Abstract

Slow-Gear Democrats

The article looks at Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry for the 2004 United States election. In many ways, Senator Kerry is the perfect candidate for the Democratic Party--handsome and serious, well regarded if not widely loved, deeply experienced in governing policy and sincerely committed to advancing the public good. Above all, Kerry can be counted on not to disturb the party's uptight wariness toward big ideas and adventurous goals. The Democratic Party has been stuck in slow gear for two decades, as it struggled honorably and heroically to defend important accomplishments from its past against right-wing onslaughts. On foreign policy, Kerry will have to decide whether to continue President George W. Bush's "war on terror" as a rational premise for reordering U.S. society or begin talking common sense about national security before militarism swallows up everything else. To succeed as President (though he probably does not yet realize this), Kerry will need what his party has long suppressed--a full-throated, deeply contentious debate about its core beliefs and aspirations.