Stopping The Conservative Tide

JOHN FORBES KERRY: he's got the credentials; he's got the image; he's even got the initials. He is a man on the move, and barring any major gaffe in the next six days, he will and should be the next Democratic Senator from Massachusetts.

In the age of Reagan, with a dangerous shift to the far right taking place across the country, Kerry has the intelligence and the perseverance to keep the embattled ship of liberalism afloat. He is articulate, well versed, and blessed with deep conviction about horrors of war conviction earned when he fought in the Vietnam War and then returned to oppose it.

Voters in Massachusetts also have a sterling opportunity to strike a blow against the President by opposing his local clone. Ray Shamic, Shamic, who has cozied up to the President for lack of achievements and ideas of his own, is but one of dozens of far right can rights and welfare over the past four decades.

Kerry will, as he always has, fight for abortion rights, equal rights for women and minorities, and, more important even, against our national fall for morality in the Senate in 1985 as he was in 1971, when he fought for an end to U.S. military involvement in Vietnam in testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations committee.

Kerry, currently lieutenant governor, has made few missteps in his 40 years on this earth, and in his 14 years in the public eye. He fought in the Vietnam War, won three purple hearts, a bronze star, and a silver star, then returned home to lead the veterans movement against the war. In 1971, his question, "How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?" became a rallying cry for the anti-war movement. After an unsuccessful Congressional bid, Kerry went to law school, served as first assistant district attorney in Middlesex County, and in 1982 successfully ran for Lieutenant Governor.

Despite our confidence in his abilities as a spokesman and advocate for liberal causes, we still have our doubts about Kerry's personal qualities; In a field not noted the temerity of its participants, Kerry has nonetheless earned the reputation as overly ambitious. Some Vietnam Vets have charged him with manipulating them for lieutenant governor as a mere stepping-stone, serving less than two years in the post and taking the first chance he found to move up.

But given the strength of President Reagan and the extremism of Kerry's Senate opponent, Raymond Shamie, Kerry must be elected to fight the President and the Republican majority in the Senate.

Shamie, who based his campaign on ideological and personal mimicry of the President, is tainted by his extensive and long standing links to radical right groups. Responding to reports that he is a fellow-traveller of the John Birch society and the Liberty Lobby-two antisemitic and racist extremist groups-Shamie has taken the easy way our: blame it on the press. It just doesn't wash. Shamie has yet to provide any concrete evidence that proves he has not spent his entire professional career hovering near the lunatic fringe of right-wing politics.

What is more, Shamie has exhibited little grasp of foreign policy affairs and clings to the patently absurd notion that somehow the deficit will disappear after a few years of moderate economic growth, a balanced budget amendment and a Presidential line item veto. It is a ridiculous theory, but it is one shamie must cling to in order to bang home his bit campaign pitch: no more taxes. In the course of the campaign, however, Kerry has forced Shamie to concede instances in which he would agree to a tax increase.

Kerry, who has waffled a bit himself on the tax issue since the primary, nonetheless has been more realistic spending. More important, he has avoided the disturbing sawing to the right on social issues in recent years, that nationwide stampede back to the 19th century that finds Ray Shamie leading the pack.

We do have our doubts about John Kerry, but we will support him wholeheartedly because, he is a voice of reason in a political arena increasingly being populated by the rhinoceri of Reaganism.