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These periodic ramblings are written, produced and directed by Ronald Dale Karr, University of Massachusetts Lowell. Obviously, the opinions expressed here are my own, not those of the University. |
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These periodic ramblings are written, produced and directed by Ronald Dale Karr, University of Massachusetts Lowell. Obviously, the opinions expressed here are my own, not those of the University. |
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HONEST AL, THE WORKING MAN'S PAL The best kept SECRET in Washington is finally revealed—Al Gore has been a closet POPULIST all along! All those years that Bill Clinton & Co. were shafting working families and pandering to corporate America, there was Al, fighting, always fighting, behind the scenes for you and me. Is anyone gullible enough to buy this rubbish? Apparently so. Al shot way up in the polls after the convention and now seems to be pulling away from George W. No one ever went broke underestimating the good sense of the American public.
WHEN YOU STRIP AWAY THE RHETORICGore's proposals are modest indeed. Instead of national health insurance, we'll be able to sue our HMO after it's killed or maimed us. Instead of antitrust enforcement, we'll get gun safety locks and anti-smoking ads. Instead of stronger labor unions, we'll get more family leave. Instead of tough environmental enforcement we'll get more feel-good international conferences. Only on the matter of tax cuts for the rich is Gore even in the Populist ballpark, way out in the bleachers.
DOES IT MATTER?Over the next few weeks before election day the liberal establishment will be telling Progressives how important it is to elect Gore and defeat Bush. Don't believe it! Regardless of who gets elected, the next president will promote the interests of corporate America at the expense of the rest of the globe, do little to alleviate poverty at home or abroad, approve corporate mergers, undermine labor unions, keep military spending at a ridiculous level, and intervene militarily whenever the whim strikes.
BUT WHAT ABOUT THE SUPREME COURT? As the liberals grow more strident in their defense of Honest Al, they play their trump card: the next president may well get to name several supreme court judges, and just think of the people old Dubbayu will name. Al Gore's choices will be better, won't they? Think again! In August Al Gore gave us a clear indication of what his appointments will be like when he made his first major choice: JOE LIEBERMAN, the most conservative northern Democrat in the Senate. Even if Gore's justices uphold ABORTION, expect them to be, like LIEBERMAN, anti-labor, anti-consumer, and anti-poor. BUSH, on the other hand, who likes to avoid fights when possible, would not want a bruising confirmation fight, especially if the Democrats succeed in narrowing the gap in the Senate. He'd be more likely to nominate either a popular Senator or an obscure judge of moderate views. A Bush justice is more likely to be a Souter than a Scalia or a Thomas.
WHAT ABOUT NADER? Obviously, RALPH NADER as president would do more for most Americans than either Bush or Gore, if only because he's avoided the corruption that envelopes the two contenders. Unfortunately, without money and with extreme hostility from the media, who seem determined to ignore him, most voters will not be aware he's even running. We'll be voting for him, but we don't anticipate a lot of company.
VIOLENCE IN AMERICA  results from violent movies, music, and video games, a lot of academic "experts" would have us believe. Never mind the fact that capitalism rests on military superiority and naked force, as so amply demonstrated in Iraq and Yugoslavia. While Clinton was cluck-clucking over the Columbine massacre he was bombing the hell out of Serbia. The government sends in police armed with automatic weapons capable of killing a hundred persons a minute to seize a small boy from his unarmed relatives. Might makes right and always has. Kids are smart enough to learn this lesson watching TV news, much less watching movies. Get real.
WHY GORE VS. BUSH?  Why not? Part of the reason why the American electorate faces such a dismal choice this November is that the pool of potential candidates for the office is so small. According to the Constitution any "natural born Citizen" of the U.S. at least 35 years old is eligible to run. Thus, in theory, about 90 million people or so could potentially become the chief executive.NOT SO FASTBut wait. No woman has ever run seriously for the office. Nor has any person of color. All of our presidents have been white males and there is no sign that this tradition will be broken soon. In point of fact there are many other unwritten laws that further reduce the potential pool of candidates down to a handful.WASPS ONLY Only one president, John Kennedy, was raised as a Roman Catholic, even though Catholics make up about a quarter of the U.S. population. All presidents and indeed all presidential candidates have been of European descent, and with only one exception (Andrew Jackson of all people), all presidents have been born of native-born parents. Moreover, despite the large number of Americans descended from southern and eastern Europeans, Michael Dukakis remains the only candidate nominated from this ethnic group. He lost.IS THAT ALL?So, if you're a Protestant white male of western European descent at least 35 years old you're a potential presidential candidate? Not quite. First of all, no one under the age of 43 has ever been elected. And there are two other hidden qualifications that rule out nearly everyone else.THE OFFICE TESTNo man has ever been elected president who did not serve first as a governor of a state, a member of Congress, a cabinet officer, or a general:Which leaves maybe a thousand or so Protestant white men, over 43 years old, of Western European ancestry who have served in Congress or the Cabinet or have held the rank of general. But there's one more little known hurdle. THE COLLEGE FACTOR In the United States about 80% of all college students attend public, state-run institutions, yet nearly all presidents who have attended college have gone to private schools or the national service academies. It's well known that more than three-quarters of English prime ministers, from Horace Walpole to Tony Blair, have attended Oxford or Cambridge, but few realize a similar process is at work here. Even many losing candidates attend top schools. Only one president, Lyndon Johnson, graduated from a state college or university. A number of candidates have come from large midwestern state universities, and all have lost. And not just any private school either. On the following table, we've highlighted those schools ranked in the top 50 by U.S. News & World Report.THE BOTTOM LINESo, if you want to be president, look in the mirror. Are you a white Protestant, middle-aged male of western European ancestry who attended an elite private school or service academy and has served in Congress, the Presidential Cabinet, or has Governed a state or been saluted as a general? No? Good by!SO THERE YOU HAVE ITNixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush, Clinton, Gore, Bush, Gush, Bore. Who's next?
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Send all comments on the Karr Report to Ronald Dale Karr
Ronald_Karr@uml.edu