Challenge Bush:：

Author: Zhang Liping
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-05-01
Features: Kerry and Bush had significant differences in personality, and their policy preferences were also vastly different. Kerry's voting record was mostly "yes but" or "no but," primarily the former, meaning he often voted in favor while attaching amendments or reservations. He had shown interest in issues such as civil rights, social security, affirmative action, and education. In 1998, his views on education were that the U.S. education system was bureaucratic and stagnant, and it would one day "explode on its own." He suggested abolishing tenure and reforming the teacher certification process. In 1992, he said that affirmative action had produced many positive outcomes, but now it was time to recognize the costs it had incurred. He once also stated that the civil rights movement was a "great battle between good and evil," but now "the arena of the civil rights movement has been controlled by lawyers, and the rules that determine the outcome are neither understood nor sympathized by most Americans." He argued that affirmative action had "made America think in racial terms," and it helped cultivate a "culture of dependency." Additionally, "there is a reality that can practically lead to reverse discrimination." Regarding crime and poverty issues, he described crime-ridden neighborhoods as "not only ruled by poverty but also by savagery," and high crime rates were a "deadly poison to improving relations with whites." The question he raised was how to increase the rate of black children living in two-parent households from 6% to 50%. His views sometimes leaned conservative, such as "in 1992, we must ask ourselves whether this is a result of a psychological shift in our country? As some argue, it stems from the laissez-faire of the 1960s, turning from self-reliance to obsession and dependence on the government, from caring about others to self-absorption, from public responsibility to public abandonment and chaos." On social security, he once said that social security could not be sustained and called for reforms, including raising the retirement age. On anti-drug issues, he argued that the U.S. should declare war on international criminal cartel organizations, such as considering shooting suspected drug trafficking aircraft, and he also said that gasoline taxes should be raised by 50 cents per gallon. Kerry's characteristic was studying tough issues in-depth and proposing unique insights within a few months or years, but compared to Bush, his weakness was that he lacked perseverance. Many of his views were considered heretical within the liberal Democratic Party, but when voting, he mostly followed the mainstream to avoid alienating the base voters (e.g., Edward Kennedy).