Kerry Is No Jay Gatsby

[Annie]

Sometimes the analogies just roll:

http://doctor-horsefeathers.com/archives2/000280.php#000280

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Jay Gatsby is the fictional hero of the Great American novel. He is the archetypal American self-creator. He was born Jay Gatz but repudiated his origins and background while inventing a grand new persona. The perfect hero for a country born by casting off its European origins and creating a new world wherein success was determined, not by background, but by individual talent. Fitzgerald’s tale is, however, a cautionary one, because he warns against the inescapability of the past, the dangers of trying too hard to escape from history. Gatsby comes to grief because he rejects not only his personal parental past, but also the moral and ethical constraints handed down from one generation to the next. His romantic dream of himself finally collided with reality. As Nick Carraway said of him:

“No — Gatsby turned out all right at the end; it is what preyed on Gatsby, what foul dust floated in the wake of his dreams that temporarily closed out my interest in the abortive sorrows and shortwinded elations of men.”

John Kerry is his own fictional creation, a Gatsby minus the charm. He has invented a romantic self: the bold, bemedalled and courageous warrior who fought in defense of his country. Now, like Gatsby, the foul dust that has floated all these years in the wake of his dreams is destroying him. Like Gatsby, Kerry’s hubristic dreams utterly blinded him to the fate that awaited at the hands of the veterans he sought to erase from history. His enablers in the Democratic party are now trying desparately to save his sinking ship by attacking the veterans who refuse to let him ignore the foul dust of his post-Vietnam betrayals and the lies of his 4 month, 3 scratches, Purple Heart bugout. Mark Steyn captures this when he writes: “…So Kerry is now the first self-confessed war criminal in the history of the Republic to be nominated for president. Normally this would be considered an electoral plus only in the more cynical banana republics. But the Democrats seemed to think they could run an anti-war anti-hero as a war hero and nobody would mind. As we now know, a lot of people -- a lot of veterans -- do mind, very much. They understand that, whether or not he ever mowed down civilians with his 50-caliber machinegun, Kerry is responsible for a lot of wounds closer to home..." See the rest here.

Horsefeathers suspects that Kerry's lack of personal charm will make it easier for his fellow Democrats to turn their knives on him. Whether that happens before or after Nov.2 is an open question. Whenever it happens, the age of Hillary will be upon us.

Posted at 09:55 AM by Stephen