STERN Online: “Kerry Too Smart for America?”
(By Ray D.)
According to STERN Online, John Kerry may yet fail in his quest for the presidency. Why? Because he is too intelligent, complex and distant for an America where “there are no gray zones.” In an article entitled “Too Smart for America?” STERN points out that Kerry is not the type with whom most Americans would like to barbeque and he isn’t fond of small talk.
The entire article implies that Kerry is too detached and sophisticated (much like the Europeans themselves) to be loved by simple-minded, small-talk spewing, hot-dog eating, cola-guzzling Americans. By asking “Is Kerry too smart for America?” and making the points that it makes, the article is also clearly inviting readers to ask: “Is America too stupid for Kerry?”
And of course author Jan Christoph Wiechmann goes on to point out that, according to Bill Clinton, 90 percent of Europeans are behind Kerry. But this “has to remain a secret.” Otherwise the Rightists (die Rechten) in America would once again defame him as a European.” According to STERN, it was also Whoopi Goldberg who fell victim to a “smear campaign of the “Rightist press” in losing her advertising contract with the dieting firm Slim-Fast.” It is this devious band of reactionaries in America that, according to Kerry friend David Thorne, “are merciless” and “know only black and white.”
As usual, no attempt is made by STERN to interview Kerry’s opponents or to present their arguments. They are simply written-off as sinister extremists capable only of seeing the world in terms of good and evil and engaged with their “attack machine” in an endless series of smear-campaigns on their ceaseless quest for power.
Simply put, there is no attempt to portray the very real and complex debates over scores of issues that divide Republicans and Democrats in the United States of America. In order to paint such a picture, STERN would not only have to give a human face to the Republicans and to Bush, it would also be forced to admit that millions of Americans are something more than small-talk obsessed simpletons sitting around their collective barbeque grills. But that would interfere with the tidy (dare I say black and white) little world they have created for their readers...
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