****** Date: Sun, 22 Feb 2004 23:16:58 -0500 From: Howie Hawkins Subject: Re Open Letter to Ralph Nader: The Democrats Had Their Chance
The Nation's "Open Letter to Ralph Nader" (Feb. 16) says "this is the wrong year for [Nader] to run: 2004 is not 2000," as if The Nation supported Nader in 2000, which it did not.
The Democrats had their chance to oppose Bush's repressive militarism. But only one Democratic Senator opposed the PATRIOT Act. Only one Democratic Representative opposed giving Bush unilateral war powers after 9-11. Only 10 Democratic Representatives voted against the March 2003 resolution of "unequivocal support" for Bush as he launched the occupation of Iraq.
The Democrats had their chance to fight for electoral reforms that would rectify the selection of Bush in 2000 with a minority of the vote, such as Electoral College abolition, open presidential debates, instant run-off voting, and proportional representation. Instead of pushing for electoral reforms that would enable a multi-party democracy and end the lesser-evil dilemma our current single-member-district, winner-take-all system forces voters into, the Democrats have tried to smash the Green Party from Maine to California. Maine's Green state representative, John Eder, is gerrymandered out of his district by Democrats. Democrats in San Francisco enlist Republicans to unite behind a Democrat, Gavin Newsome, who supported Bush in 2000, in order to prevent (narrowly) the election of the Green mayoral candidate, Matt Gonzalez.
The Democrats had their chance to fight Bush's regressive budget priorities. But no serious Democratic presidential contender opposes Bush's $500+ billion military budget. The Democratís Senate leader, Tom Daschle, declared the passage of Bushís first round of tax cuts for the rich a "victory" because they were for $1.3 billion instead of the $1.6 billion Bush first proposed. The logic of supporting the lesser evil leads to such self-defeating "victories" as the Bush/Daschle tax cuts.
You crow about the "passionate volunteerism at the grassroots of the Democratic Party." The grassroots are passionately committing political suicide. The grassroots oppose the war in Iraq. But they have united behind a pro-war candidate, John Kerry, because he is "electable." Thus, the logic of lesser-evilism leads them to support the war they started out to oppose. A pathetic example of this is the puzzled anti-war Kucinich supporters who came out of the Iowa caucuses wondering why they had voted for the pro-war Edwards on the instructions of the nominally anti-war Kucinich.
The Democrats might beat Bush, but they are not going to beat the Bushism to which your Open Letter refers because they have supported it. As the Democratic performance over the last three years shows, Bushism is the current manifestation of the ongoing Bipartisan Consensus around militaristic foreign policies and neoliberal economic policies of welfare for the rich and austerity for workers masquerading as the "free market."
The Democrats had their chance. And The Nation wants me to count on the Democrats to fight Bushism now? No thanks. Run, Ralph, Run.
Howie Hawkins Syracuse NY ***** -- Yoshie
* Bring Them Home Now! <http://www.bringthemhomenow.org/> * Calendars of Events in Columbus: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/calendar.html>, <http://www.freepress.org/calendar.php>, & <http://www.cpanews.org/> * Student International Forum: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/> * Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osudivest.org/> * Al-Awda-Ohio: <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Al-Awda-Ohio> * Solidarity: <http://www.solidarity-us.org/>
