Word: dukakises
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Reese dates the tide of Republican negative campaigning back to the time of the party's August convention. Dukakis was slow to respond partially because he "has a natural aversion to that kind of campaigning and I think he resisted it longer than his staff wanted," he says.
The new credulousness of voters is perhaps best mirrored in their acceptance of the word `liberal' as an insult to Dukakis. "Conservativism is faddish, and people have begun to say liberalism is bad and it stuck," he says.
Reese says he doesn't believe Americans are no longer liberals--simply that Democrats have failed to redefine the word. The Dukakis campaign, by not taking the "L-word" issue as a chance to say what liberalism means, has suffered as a result.
Reese, who doesn't mind being called a liberal, supported Joe Biden, Paul Simon and Albert Gore consecutively in the primaries before he got behind the Democratic nominee. But he says Dukakis is a credible candidate in the liberal tradition, one he is proud to support.
Tomorrow is that day. Americans will have to stack the legacy of the Reagan administration against the prospects for the next four years. The Reagan administration's violation of our trust, from ethics violations to arms sales to Iran; its blindness to our deficit morass and its callousness to most...