Regime Change Begins At Home

The Democratic presidential candidate, decorated Vietnam veteran, and Senator, John Kerry has triggered an outcry from the "you can't say that!" crowd:

During a speech Wednesday at the Peterborough Town Library in New Hampshire, which holds the first presidential primary, Kerry said that Bush has committed a ''breach of trust'' in the eyes of many United Nations members by going to war while some countries felt there was room for diplomacy.

Kerry said the country would not bridge the gap until it elects a new president. After highlighting his foreign-policy credentials, Kerry appropriated some of the administration's own rhetoric, as well as the words of some antiwar activists, by saying: ''What we need now is not just a regime change in Saddam Hussein and Iraq, but we need a regime change in the United States.''

Both Democrats and Republicans are criticizing Kerry, apparently on the premise that you just can't criticize the president during "wartime." Come on! He's running for the office, ferchrissake! For that very reason, just about everything he says should criticize the President. One of the "freedoms" the U.S. is supposedly fighting to protect is our right to enact a peaceful "regime change" every four years. Do those who denounce Kerry for his participation in that process disagree with democracy?

So far, Kerry's standing by his remarks. I doubt I'd vote for the guy, but I'll be even less likely to vote for someone who doesn't criticize Yubbledew (my new favorite name for the guy in the White House). If all we're going to get in a Democratic candidate is someone who says "I support everything Bush does," then we should just vote for Bush in 2004. Come to think of it, let's just call off the election altogether—there's a war on, you know, and elections can be so divisive...

(I can't find complete text of Kerry's remarks, but you'll find a few more details here andhere.)

UPDATE: Joan Walsh has a good piece on this topic in Salon. As she points out, methods Bush supporters use to silence critics are tried and true. It's wonderful when the people who claim to be defending our "freedom" are also those who seem most vehemently opposed to expressions of it.

Posted April 4, 2003 02:36 PM | general politics