The 2004 Campaign

Richard Addison

Richard Addison writes from Stillwater, MN.

I find it difficult not to despise election campaigns. Candidates nominate themselves, which demands a lack of modesty. A lack of decent manners shows in unending attack. Problems are not discussed with intelligence but with appeals to emotion and ignorance. The goal is to win, anyhow. Why do candidates behave this way? They look for glory, whether on the local or national scale. They may have good intentions and even believe in what they are doing, but decency is quickly lost in the pursuit of the fame and glory. We must have elections, of course, but we would be more civilized if good manners found a place in elections.

I am also puzzled by the personal hatred of Mr. Bush. He is hated because he is simple, with normal beliefs. This means lack of sophistication. He has inherited old-fashioned notions of right and wrong, typical of earlier Americans, and this is not part of present attitudes. Up-to-date Americans can forgive anything in the name of what they call compassion. Talk of individual responsibility is a charade. President Bush believes in America and her traditions, capitalism, and freedom. These are denied among the elite. There is no nobility in what they see as a class-conscious society where the poor are denied opportunity, businesses treat the workingman as slaves, and freedom is limited to those with money.

The Democratic Party believes the role of government is to help minorities, and blacks in particular, to become wealthier and occupy more responsible positions. This is to be achieved, not by individual worth, but by counting noses. The Democratic Party attacks business and believes it should be compelled to pay benefits and pensions. They do so, but there is little understanding these benefits are part of the cost of whatever is made and sold. Consumers pay all benefits. There is no understanding that corporations pay no taxes. Taxes are transfers to the government that are deducted from wages as one of the costs of business. There is little to no appreciation that successful businessmen provide whatever comforts we have. The greatest indictment of the Democratic Party is that it rejects the United States Constitution. They dare not say that publicly, of course, but their actions deny their words. The Constitution is interpreted to mean what conforms to their political philosophy. They block those well-qualified if they do not subscribe to the social and political philosophy of their party.

The attacks on our way of life reflect the same attitude as do Europeans, and we wonder if Democrats take their lead from Europeans. Our friends in Europe despise us for not having their cultural heritage; we are beneath contempt. No matter that without the U.S., France and Germany would have been the playgrounds of the Russians: they despise us. Good deeds are punished with jealousy. They will show us. They will prove that they can have prosperity and a 35-hour week, retirement at 55, long vacations, extensive welfare benefits, massive regulation of business, and government without consent of the people. So they are building a monolithic European Union to take on and best anything America can do. These are the dreams of fools.

Nothing is more foreign to European states utopianism that the American emphasis on individual liberty, local self-government, equality under law, and slow, imperfect reform. America has always been immune to utopian fantasies -- indeed, it has always opposed them. The skeptical Founding Fathers, influenced by the prudence and love of liberty of the British Enlightenment, built the American republic based on the anti-utopian belief that men are fallible and self-interested, love their property, and can best manage their affairs locally. The Founders saw . . . the French philosophers as a danger to good government, which requires not some grand, all-encompassing blueprint, but rather checks and balances and a citizenry of perennially vigilant individual citizens. (Victor Davis Hanson, The Herald Examiner, 18, No. 1)

The preservation of American traditions as here expressed should be the goal of all politicians, and particularly of those who run for national office.     *

“Politics, n. A strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles.” --Ambrose Bierce

We would like to thank the following people for their generous contributions in support of this journal (from 7/15/2004 to 9/13/2004): George E. Andrews, Hale E. Andrews, William D. Andrews, Frank J. Bartz, Dean A. Benjamin, Veronica A. Binzley, Robert P. Bringer, Patrick J. Buchanan, Priscilla L. Buckley, James R. Cavanaugh, Cliff Chambers, Irma I. Clark, William D. Collingwood, Leo Corazza, Gary E. Culver, Charles, F. de Ganahl, Frank S. Dennis, Michael D. Detmer, Eugene H. Donovan, Edward J. Dury, Robert M. Ducey, John J. Duvall, Milton Friedman, James R. Gaines, Gary D. Gillespie,  Thad A. Goodwyn, Joseph H. Grant, Hollis J. Griffin, Joyce Griffin, David L. Hauser, Thomas E. Heatley, Quentin O. Heimerman, Ray Hodges, John A. Howard, Thomas E. Humphreys, Don Johnson, Robert A. Kierlin, Gloria Knoblach, Michael Lemiszko, Eric Linhof, Calvin T. Lucy, Ronald B. Maddox, Curitis Dean Mason, Bruno J. Mauer, Walter M. Moede, Roberta A. Moss, Joseph M. Murray, Larry A. Olsen, William Otis, Thad Perry, Gary J. Pressley Richard F. Radke, Richard P. Schonland, Fred W. Schultz, Richard R. Shank, Weldon O. & Roxana B. Shepherd, L. Sideris, Joseph M. Simonet, Daivd L. Smith, Frank T. Street, Patrick M. Sullivan, Jack E. Turner, M. O. Turner, Carol C. Weimann, Gaylord Willett, Max L. Williamson, Lowell M. Winthrop.