“Vote your conscience”
Sonia Mukhi’s piece on presidential politics and negative campaigning (“Fragmented Democrats cannot succeed,” Feb. 26) begins and ends with an unfounded assertion that John Kerry is the better Democratic nominee, while the entire middle is a de facto endorsement of John Edwards.
Mukhi blasts the Democratic candidates from the recent New York gubernatorial election repeatedly for engaging in negative campaigning that ripped the party and both candidates apart, practically handing the state to the Republicans on a silver platter. She also asserts, “Thankfully, negative campaign strategies have so far been kept to a minimum in this primary cycle.” She ignores the intense rivalries between Dick Gephardt, Howard Dean and Kerry in Iowa that burst into an outpouring of lies and distortions in advertisements from all candidates except Edwards.
Relentlessly optimistic and positive, Edwards had built his campaign around staying above the fray that destroyed half of the Democratic candidates. It was only after the media crowned him that Kerry picked up on Edwards’ positivism.
I understand that Mukhi has some policy differences with John Edwards; she mentions the death penalty and gay marriage. In the interests of full disclosure, I’d like to point out that Kerry and Edwards have the same position on gay marriage. While I too oppose the death penalty, it is critical, as Mukhi suggests, to “make a few concessions.” After all, most Americans favor the death penalty, especially in many southern states where Democrats will have to compete in November if we have any chance of beating Bush.
It seems that the only reason Mukhi proposes for Democrats to coalesce behind Kerry is that he is the front-runner. This argument, frankly, is ridiculous. This is the presidency we’re talking about. Don’t vote based on what other people think; vote your conscience. Vote for the guy you want to be president.
Arielle Holland
CAS ‘07
