Reply #162: I'm not a Kerry=Bushie, but I object to the premis of this thread

[AlGore-08.com]

Are you telling me that no attrocities have ever occurred under Democratic Presidents? Or Progressives?

How about some of the things that happened in WWII under FDR's watch? Are you saying that the CIA took a nap during Kennedy's administration - - or that Kennedy didn't escalate the Vietnam War?

I think that this insistance that we Dems (and I am a real Dem, I have worked for the party since I was a kid and have never voted for any other party's candidates) are morally superior beings is a dangerous one to promote. That is how the GOP got in the mess that they're in. They stopped looking at the individual candidate and accepted that, if the candidate was a Republican, they must be a good Christian, incapable of corruption and dedicated to helping people.

We are human beings, all. As individuals, we are all equally capable of massive corruption and snafus as the GOP or the Greens or the Libertarians or whoever. Our strength, as a party, used to be our ability to look at ourselves critically, and try to remedy our short comings.

John Kerry voted for this war. He had his reasons for it, and we can accept those reasons as valid or reject them. Personally, I reject them. I and millions of others could see that it was a bad idea to vote the way Kerry did. I question his judgement - - if he can't tell the Bush administration is lying to his face, how is he going to tell when the Russians or the Chinese - - or somebody like Chalabi - - are doing it? It's a serious question. It doesn't deserve to be brushed aside with "oh, we're so much more moral than Bush, the quality of Kerry's decisions as Senator do not matter".