Just Being Anti-Bush Is Not Enough To Win

[IndianaGreen]

Just Being Anti-Bush Is Not Enough To Win
Author: Sam Webb, National Chair
First published 25.08.2004 19:21

It was no surprise to me that virtually everyone I met during a recent three-week trip across the Midwest was quick to remind me that this election is the most important in their lifetime. While agreeing that the overriding political task is to defeat Bush and his counterparts in Congress and elect Kerry and a more people-friendly Congress, no one reduced this to simply a contest between the Democratic and Republican parties.

This election, they told me, will continue the nearly 24-year struggle against the forces of extreme political reaction who are now entrenched in the White House, Congress and Supreme Court - but with this difference: Nov. 2 could well mark a turning point for better or worse.

A Bush victory would give the ultra-right a green light to ramp up their project to drastically and unilaterally reshape the domestic and international landscape in the interests of U.S. imperialism.

On the other hand, a victory by Kerry and the broad democratic movement that supports him would be a body blow to the extreme right, bring some relief on bread and butter issues, and lift the siege on our nation's constitution.

It also would create a much more favorable political terrain on which the people's movement could struggle for its agenda, beginning with an end to the occupation of Iraq.

http://www.cpusa.org/article/articleview/590/1/27/

[paulk]

1. finally, someone on the left who understands this election

"Across the country there is a growing anti-Bush feeling, but that alone is not enough. To win requires that millions be convinced that the differences between Bush and Kerry are real, substantial and consequential to their lives on the whole range of issues: Social Security, Medicare, health care, overtime, minimum wage, public education, affirmative action, civil rights, reproductive rights, immigrant rights, gay rights, civil liberties, tax policy, environmental protection, Cuba, preemptive war, and nuclear weapons testing and use. "

"Even on Iraq, there are differences between the two. But more importantly, the defeat of Bush would be a repudiation of his policies of war and occupation, and that could not be ignored by a Kerry administration."


"The biggest danger in this election is not that people have unrealistic expectations of a Kerry administration, but rather that a substantial section of voters still believe that it doesn't make much of a difference who they vote for on Nov. 2. The responsibility of left and progressive people is not to spend their time bellyaching over Kerry's shortcomings, but to convince millions of people that there is a choice and that the outcome of this election will have enormous consequences for our nation's future."


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