Editorial: Lincoln Chafee’s Campaign Wasn’t a Waste

WHAT HE LEAVES BEHIND by Bennett Campbell Ferguson

Illustration ©Bennett Campbell Ferguson

There is something about Lincoln Chafee’s voice.  In recent weeks, as he campaigned for the Democratic presidential nomination, it often sounded stiff, yet gentle.  As he talked about ethics, global warming, and fighting racism, he often looked downward, like an actor still struggling to get off script.  He never displayed the verbal dexterity of the race’s frontrunners, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders.

            Yet I still believe Mr. Chafee offered something.  In a pre-election season that has been characterized by Mr. Sanders’ rage against injustice and (on the Republican side) the bludgeoning theatrics of Donald Trump, Mr. Chafee stood out as a quieter candidate.  His motto was “prosperity through peace”; his dream, he told us, is to end wars, and to divert the money they’ve cost to worthy causes (including fighting homelessness).  And at the recent Democratic debate, where his opponents spewed staunchly vindictive words about Edward Snowden, Mr. Chafee calmly said, “I would bring him home.”

            Yesterday, at the twenty-second annual National Issues Conference of the Women’s Leadership Forum, Mr. Chafee announced that he would no longer pursue the nomination.  Yet that was a miniscule detail of a speech that was a call for us to the preserve the peace, nurture our environment, and embrace women’s rights, the black lives matter movement, and the need to, as Mr. Chafee said, “do more for Native Americans” (something too few candidates mention).

Mr. Chafee also asked, “Do we want to be remembered as a bomber of weddings and hospitals?  Or do we want to be remembered as Peacemakers, as pioneers of a more harmonious world?”  That query was a heartfelt sign off, but it was more than that.  It was a reminder that “prosperity through peace” is not a slogan—it is an ideal, a hope, and a dream, waiting to be fulfilled.