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Published: Sep 16, 2005 01:41 PM
Mon - August 2, 2004
Just A Spoon Full Of Sugar
Friends tell me that Anyone
would be better than four more years of Bush, but what if I don't want just
Anyone to be President?
The
muffins were behind the glass; the little boy, in front of them. He didn't
hesitate.
"I want that one," he pointed. "The brown one."
This presidential election I feel a lot like that little boy: I'm leaning toward John Kerry, whose issues most closely track my own, but I'm dreading the taste of bran if he prevails on election day.
People say that Kerry wants to be all things to all people. I don't think that's true. The truth is that a lot of people want John Kerry to be more heroic, more profound, and more articulate than he really is. They like the ideals that his candidacy represents—inclusiveness, integrity, a fresh start and a fair shake for all Americans—and because he represents those ideals, they infuse him with a nobility he does not possess.
I haven't confused the man with his message. My problem is, I want the mandate without the man.
I want more credibility in the White House.
I want a foreign policy guided by fact not fiction.
I want social policies that include, not exclude.
I want America to be respected, not just feared.
But my standard bearer is a millionaire who says he speaks for the working class, a career politician who boasts that he was born in the West Wing, and an opportunist who takes photographs with patrons at a Wendy's before rustling up five-star lunches from the Newburgh Yacht Club.
I don't want this guy, and I don't want his opponent. I want the missing blueberry candidate—the one with new ideas and bold leadership. I want the who can tell me how he'll change America, not just why. The one whose personal character reflects the American character: Well-intentioned, honest, and above-all sincere.
Why is it that however I vote, I feel destined for bran on election day?
"I want that one," he pointed. "The brown one."
"That's a bran muffin," his father objected, shrugging at me in the line beside them at the bakery last Sunday. "I think you'd like this chocolate one better, or this blueberry one. You really like blueberries."
"I want the brown one."
The baker drew out the muffin and gave it to the boy. Clutching his prize, flush with his victory, the child toddled to a table, took a hearty bite of the muffin, chewed a few times, frowned, and began gagging bran. Then he dropped the muffin on the floor and started to cry.
This presidential election I feel a lot like that little boy: I'm leaning toward John Kerry, whose issues most closely track my own, but I'm dreading the taste of bran if he prevails on election day.
People say that Kerry wants to be all things to all people. I don't think that's true. The truth is that a lot of people want John Kerry to be more heroic, more profound, and more articulate than he really is. They like the ideals that his candidacy represents—inclusiveness, integrity, a fresh start and a fair shake for all Americans—and because he represents those ideals, they infuse him with a nobility he does not possess.
I haven't confused the man with his message. My problem is, I want the mandate without the man.
I want more credibility in the White House.
I want a foreign policy guided by fact not fiction.
I want social policies that include, not exclude.
I want America to be respected, not just feared.
But my standard bearer is a millionaire who says he speaks for the working class, a career politician who boasts that he was born in the West Wing, and an opportunist who takes photographs with patrons at a Wendy's before rustling up five-star lunches from the Newburgh Yacht Club.
I don't want this guy, and I don't want his opponent. I want the missing blueberry candidate—the one with new ideas and bold leadership. I want the who can tell me how he'll change America, not just why. The one whose personal character reflects the American character: Well-intentioned, honest, and above-all sincere.
Why is it that however I vote, I feel destined for bran on election day?