A weary looking man in downtown Portland wore today a t-shirt that read: "John Kerry, Enemy of America, Hero to Communists." How can we make sense of such untimely slurs?
The message is intended to scratch a scar open.
The intended audience must be communist bashers, but indeed, bashers of a certain age: Those poor souls who cling to their hatred for a regime dead now 15 years. And further, those communist bashers who thought and still think that invading Vietnam was a good idea. How large is this group, really?
The message harkens to a golden age of political myth. The cold war allowed two and only two sides. Enemies were enemies; friends friends. The pressing need was clear: defend at all costs against nuclear catastrophe.
Kerry fought with the U.S. military in Vietnam, and upon his return joined the protesters.
But of what current relevance is this? Twenty years of duty in the Senate stands between then and now. This misdirection to a heroic or shameful past is a half-hearted attempt to divert us from ongoing political affairs, a present very difficult to face.
In this "age of terror," so called for purposes of marketing this political season, the "us" surely must include John Kerry. Pro-Bush troops can't group this Catholic with the Jihadists, so they invoke the cold war and cry traitor. Anything to find a line of demarcation.
To call Kerry a hero to communists is to announce that one's own cause is thoroughly exhausted. Anti-communists cling to their hatreds as if to phantom life vessels providing safe voyage through waters long evaporated.
© 2004 Gregg Miller