Julia

The last thing that I did in Pennsylvania on election night, volunteering for the Kerry campaign, was to respond to a “visibility” emergency- a report of voter intimidation at a polling station in a suburb of Allentown. This turned out to be a wild goose chase (the disturbance was long over by the time we arrived), but it gave me the opportunity to drive there with an earnest man in his early forties named Mike. On the way, he asked me which issue had motivated me to work for Kerry. I laughed and said “all of them”, starting into my litany of the sins of the administration. He stopped me and said “Oh. For me, it was stem cell research”.

This seemed strangely “single-issue” to me so I asked him why. He told me that his 12 year old daughter, Julia, had almost completely lost her vision to retinitis pigmentosa, a progressive form of blindness. One of the promising treatments for this had apparently been based on embryonic stem cells, but recently this line of investigation has been severely limited by White House policy. His eyes started to tear up when he spoke about the last four years, about lost opportunities which might never be regained.

I was in a great mood. On the ground, it looked like Pennsylvania was going to swing into Kerry’s camp. I had a good feeling about the election. I told Mike that when I was celebrating the next day, I was going to remember him and I was going to think about Julia, and think about the day that she gets her vision back.

Funny, but even though the stakes this year were immeasurably higher and the loss so much more significant than in 2000, I don’t feel as robbed today as I did then. Our country knew very well what Bush had to offer, what he stood for. Enough of the country wanted that, and gave him a second term. I don’t want to go over the arguments again. The pundits have beaten them to death- online, offline, endlessly, eloquently and futilely.

To win in any competition, you have to know your opponent. When we oversimplify terrorism, when we say that they attack us because “they hate our freedom”, we hurt our own cause. A deep understanding of the other side is crucial to gaining any advantage. In the same way, the left tends to dismiss Bush supporters as monolithic, hateful, know-nothing bigots. While this may scratch some emotional itch for a frustrated opposition party, it is not true and will not help us to move forward. These are our fellow countrymen, our neighbors and our relatives. And I’ll bet that even the most progressive liberal out there has at least one friend who voted for the president. To understand what motivated a majority of American voters to choose Bush is vital. The Kerry campaign spent big money and time trying to figure this out, and missed the mark- that cost us dearly.

Bush won for two reasons. He won because he struck a chord in a large chunk of America. He inspired a passion in his supporters that was never matched by the admiration Kerry earned from his side, even though it was true and heartfelt. For the “culture war” Republicans, he was a life raft. He drew lines that they longed for in public policy- faith, abortion, gay marriage and so on. He drew new lines which solidified his base, like the line between Julia and her stem cell research. An ideologue will always beat a sober, competent steward when it comes to the loyalty of the faithful. A little bit of ideology isn’t always a bad thing, but it needs to be tempered with judgment and flexibility.

Bush also won because he gave people something that they desperately wanted, feeding a deep, visceral hunger. He lashed out with unrestrained anger and lethal force when we were feeling vulnerable and violated. Right or wrong, few presidents would have had the nerve to do what he did, and many in this country will love him forever for that. Second guessing his motives is a favorite pastime on the left, but it just didn’t matter in terms of the election. Each Bush supporter had his or her own personal justification for war- the inner spark that keeps the faith, no matter what happens in the outside world.

Fearmongering is bad on both sides; each of us needs to look at the other camp and try to understand that. I love our country and I want to see us do well- all of us. I know that you want the same thing, no matter how you voted. I want to keep alive the passions of the last four years, and win the next round. The eternal struggle for justice and progress doesn’t end with the election of 2004, and we are derelict of duty as citizens if we fall back into apathy.

And finally, I want to keep my promise to Mike and remember Julia today. I’m sorry, Julia. I did my best.



Michael Rothschild
November 3, 2004