I’ve been out of town for a few days and suffering from severe blogging withdrawal symptoms but I did watch the last two days of the Democratic National Convention.
I thought the whole thing was oddly phlegmatic. I’m told it looked different from the convention floor but I found the whole thing rather subdued compared to past Democratic Conventions.
I was both encouraged and discouraged by Mr. Kerry’s speech on Thursday evening. I was encouraged by what I took as his commitment to not abandoning Iraq. To be honest I’ve never been that concerned about Kerry in this regard. I’ve been very concerned about Kerry’s supporters and about the people who will comprise any future Kerry administration. I suspect that he will be surrounded by people who opposed the war in Iraq—as did 90% of the delegates to the Democratic Convention as determined in a New York Times poll. I further suspect that a substantial number of the delegates favor immediate withdrawal—as did two of the former candidates who spoke at the convention.
I was discouraged by Mr. Kerry’s comments on Social Security. Although the War on Terror is the most important issue for whatever administration is in charge next time around there are other issues and, in my opinion, Social Security and healthcare reform are two of the most important. Mr. Kerry said he would opposed either privatization or a reduction in benefits. Fair enough. I oppose privatization myself. That leaves increasing the payroll tax, eliminating FICA max, means testing, and expanding the base to include millions of state, local, and federal government workers as fiscally sound methods of reforming Social Security.
The Baby Boomers will start reaching social security retirement age during the next presidential term. It’s a problem that can’t be deferred any longer.
And I find Mr. Kerry’s assertion that health care is a right simply distressing. I’ll write more on this subject later.
