General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Long-timers: What was the deal with the election in 2004 [View all]SheilaT
(23,156 posts)reliable people that those who had voted for W four years earlier were not about to vote for him this time. Story after story. And in contexts that seemed reliable.
I NEVER heard stories of those who'd voted for Gore in 2000 who were now planning to vote for W. Never.
So why, in the end, did Kerry lose? In actuality, it's clear the vote was stolen.
Back in the run-up to the 2004 election, I was in a discussion group of like-minded progressives, and was told that our side knew how to steal an election as well as the other side. My great regret was that I didn't call them on that. Even at the time I felt I was being given a load of horse manure. Not that what I might have said would have made a difference.
I think that in 2004 we were led to complacency, especially after Kerry secured the nomination. I was one of the Deniacs, one of the supporters of John Dean who felt utterly betrayed by what led to Kerry's nomination. Dean really transformed the party. And it is in a large part that people like me, the old Deniacs, who have held on, who have maintained the faith, who have hung in even when our preferred candidate has lost, we are the ones who carry on, who keep the faith, who hang in ther no matter what happens.
When Kerry secured the nomination I was heartsick. I knew that he was the wrong man to be running for the office of President. Oh, yes, he personally was an honorable man, one who had served honorably in Vietnam, and who had been an admirable defender of the world since then.
But I also knew that he had never sponsored any significant legislation in Congress. He'd done nothing aside from speaking out against the war in Vietnam. Personally, he was a genuinely admiral person. Politically, he was at best a cypher, at worst a patsy. And so the "Swift Vote Veterans" destroyed him. They were as despicable a group that has ever existed. But Kerry never came back at them as he should have He never really fought back.
For all his flaws, I think a President Kerry would have been a balm for this country. He would have ruled with the generosity, the magnanimity, the understanding of the needs of the disenfranchised that would have moved our country back to greatness.
But instead the election was stolen Bush got a second term, as horrifying as that was. John Kerry never got to be President. But maybe there is a redemption, a second chance. Barack Obama was elected in 2008. It looks as though he'll be re-elected this year. We can only hope for the best.