When one looks at John Kerry, one cannot help but marvel at his long, strange trip to the Democratic party’s nomination. After a Lazarus-like revival from the back of the primary pack, the senator from Massachusetts has repeatedly surprised political pundits. He overcame a ponderous campaign style to unite his party, helped Democrats shatter fundraising records, and has managed – albeit tentatively – to pull ahead of President Bush in key battleground states.
Kerry has shown that – like Bill Clinton – he is a Comeback Kid. With the right campaign this fall, Kerry can make the Democrats the Comeback Party. The Democratic party’s journey from worst to first began in 1992 with Clinton’s transforming election. By offering new ideas that worked, Clinton and the New Democrats changed their party and the country. And by giving Americans a commonsense alternative to failed conservatism and ineffective, if well-intentioned, liberalism, they promised – and delivered – progressive governance in America.
With his running-mate selection of John Edwards, a fellow centrist, Kerry has shown his determination to continue that change – to run a positive, New Democratic campaign that will defend the values, champion the interests, and help solve the problems of the forgotten middle class.
Americans are working harder, earning less, and paying more for healthcare, college and taxes than under Clinton. The average American family is making $1,400 less per year; 2.6 million private sector jobs have been lost; and the industries that are expanding pay an average of $9,000 less than ones that are shrinking. Families are paying $800 more a year for healthcare and $1,000 more annually to send their children to college.
Meanwhile, middle-class Americans are now paying more of the national budget; wealthy Americans are paying less. The middle-class burden has gone up, while incomes have gone down.
Under Kerry, the Democratic party stands for economic growth and opportunity, not redistribution; for expanding the middle class, not the middle-class tax burden; for national strength, not national weakness; for work, not welfare; for tackling big challenges with reforms; and for an ethic of duty and responsibility. In short, it stands for hope, duty, strength, and reform.
John Kerry’s vision is built on the best traditions of the Democratic party and the pragmatic, centrist foundations of the 1990s. He believes we live in a dangerous world and that the US has a special mission to defend not only ourselves but our values as well. He believes that to be strong in the world, we must be strong at home; that the measure of America’s economy is a growing middle class; and that to achieve those goals we must expand the reach of opportunity, not the size of government. He believes that citizenship brings responsibility as well as rights, and that all Americans have a duty to give something back. And he believes that, in President Andrew Jackson’s words, the promise of America is ‘equal opportunity for all, special privileges for none’.
Unlike President Bush, John Kerry has a long history of backing successful reforms. He crossed party lines to support the Gramm-Rudman-Hollings budget reform in 1985, when fiscal discipline was a dirty word in the Democratic party. He fought to pass Clinton’s ‘100,000 cops’ program, which changed the way America fights crime – and helped cut violent crime by one-third, making the US the safest it has been in a generation. When his party was divided over welfare, he voted to pass a landmark welfare reform law with tough work requirements and time limits that has cut poverty in single-parent households by one-third and made welfare a second chance, not a way of life.
In the best New Democratic tradition, Kerry has set out to make this election a campaign about ideas, not attacks. He has proposed a bold reform agenda to restore fiscal responsibility, end corporate welfare as we know it, and cut the deficit in half. He has a plan to increase economic growth and reward work – not wealth – by cutting middle-class taxes and putting the tax code back in line with our values. He wants to finish the job of education reform by rewarding the best teachers for teaching at the schools and in the subjects where we need them most, and asking more of teachers in return.
Kerry has proposed an innovative plan to reform the healthcare system to improve quality, expand access, and hold down costs. He has a plan to create jobs and increase security by making America the world’s leader in new, energy-efficient technologies. He is determined to make America safer at home by reforming our broken intelligence agencies and supporting firefighters, police officers, and emergency responders who form our front line of homeland security.
Above all, Kerry has a strategy to win the war on terror by building and leading strong alliances to fight terrorism and keep America safe, strong, and respected. Kerry is guided by values and commitments that Democratic presidents have put into action over the decades: Woodrow Wilson’s commitment to make the world safe for democracy; FDR’s commitment to end isolationism and defeat fascism; Harry Truman’s commitment to stop communism with the swords of America’s military and the ploughshares of the Marshall Plan; John F Kennedy’s commitment to muscular and idealistic internationalism; and Bill Clinton’s commitment to strengthen our alliances throughout the world.
This November, the choice Americans face may have more impact on our people and our place in the world than any in our lifetime. Democrats have chosen a man to lead them who embodies the best this country has to offer. John Kerry understands the ideals of community, faith, and sacrifice because they have defined his life. From his heroic service in Vietnam to his years as prosecutor and lieutenant governor, through two decades in the US senate, he has devoted himself to his country. Time and again he has made tough choices when easier ones were available. His values and his record affirm what is best in us.