The Once and Future President

Once Upon A Time...

...there was a divided country choosing between a charismatic Democratic Senator and a powerful, divisive Republican. The Republican was known for his cunning and bag of tricks. The Democrat was known for his courage commanding a boat in combat and his Massachusetts heritage. It was the closest election since 1888.

Some guy with the initials JFK won.

Today, that brief shining moment in history is known as Camelot -- the time when American greatness seemed right around the corner, as if we had almost reached the gateway to a future undreamt of, and all we needed to do was open the door.

Instead of Camlann and Mordred, however, we had Dallas and Oswald. Vietnam, riots, a brother murdered, a nation in tailspin. The deceased president's great rival wins the White House, and ends up synonymous with political corruption. A future undreamt of becomes a half-forgotten dream from a brief shining moment.

And now, once again, America is on a cusp. Instead of a grand future, we stand on the brink of the abyss. Instead of eight years of prosperity, there have been four years of madness, hubris and folly. Instead of a war building in the background and a dream of a Great Society nearing its apex, we have a violent nexus of greed and incompetence and a nightmare of a New American Century.

In the legend of Arthur, it is said that he will return in Britain's darkest hour. Has our own leader from Camelot returned in ours?

John F. Kerry, the senator from Massachusetts, has had a much longer career in Washington than President Kennedy did. His own naval career at the command of a small attack boat was strikingly different from the other JFK's, as was the aftermath. Where Kennedy lived in a time when the wink-and-nod was acceptable, we live in an age of hyper-intense scrutiny -- at least regarding Democrats.

And yet the parallels are undeniable. Kerry has been a crusader his entire life, whether in Vietnam or after it, as a prosecutor or Lieutenant Governor in his home state, or through nearly twenty years of fighting corruption in the Senate. He is attacked routinely from the right as a flip-flopping extreme liberal, in spite of the cognitive dissonance that position should cause, and as a spineless centrist by the left, in spite of his long, dedicated service to liberal and progressive causes. Yet anything resembling a thoughtful study of his life reveals a man dedicated to principle, to honor, to duty, and to the right thing. His whole life has been an example of how to cautiously study a situation until the right moment comes, then strike boldly. Turning his boat into the fire is the perfect metaphor of his life, whether in the rivers of the Mekong Delta, the streets of Washington DC, the courts of Massachusetts, or the halls of the Senate, where he helped expose Iran-Contra, CIA drug dealing, Manuel Noriega's betrayals, and the "terrorists' bank" BCCI.

Suffice to say he compares well to his predecessor.

Today, the Red Sox swept the World Series, winning for the first time since 1918. Just as a lunar eclipse -- a red moon -- came out of totality. In Busch Stadium. Against a team owned by Bush's old friends from his Texas Ranger days.

Has the sword been pulled from the stone? Only time will tell. But that's one heck of a good vibe out there. The portents look good and the momentum is all on Kerry's side. Remember, this is the man known as "Kerry the closer."

Arthur wasn't perfect either. He was a war leader who relied on his queen to handle peacetime logistics, he had a blind spot when it came to family, and man oh man, did he have a temper. Yet his courage, vision and moral code gave us the dream of "right makes might" rather than the reverse, a Round Table where all are equals (even the king himself), and a land of freedom, justice, peace and bounty, where all are protected and cared for.

The original dream of Camelot fell to tragedy and untimely death. The promise of its renewal always holds the hope that in its return, things will be different. I believe that the JFK of our generation, the man who steps forward to lead us in a time of darkness rather than light, has come just when history and America need him most.

Sir Thomas Mallory couldn't have written it better himself.

(/) Roland X
Kerry/Edwards 2004: Vote While You Still Can