Wellstone's Replacement Strikes Fear in Pocketbooks
By Alexander Marriott UNLV Rebel Yell: November 4, 2002

Remember those terrible Reagan years? I'm sure Walter Mondale does. You see, in those awful days of a reviving economy and insufferable greed Mondale received the largest electoral trouncing in American history, garnering the grand total of thirteen electoral votes. After that he got the hint that he wasn't a very popular guy and left the political scene to do things in the private sector. But with Minnesota Senator Paul Wellstone's death it is now up to Walter Mondale, laughing stock of electoral history, to keep that senate seat in Democratic hands.

He has already pledged to run no campaign in respect for his departed friend, Wellstone. But don't be deceived by this seemingly nice gesture, he plans to campaign, just not the way we are used to seeing it. Every time a Democrat speaks of Wellstone now, he or she is doing two things, 1) they are bringing back the memories of Wellstone and his tragic death and 2) they are thrusting his legacy upon Mondale to carry on and preserve. So in effect Mondale is campaigning, in a very sly, highly emotional way that the Republican candidate, Norm Coleman, will be very hard pressed to counter in a way that doesn't make him look like an insensitive jerk.

But what does Mondale bring to the table, aside from his historic performance in the 1984 election? In terms of ideology he is very close to Paul Wellstone, and on the point of carrying on his legacy I agree wholeheartedly with the Democratic pundits in the media. But that still doesn't change the fact of whether one wants that legacy carried on in the first place. I'm sure if David Duke were elected to office and then died in an election people wouldn't be swayed by the argument that his legacy must live on (I certainly would not) except those who were already Duke supporters or those who were undecided and quite irrational in their thinking. I only bring this up, not to take away from the tragedy of Wellstone's death, but only to point out how fallacious the argument is.

Mondale does bring the threat of higher taxes with him for sure, unless the 1984 election taught him any lessons, and I seriously doubt that. Also I'm sure he has adopted all of the far left ideas his party has forwarded in the last eighteen years, things like nationalized healthcare, universal pre-school, minimum wage increases, all sorts of environmentalist garbage, and did I mention higher taxes to pay for all of it?

In Minnesota, the only state that voted for Mondale in the 1984 election, these stands on issues could actually get you elected rather than assure your immediate defeat as they would almost everywhere else. I suppose if you like to see your money stolen from you and thrown to losers here and abroad (this includes farmers, corporations, the homeless, and anyone else who expects other people to pick up the tab for their incompetence) then go ahead and support Mondale. If anyone can steal more of your money, it's definitely him or a Kennedy, but they don't live there, yet. But if you have any respect for the right of individuals to their own money, bodies, lives, happiness, and property then for the love of all that is right, let Wellstone's legacy die with him.