, you live in a different world from the one I do.
Once again, I think you who read WhitakerOnline are more in my category. You tend to look at 2004 as one more year, but you are familiar with 1924 and 1984.
When I said I wanted Gore to win the 2000 election, I think in terms of Calvin Coolidge and Herbert Hoover. If the Democrats had won the 1928 election, they would have been blamed for the Depression even though they would have been in office less than eight months when the stock market crashed.
My readers know what I am talking about. The average American would be mystified.
So a Republican who felt things were coming apart in 1928, and many did, would have rooted for the Democrat Al Smith the way I rooted for Gore.
A vote is a signal. Contrary to what the establishment tells you, a third party vote has more weight than a major pary vote.
You are told that if you don't vote for Bush or Gore you are "throwing your vote away."
We have to start with the reality that you are not going to elect the president personally. It is more likely that the world will be wiped out by a meteor than that your vote will determine the election.
Almost every major national policy started with a third party vote. Like a lot of people, I thought of voting for Nader because that vote says, "Get the hell out of Israel's War in Iraq." That's a message.
If you vote for a national party, you vote for the status quo. In fact, if you cast a vote at all, keep in mind that you are endorsing the so-called "choices" we have. That's why the establishment wants a huge turnout. That's why there is this myth that somebody who votes is doing us all a favor. When you vote, you do the ruling establishment a favor.
But on balance, a third party vote is far better than no vote. I am seriously considering Peroutka on the Constitution Party ticket. You might have to write him in.
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