Tired of politics? So am I. But I'm not feeling creative enough to post anything else at the moment. So here goes...

Last Sunday, I happened to catch John Kerry's interview on Meet the Press. Though I'm still far from thrilled about him as a candidate, I thought he did a reasonably good job, albeit with a few quips. Reading this insightful article about it brings it back.

For those too lazy or apathetic to click the link, I'll quote a brief bit before writing my thoughts.

Russert played a clip from Kerry's 1971 appearance on Meet the Press following his testimony as a leader of Vietnam Veterans Against the War before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. A longhaired Kerry, in uniform, was seen saying that he stood by the essence of his testimony, in which he had said that veterans had admitted that they had "raped, cut off ears, cut off heads, taped wires from portable telephones to human genitals and turned up the power." He added that under the Geneva Conventions such acts were war crimes.

When I saw the old news clip, before Russert started piping in, my initial reaction was to rethink my lack of enthusiasm in supporting Kerry. This must have been something that took quite a bit of courage. He went beyond the call of duty, not only going to serve, but to then returning to spread the word about the atrocities being committed while most of America was kept in the dark. I would certainly be more willing to support this young man in the video -- someone who stood up for what he believed and spoke the truth about what he had witnessed -- than the waffling panderer Kerry is now commonly perceived to be.

Russert did not play the tape to congratulate Kerry for his truth-telling. On the contrary, he was clearly calling him on the carpet. He even suggested that "a lot" of Kerry's allegations had been discredited. In fact, every word that Kerry spoke then has been shown to be true in an abundance of testimony. ...

Kerry answered warily. He began by trying to make light of the clip. "Where did all that dark hair go? - that's a big question for me," he joked. He went on to say that although some of his language had been "excessive," he was still proud of the stand he had taken.

Thus returned the image of the waffling buffoon who, momentarily avoiding the issue, then did his best to spin it in a way that didn't really answer much of anything, while still attempting to appear consistent. This is exactly what America does not need right now. To beat Bush, we need leadership and direction, not more back-treading and mind games. I'll take the John Kerry of 20 years ago any day.

That said, I do hold out some hope that maybe there's a still little bit of the courageous war hero / peace activist version of John Kerry, lurking beneath the surface somewhere. Someone who has the instinct to do what's right, even if the current Washington political environment makes it unfeasable to stand on principle without committing career suicide.

Either way, I will be voting for him in November. That I have sworn. Even if Kerry is nothing but a waffle, a waffle in the White House is preferable to allowing what remains of America's goodness to be flushed down the toilet for the foreseeable future. Therefore, I have to root for Kerry every step of the way, from now until November. Is there any other choice, practically speaking?

In committing myself to such a partisan position, "for the sake of the greeater good", do I lose a certain degree of my own credibility, or at least the appearance thereof? By taking a stand, and saying "above all else, Kerry must win", do I compromise my capacity for intellectual honesty?

If Kerry says something with which I disagree (as he has on several occassions), or does something stupid, do I point it out publicly as I typically would on this webpage, or do I avoid mentioning the candidate's flaws so as not to draw attention to them, thus (hopefully) increasing the likelihood that some readers might be swayed to vote as I would?

Do the ends justify the means? No, they do not.

Even though I support and will vote for him, I must continue to criticize Kerry when necessary. If not, I risk committing the same behavior as those who so alienated me from the Republican party years ago. (Yes, there was a time long ago when I was proudly registered as a Republican. It wasn't that terribly long ago, really.)

When Rush Limbaugh and other conservative luminaries failed to vocally criticize the congressional republicans for passing the CDA, they forever lost my trust. Now, I think I can see, to a certain extent, why they weren't more active in opposing it. Perhaps they avoided criticism of errant brethren for fear that if they pointed out the mistakes of prominent party members, voters might become turned off and decide to vote another party into power.

Obviously, in the case of this voter, that tactic didn't work. The silence become more damning of the party as a whole than open criticism. Since there were plenty of other sources from which to learn what was going on, the fact that so many republicans weren't talking about it made even those in agreement appear to tacitly approve of the hated legislation.

Conceivably, it could have worked on some voters who weren't paying full attention to the issue. Had Rush come out and spoken against it on a daily basis, as he did with the Clinton health care plan, maybe more listeners who were previously only semi-aware of the CDA's existence would have turned against republican party. They couldn't afford that. So they remained mostly silent and went along.

Now look at where it's gotten them. Because the more sane members of the party did not stand up earlier, those repressive elements are out again in greater force, trying to "clean up" the airwaves, rid the Internet of porn, and tear the First Amendment to shreds.

If there are issues of disagreement, it is better to openly criticise the preferred candidate and/or party early on, while still supporting them as the lesser of evils, than be silent and wait for things to fester out of control, and (in worst case) freedoms be taken away.

Thus saith ME!