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August
12, 2000
Democratic presidential candidate Al Gore has just given voters a lot to think about before November.
With his running-mate choice of Connecticut Sen. Joseph Lieberman, Gore has managed to confuse the race for both his fellow Democrats and the Republicans. For example, some traditionally strong Democratic bloc may be reluctant to vote for the Jewish senator. The president of the Dallas Branch of the NAACP was suspended this week and later resigned after saying, on a radio talk show, "If we get a Jew person, then what I’m wondering is, what is this movement for, you know? …I think we need to be very suspicious of any kind of partnerships between the Jews at that kind of level, because we know that their primary interest has to do with money and these kinds of things."
Lieberman deserves a little more credit than that, and his voting record as senator provides ample evidence of what he’d be likely to do within the constraints of the vice presidency. He has promised, very publicly, to support Gore rather than to promote his own agenda. That may not help, because that one word – Jew – may be enough to disqualify him in the minds of many voters.
In addition, he’s an easterner. Although Gore’s position on matters of the environment is well known, his background is far from the rural West. That has to be a concern for those of us who live west of the Rockies, or perhaps even as far east as the Mississippi.
But Lieberman’s selection has some Republicans scratching their heads as well, because he has a reputation as a moralist, "The Conscience of the Senate." When the Democratic Party was scrambling for ways to save the president from impeachment, Lieberman didn’t mince words. He characterized Bill Clinton’s behavior with Monica Lewinsky as "not just inappropriate, it is immoral."
He differs with Gore over the hot-button abortion issue of parental notification for minors, and his public stance on that position has forced Gore to say that he’d consider "a set of safety valves that actually worked" if such a law were presented to him. That means that there’d be dialogue in the White House if Gore were elected.
He also favors school vouchers, an idea Gore wants no part of. That, too, is a traditionally Republican position; opponents are afraid that even with such vouchers, only the wealthy could afford "school choice," and that the exodus of those students would impoverish public schools. Those are real concerns, but so is the accessibility of quality education, and someday, somehow, lawmakers are going to have to reconcile those positions. The White House is a good a place to hold that debate.
The bottom line is that many of the criticisms traditionally leveled at Democratic candidates will not apply so neatly to the Gore/Lieberman ticket. Some of the campaign slogans will have to be set aside. The GOP is going to have a very hard time maintaining such emotional charges as draft dodging, skirt chasing and pot smoking. That’s good; we have other important issues to discuss.
It’s about time that some of those useless stereotypes were discarded. From now until November, voters can focus on substantive issues, because the difference between the tickets is very clear. The candidates’ positions aren’t traditional, though, and that means Americans must pay close attention, because voting a straight ticket won’t produce the expected results this year.
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