From: MCMASTER@LSTC2VM.stortek.com (Jim McMaster)
Subject: Re: Brown crushes Clinton; Bush camp in disarray
Organization: StorageTek SW Engineering
Date: Sun, 5 Apr 1992 18:54:28 GMT

In article <1992Apr3.001513.22910@athena.mit.edu>
wdstarr@athena.mit.edu (William December Starr) writes:
 
>
>In article <167BD94AB.MCMASTER@LSTC2VM.stortek.com>,
>MCMASTER@LSTC2VM.stortek.com (Jim McMaster) said:
>
>> > Imagine if Brown wasn't a candidate this year...how do you
>> > people think the primaries would have gone?  Imagine if Harkin,
>> > Kerrey, and Tsongas all got wiped out by the Clinton money
>> > machine, and there was no Brown campaign...what do you think?
>
>> Then we might have had a chance of knocking off Bush in the fall.
>> As it stands, Brown is practically guaranteeing a Republican
>> victory.  He does not have, and never did have, a ghost of a
>> chance at the nomination.  He is just pissing in the well.
>
>And if it's a well that a lightweight like Jerry Brown can destroy
>virtually single-handedly then perhaps it _needs_ to be pissed in.
>
>*sigh* I was born in '57.  I grew up in time to have JFK martyred
>(so it seemed at the time) when I was in the first grade, in time
>for the Democrats to seem to be the good guys, LBJ and Viet Nam
>notwithstanding, in time for the only decent Republican presidential
>candidate in my entire lifetime to be Barry Goldwater.  In short,
>I spent my childhood firmly believing that the Democrats were the
>good guys and the Republicans the bad guys.  Well, I still feel that
>way about the Republicans -- I mean, _George Bush_, fer chrissakes!
>-- but I have just fucking had it with the Democrats as well.  If
>the party goes down in flames again in the '92 presidential election
>because it can't find anybody better to put up for President -- out
>of two hundred fifty million Americans! -- than Clinton, then I say
>good riddance to it.  Hell, _let_ Bush get his second term by
>default.  Let Bush and the Republicans take the blame for whatever
>state things are in by '96.  And let numbskulls like Ron Brown get
>honest work.  If Jerry Brown's attacking the temple, fine.  More
>power to him -- the temple hasn't been worth shit in years.
>
>-- William December Starr <wdstarr@athena.mit.edu>
 
I agree with a lot that you say.  The Democratic Party is in deep
trouble.  I *wish* I had another choice besides Clinton, but the
simple fact is that I do not.  The Republicans have been in charge
for twelve years now, and have caused severe damage to the economy
and the country.  Look at what Ronnie & George have done to the
Supreme Court!  Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and (whatever-his-
name-is) Kennedy are disasters to the freedom of all Americans.
The "borrow-and-spend" Republicans are even worse than the "tax-and-
spend" Democrats against whom they rail.
 
The Democratic Party did not "anoint" Clinton.  He has become the
leader of the party's moderate-conservative wing.  He has done a good
enough job as Governor of Arkansas to be reelected five times by the
people of his state.  There are several people I wish were on the
ballot, but the fact is they were too chicken to challenge Bush when
they had the chance.  Out of the six who got into the race, Clinton
is the best choice.  He beat Tsongas, Kerrey and Harkin fair and square,
by the prevailing rules.  He was beating Brown, too, until Jerry latched
onto the "anybody but Clinton" vote, just as he benefited from the
"anybody but Carter" vote in 1976.
 
I seriously question the mental capacity of anyone who really believes
Jerry Brown should be President.  If he runs agains Bush, I will cast my
first Republican ballot in twenty years.  Brown is a weaselly politician
who changes his mind about any issue, depending on the current polls and
the current audience.  After two terms as Governor of California, he had
a 60% negative rating from his constituents, and got creamed when he ran
for the Senate.  He has latched onto the current discontent in the country,
and has come up with his $100 gimmick to get votes.  He cries about corrup-
tion in the process, and proposes a flat tax that would increase the
deficit by hundreds of billions.  This man would be a disaster as
President.
 
You like Brown's ideas?  Don't count on his still having the same ones
once he gets elected!  He is a world champion at the flip-flop, and
has no convictions to back up his ideas.  As soon as a more popular
"cause" arises, he will jump on that one too.
 
As I said, I wish I had better choices available.  Clinton will get the
nomination, though.  The harder Brown makes it, the more chance we have
at another Bush term.  Bush is the closest thing we have to Brown...no
principles, no strong ideas, the ability to change positions on a dime.
The difference is I think Bush is essentially a moral person.  Brown is
not.
 
Jim McMaster
Newsgroups: talk.politics.misc,talk.politics.guns,alt.individualism