|
Jewish World Review July 20, 2000/17 Tamuz, 5760
Suzanne Fields
As you might, expect the natives have considerably more on their minds than whether George W. or Al Gore will win in November. Many may one day care, but not yet. They're fishing for salmon, hunting wild birds, and trying to keep the brown bears from knocking over their trash cans. But nothing was more on the minds of my conservative friends aboard the MS Volendam than the Nov. 8 election. These were men and women from all over the country -- from California to New York, from Pell City, Ala., to Poland, Ohio, and from Metairie, La., to Harbor, Ore., as well as lots of places in between. These are voters who treasure the Second Amendment as well as the First; who support the Young America's Foundation and the Freedom Alliance and who read Human Events, the national conservative political weekly. They have differences over specific policies, but a common purpose unites them: They want to win back the White House. So in between looking for bald eagles and killer whales, red squirrels and gold nuggets, they discussed the media spin (bad), George W.'s compassionate conservatism (not too bad), Al Gore's earth tones (ineffective) and Gore's debating skills (effective). Conservatives agree on many things in general, but put a dozen of them in a room and you'll get 15 different non-negotiable opinions. And yet, if these folks are representative of conservatives who will vote in November, there's more to unite the right than divide it. Clinton fatigue has energized everyone. These conservatives are armed for battle by emphasizing common goals rather than specific policy disagreements. I haven't even heard anyone snickering over George W.'s overuse of the word "compassion,'' though it's a little soft and soggy for most conservatives. But what struck me -- and came as a surprise was that these tough-minded conservatives really like George W., even though they don't embrace his move toward the center since the primaries. What is driving Democrats up the wall is that George W. is likable and Al Gore is not. Despite liberal spinning in the media, George W. is making fast friends on the campaign trail in the way that Ronald Reagan did. He's instinctively a down-to-earth kind of guy, who tells a good personal story and doesn't pretend to know something when he doesn't. Conservatives especially trust his instincts, if not all of his policy ideas. As Kelly Anne Fitzpatrick discovered in one of her polls, George W. is the guy most men and women want to see remaining at the end of the television show "Survivor.'' She discovered that Hillary and Bill would be kicked off the island in an early episode and Al Gore would be gone only a little later. There's been lots of talk about the vice president among my shipmates, and nearly everybody thinks he'll make a formidable candidate and that the race will be close. But they're puzzled over how Al Gore has quickly become a man not to like. A magazine cover depicts Al Gore with a sinister vampire tooth overlapping his left lip. It's not a flattering picture, and this is not the cover of National Review but of Atlantic Monthly. George W.'s secret weapon may indeed be Al Gore's meanness and ruthlessness, saying and doing and wearing anything he thinks it takes to win. The conventional wisdom is that Al will cream George W. in a debate, but not everybody agrees. When the vice president starts to needle the governor, suggests one of my shipmates, the Republican candidate ought to tell him to "stop trying to get under my skin and stick to the issues.'' These conservatives know that there's a new voting bloc that's emerged since Clinton entered office -- investors in the stock market and users of the Internet. A full 63 percent of voting households own stock directly or indirectly in pension plans and retirement funds. These voters cut across the so-called gender gap and parochial minority politics. They have reasons to want a conservative to guide the economy and to restore moral character to the White House.
At least that's how it looks from the bridge of the MS Volendam, as we sail past glaciers, watch the
salmon run and look for killer
07/17/00: Snoop Doggy Dogg was a founding father, wasn't he?
|