Breaking Jesse's Silence: Why the ultimate independent voter has finally broken in favor of Kerry

by David L. Englin
The Gadflyer, Oct. 29, 2004

If weekend reports out of Minnesota are accurate, Jesse "The Former Governor" Ventura supports Senator John Kerry for president, but he won't say why. Ventura may be playing silent now, but it was obvious when he addressed a Georgetown University conference a few weeks ago that, if forced to choose, he would choose Kerry.

Jesse Ventura is no Democrat. When the topic turned to politics during the question and answer session at the policy conference on military transformation, Ventura had choice words for both parties. A true believer in the third party movement – and perhaps its most charismatic spokesperson – Ventura reminded his audience that the Constitution makes no mention of the two-party system. He lambasted Democrats and Republicans for engineering the exclusion of Ralph Nader from the 2000 presidential debates, and for the hard time the two parties in Minnesota gave him as governor. Sarcastically quipping, "I come from pro-wrestling, and they call us fixed!" he mocked the infamous 32-page agreement between the campaigns governing this year's debates, which were then a couple of weeks away.

But after proclaiming that, for the first time ever, he planned not to vote, he gave a stirring indictment of President George W. Bush and had little negative to say about Senator John Kerry.

Ventura, a former Navy SEAL, was unsparing in his criticism of Bush's foreign policy, lamenting the loss of American moral authority around the world. Invoking his Hungarian heritage and recalling the Soviet invasion of Hungary in 1956, he said, "My stomach is turning right now. I remember when Russians would show up at the Olympics and get booed. Now we're the ones getting booed."

On the National Guard – one of the subjects of the conference – Ventura was just as passionate. He called the Bush administration's heavy reliance on the Guard in Iraq and Afghanistan "the most flagrant misuse" of these nominally part-time forces. The former commander-in-chief of the Minnesota National Guard lamented federalized Minnesota units being sent overseas into frontline combat with only the equipment provided by the people of Minnesota. "In Minnesota, we don't equip them as frontline units," he said.

Then Ventura got personal, proclaiming, "If the National Guard as it is today would have been in effect in the late 1960s, our current commander-in-chief wouldn't have volunteered for that duty, since he was trying to avoid being sent overseas. He's sending them to do something he wasn't willing to do, and that's just wrong."

Ventura went on to criticize Bush's attempt to write discrimination into the Constitution with the proposed amendment to outlaw same-sex marriage. Ventura demanded to know how the marriage of a man to another man would have any impact whatsoever on his own marriage to his wife. He told a moving story about a friend and fellow professional wrestler who was gay and was not allowed to visit his partner in the hospital during an emergency because he wasn't "family." "That's just cruel, and a government shouldn't commit acts of cruelty against its citizens," said Ventura.

Given Ventura's indictment of Bush, one might think he would naturally support Bush's opponent. However, Ventura was clear that he felt like he had "somebody to vote against, but not nobody to vote for." Ventura was not antagonistic toward Kerry, just uninspired. Maybe he just didn't think much of Kerry's chances, since, in a moment of levity, he hinted at his own "stealth campaign" for president in 2008. He claimed he has a way to get on the ballot in all 50 states and that, "like a good Navy SEAL," he would do it "so quietly that nobody will notice until it's too late." With a devilish glint, Ventura even called out former Clinton advisor John Podesta, one of the conference hosts, and warned Podesta that even "Hillary" couldn't beat him if he decided to run.

Maybe Ventura has come to the conclusion that voting against somebody can be as important and valid a reason to get off the fence as voting for somebody. Or maybe he has finally seen in Kerry somebody he can vote for. After all, Kerry is liberal on social issues like gay rights and abortion, and it is Kerry, and not Bush, who proposes reinstating "pay as you go" rules to enforce fiscal discipline in Congress, even at the cost of his own pet programs. These should appeal to Ventura, the self-described "social liberal and fiscal conservative." Also, unlike Bush, Kerry has called for increasing the size of the active-duty military, which fits nicely with Ventura's criticism of Bush's management of the military reserves.

Ventura is a powerful voice because he appeals to disaffected, independent-minded voters. These days he sports a dyed, beaded beard that he says he wears to make the point that every American has "the freedom to look how you want." For all of his eccentricities, he exudes a kind of basic honesty that abhors hypocrisy and challenges Americans to be who we claim to be as a people, which is a large part of his appeal. If it's true that undecided voters break for the challenger, then Ventura's support for Kerry – whether silent or not – bodes well.