Slate’s increasingly surreal Kerryisms column has this entry today:
Question: What kind of Democrat are you?
[This is the edited version, Slate‘s view of what Kerry presumably should have said:] Kerry: A thinking Democrat. You can call me an old-fashioned New Deal Democrat. I’m not going to break faith on Social Security. I’m not going to abandon people who are struggling to earn a decent wage.
—Time, Feb. 9, 2004
[This is what Kerry actually said:] A thinking Democrat. You can call me an old-fashioned New Deal Democrat on X or Y. I’m not going to break faith on Social Security. I’m not going to abandon people who are struggling to earn a decent wage. But call me a New Democrat when it comes to creating jobs and being entrepreneurial and understanding the bottom line of business.
The Slate version basically cuts out (as a supposed “caveat” or “curlicue”) Kerry’s last line — and in so doing utterly destroys Kerry’s point that he’s “A thinking Democrat.”
What Kerry means by “thinking Democrat” is a Democrat who isn’t in lockstep with any particular ideology, but who thinks through each question on its own merits. On Social Security and the interests of working people, he sides with the old-fashioned New Deal Democrats. On the importance of a good climate for business, he sides with New Democrats. I set aside whether that’s a good position, or whether it’s an accurate summary of Kerry’s position. But it’s a perfectly sensible response to the question, both as a matter of policy and politics — in fact, it’s probably the politically savviest response.
Slate removes the New Democrat part (and its foreshadowing in “on X or Y,” which is in context Kerry’s way of indicating that he’s an old-fashioned New Deal Democrat only on some things). Amazingly, it leaves in the “thinking Democrat” line — but now there’s nothing to make clear that by “thinking Democrat” Kerry means a Democrat who chooses the best of the various strands of Democratic thought. The Slate edit makes Kerry sound as if he’s saying that the only “thinking Democrat” is the “old-fashioned New Deal Democrat,” which is nearly the opposite of what Kerry is trying to say.
What is the author of this column thinking? He’s not editing out the “caveats” and “curlicues” — he’s editing out the heart of Kerry’s message. Surely he doesn’t think that any message more complex than “I am a staunch New Dealer” or “I am 100% New Democrat” is inherently too “embellish[ed].” But then what is he trying to do?
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