roundtable: RE: SEN. ROBERT DOLE, SP

roundtable: RE: SEN. ROBERT DOLE, SP

RE: SEN. ROBERT DOLE, SP

Jeff Briggs (jbriggs@capital.edu)
Sun, 2 Jul 1995 02:33:02 -0400 

Date: Sun, 2 Jul 1995 02:33:02 -0400
From: jbriggs@capital.edu (Jeff Briggs)
Message-Id: <9507020633.AA17675@athena.capital.edu>
To: roundtable@cni.org
Subject: RE: SEN. ROBERT DOLE, SP


I agree with Jack Hirschfeld's rejoinder to Vigdor re Dole, altho I agree
my attack on the Republican attacksmith did not provide chapter and verse.
I recall a day in 1975 (Fall) when I went with my then-girlfriend to hear
Dole campaign for Gerald Ford (whose running mate he was) in that redoubt
of enlightened liberalism, Newark, Ohio (home of the late right-wing
demogogue John Ashbrook, as well as the site of a Klan rally in years
past).

     The day was cool and beautiful, and the red-white-and-blue bunting
and off-key high school band put the crowd in a vaguely festive mood. But
Dole came out and ruined it. "Jimmy Carter's gonna take away yer guns",
he chanted like a mantra,"Jimmy Carter's gonna take away yer guns." Any
good vibes fled elsewhere. The big lie, repeated mindlessly, arrousing the 
fears of those whose personal inadequacies find false solace in the 
contemplation of guns. His speech was ugly and nasty and fanned hatred 
and congratulated ignorance. The mood was similar to George Wallace's 
harangueing of a crowd in Cobo Hall in Detroit before a riot broke out 
(in 1968?).

     I decided Dole was one of the lowest, slimiest, most dangerous
demogogues I had ever heard. It was this personal experience that 
colored my invective.

     Vigdor, I respect both you and your mind (!), but for you to 
find common cause with this living proof of what's wrong with American
politics because he happens to hypocritically hit on an obvious truth
about American media for the wrong reasons and without the proper 
context, implications, and analysis, is shortsighted.

     But I will be priveleg4ed to be in the cross-hairs of your 
dialectic should you maintain your admirable independence of thought on
this issue...

Jeff Briggs
jbriggs@capital.edu

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