Re: Rick Wilhelm on John Kerry

["Devine, James" <jdevine@xxxxxxx>]

for what it's worth, a leftist friend of mine found an on-line service at the beginning of the US Democratic Party primary season that allowed one to choose a Presidential candidate. You first answer a bunch of questions about your own political opinions. Then the program ranked the candidates in those terms. After Kucinich and Sharpton, Kerry was at the top of his list. Dean was far down the list, though no-one was anywhere near Lieberman at the bottom. 

So if Kucinich and Sharpton are excluded (as being utopian and opportunist, respectively) Kerry might be the best the DP has to offer. Therefore, the critique below has a lot to say about the DP. 

BTW, it would be interesting to look at the web-site that produced this ranking. Does anyone know about it?
------------------------
Jim Devine jdevine@xxxxxxx &  http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~jdevine




> -----Original Message-----
> From: Yoshie Furuhashi [mailto:furuhashi.1@xxxxxxx]
> Sent: Sunday, March 07, 2004 3:12 AM
> To: PEN-L@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: [PEN-L] Rick Wilhelm on John Kerry
> 
> 
> In Columbus, Ohio, at the heart of a swing state, leaders of the
> local DSA chapter are taking a hard line against John Kerry:
> 
> *****   Date: Sun, 07 Mar 2004 00:01:02 -0800
> From: Rick Wilhelm
> Subject: [C-JwJ] Strategy
> To: columbuslabor@xxxxxxxxxx
> 
> **Columbus Jobs with Justice Calendar**
> To post: send to columbuslabor@xxxxxxxxxx
> According to research, it appears to me Kerry is a far-right
> candidate.  Although many comments have said he has a "liberal"
> record, I see no evidence is offered other than the fact on small
> issues he has better votes than the Republicans, according to some
> liberal groups.  According to key issues, here, he does not:
> <http://dsco1.tripod.com/issues.htm>, taken from the archives of the
> same liberal groups offered by some as proof he has a good record.
> 
> As a matter of fact, Kerry is so bad, it could be argued he was the
> "greater evil," between Bush and Kerry.  Bush's personality is one of
> pompous privilege, where Kerry's is one of arrogant privilege.
> According to this article and others,
> <http://www.counterpunch.org/hand02182004.html>.  Kerry believes in
> Internationalism and International Intervention in the name of
> maintaining our Empire, and has even wrote about it as an imperative
> goal.  This article reveals a little about Kerry's personality:
> <http://www.counterpunch.org/cranmer03042004.html>.
> 
> Why could it be argued Kerry may in fact be a "greater evil" than
> Bush?  Because he is smarter, and since he also believes in military
> action to preserve our "values," he may be more successful than Bush
> in implementing the policy of force of Empire.  The policy looks as
> though it will fail under Bush, because of its transparency and
> stupidity.  And foreign policy has been offered as one reason we
> should support Kerry, since their domestic agendas are so similar.
> Kerry voted for the war, welfare reform, the Patriot Act, the China
> Trade Bill (H.R. 4444), NAFTA, Fast Track and GATT.
> 
> Of course Kerry is on record of supporting a minimum wage increase to
> 6 dollars and 15 cents an hour, while Bush is not.  That is still
> about 2 dollars and 75 cents less than what the minimum wage would be
> had it kept up with inflation, since in 2002 it would have been 8.70
> cents per hour.  I assume 2004 is slightly higher. See:
> <http://dsco1.tripod.com/news.htm#Why%20a%20LIVING%20WAGE>. And it is
> no guarantee Kerry would actually keep his word about even the small
> increase to $6.15.  But by voting for just things, his "record"
> appears better, since the AFL-CIO give him the same credit for small
> stuff as key issues.
> 
> So I feel any strategy should be to attack both candidates, and
> attack them now, and keep attacking repeatedly and continually.  The
> same should be done as far as sell-out Democratic Council members and
> the Mayor of Columbus.  I actually sat through a meeting a year or so
> ago organized by JwJ where one council member suggested the Chamber
> of Commerce should be on any "Living Wage" board.
> 
> Rick Wilhelm
> Columbus Jobs with Justice organizes this list but does not
> necessarily endorse all events or postings.
> Contact Columbus JwJ: c/o UFCW 1059
> 4150 E. Main St., 2nd Floor
> Columbus, OH 43215
> Phone: 614-237-8440
> Fax: 614-237-7787
> E-mail: columbus_labor@xxxxxxxxxxx
> www.columbusjwj.org
> Meetings 2nd Tuesday of each month
> 
> <http://lists.topica.com/lists/columbuslabor/read/message.html
?mid=1716232527&sort=d&start=535>
*****
--
Yoshie

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