Senator Dukakis?

With Edward Kennedy's passing, Massachusetts will soon name an interim senator once the State Legislature (again) changes the law allowing someone to hold the seat until a new election occurs in January.  The rumors strongly suggest that Michael Dukakis, former governor and Democratic presidential candidate in 1988, will be appointed to the seat, temporarily occupying it for a few months.  I hope it's true:  it would be a shot at redemption for him.

 

Dukakis was the first presidential candidate for whom I voted.  That was not a popular stance in the Central Valley, where I was attending college at the time.  My peers called him a "communist" and "left-wing" radical, ridiculous banter if you looked at his record closely.  I really did not dive into the issues back then; I just liked his life story, his sense of integrity, and work ethic.  I also did not want an oilman to occupy the White House.  Once nominated, Dukakis had a 17-point lead in the polls, peaking after his emotional acceptance speech at the Democratic convention that year in Atlanta.

Then it all fell apart.  Dukakis took August off and ran Massachusetts, letting George H.W. Bush and his cronies savage the Democratic ticket with demagogic rhetoric.  He was attacked for Boston Harbor's pollution; his veto requiring the fining of teachers $5 for not saying the Pledge of Allegiance (never mind that state attorneys told him it was impossible to enforce); lampooning him for looking like Snoopy while moving in an army tank; and worst of all, the Willie Horton advertisements suggesting that if he were elected, criminal black men would ravage your neighborhoods.  Meanwhile, Dukakis lost his momentum--you had to wonder if he got into something bigger than he was equipped to handle.  Did he really want the job?  After Labor Day, the poll numbers had reversed:  Dukakis even was in danger of losing his home state.

 

The election got closer, but then there was the dreaded George Bernard Shaw question in the second debate, and it was all over.  Dukakis only won 10 states and lost the popular vote by 8%.  Interestingly, he did relatively well in several "red states," and narrowly lost California.  I remember hanging out at the downtown Fresno Farmers' Market that evening as the results came in, and they were devastating.  My college friend, Richelle, who campaigned for him almost 24/7 for months, was despondent, in tears as the local media interviewed her.  After that election, Dukakis became a pariah to nationwide Democrats, and later, in Massachusetts.  The man who was named "Governor of the Year" by his colleagues in 1986 saw "Impeach Dukakis" bumper stickers all over his home state.  He didn't run for governor again in 1990, and the governor's seat was held by Republicans for 16 years.

 

I saw Dukakis speak in 1993 at the University of Maryland's downtown Baltimore medical campus.  He spoke about health care, why there was a need for reform, and what could be done before even offering a "public option."  He was eloquent and passionate, but what a comedown--I think only about 30 or people had shown up.  No one listened to his appeals for health insurance reform in 1988, and no one that evening was really listening to him.

 

Here's why I'm a fan of the laconic, parsimonious, and sanctimonious man who was the first Greek American nominated to run for President:  Dukakis's legacy will be the modernization of Boston's mass rail and bus infrastructure in the 1980s.  He is a strong advocate of improved public transportation--though his stewardship of Amtrak ended with mixed results.  But I admire him personally because unlike limousine liberals, he puts his money where his mouth is:  he actually rode the subway to work each day while governor, and by the way . . . he mowed his own lawn at his childhood Brookline home--where he still lives.

 

Who knows if Dukakis would have been a great president.  He had a prickly nature that most likely would have irritated the Democratic congressional leadership, and we probably still would have had that early 1990s recession anyway.  On the other hand, it was a lost opportunity--we would have had a thoughtful man who would have tackled problems that are even worse now, and his wife, Kitty, would have been a hell of a first lady.  In the end, most politicians seem to be even more removed from their constituents and bought off by their donors, but Dukakis was his own man and spoke out for what he thought he was right.  The Senate will be better off with him, even if his tenure is only a few months.

 

By the way, years later, he gave Katie Couric his take on the 1988 contest:  he "owe(d) the American people an apology" because "if I had beaten the old man, we never would have heard of the kid, and we wouldn't be in this mess."