THIRD PARTIES, REPUBLICANS AND WHITE PEOPLE 
 

All politics is local. That political bromide, made popular by Thomas
P. (Tip) O’Neill, contains an important kernel of truth. Congressman
Tip O’Neill from Massachusetts once bragged he never forgot the name
of a constituent, or even the names of the constituent’s mother and
father. While that talent is impressive, it hardly qualifies him as a
profound political thinker. Nevertheless, he reminds us that political
work to be successful must begin not just at the state level, or even
the congressional district level but most importantly at the precinct
level.

That is not to say that national and international political analysis
is irrelevant; in fact, it is key. But political organizing must be
grounded in local concerns, alliances, and interests. Political
organizing, however, quickly meets a brick wall unless it has a national
or even international perspective. 

Because of the Democratic Party’s persistent and consistent refusal
to address the needs and demands of its constituency, progressives turn
in frustration to direct action, demonstrations or third parties. That
is always the motivation, hopefully, of those who turn to alternative
forms of political expression and explains, again hopefully, the rise of
the Green Party, the Labor Party, and other political expressions of
resistance to the established order. 

One hopes desperately that people who turn to third parties are not
motivated by personal ego, petty jealousies or racism or any other of
the more base human impulses. But objective analysis requires
recognition that a human process involves all of these impulses. But
because racism is a political statement that has enormous consequences,
particularly in this country, it is that dilemma that must be addressed
and resolved to have any hope of success in changing this country.

We can now officially acknowledge that the Republican Party, led by the
aggressively opportunist Bush cabal, is the white people’s party.
After a 35-year campaign of wedge politic, i.e. hate politics, the Bush
cabal seized power in 2000 by illegally disqualifying 80,000 to 100,000
Black voters in Florida. 

Nixon established the Southern strategy and vicious attack politics as
the modus operandi of the Republican Party but it was Ronald Reagan who
made the definitive move to capture the hearts and minds of the most
reactionary and racist section of white people in this country. By
opening his presidential campaign in Philadelphia, Mississippi, he
openly proclaimed that the Republican Party condoned the terroristic
suppression of the Black community and with that symbolic statement, he
won the South for the Republican Party.

The location of Reagan’s opening shot, of course, was the same area
where Goodman, Schwerner and Chaney were murdered for trying to register
Blacks to vote. By combining violent suppression with political
activity, Reagan endorsed the violent terroristic attacks on the Black
community for its attempt to exercise the most basic of democratic
rights. Neither the media nor the Democratic Party took him to task for
such an outrageous political posture. As a result, the Republican
Party’s plunge into racism and hatred was sealed.

Of course, any historical dividing line is imprecise and insufficient.
The Republican Party has carried a majority of the white vote since 1968
after President Johnson passed the Civil Rights Act and Bobby Kennedy,
and Martin Luther King were assassinated. Jack Lessenbury correctly
observes:

“Yes, the last Republican convention had blacks and Hispanics
prominently on display as window dressing. But that is all that they
were, other than a way to make socially aware voters feel better about
the Republicans. When Election Day came, Al Gore won the virtually
unanimous support of African-American voters everywhere in the country.
He also won something like three-quarters of the Hispanic vote, except
for Florida’s Cubans, and high percentages of other minorities.”
Metro Times (8/13-19/2003, p.5) (Emphasis added)

The window dressing, however, is important. Appealing to the most
reactionary and racists elements of this country would make the
Republican Party a small minority party particularly given the political
program of the Republican Party. The program of the Republican Party
addresses only the needs of the wealthiest people in this country, and
basically robs the rests of the population. It can only carry the rest
by pandering to racism, male supremacy and homophobia. All this careful
maneuvering is done through the skillful use of coded messages that
generate the necessary hatred in order to hide the true political
agenda. Hatred is a powerful emotion that blinds white working people
from their economic self-interest. 

The Democratic Party takes the absolutely wrong approach. Instead of
solidifying its base by building a program that addresses the
country’s racist history, current racial unfairness and then
building bridges to the progressive impulses within the white working
class, it tries to send its own pseudo coded racist messages. That
leaves progressives within the Democratic Party an open field. Instead,
too many progressives abandon that open field and set up new basically
all white organizations. Nevertheless, the contradiction can be
exploited if white progressives are willing to enter the Democratic
Party and organize, accepting leadership from the powerful
African-American leadership within the party. The economic realities
will force recognition within the white working class where its economic
self-interest lies. 

“A three-sentence description of the arc of American politics over
the past 70 years would run like this: First, Democrats and moderate
Republicans created institutions—above all Social Security and
Medicare—that provided a measure of financial security to ordinary
working Americans. The biggest beneficiaries of these institutions were
African-Americans and working-class Southern whites, and both were part
of the moderate-to-liberal coalition that dominated American politics
until the 1960’s.”

But the right opened an increasingly effective counterattack, with a
strategy that included using racially charged symbolism to get Southern
whites to vote against their own economic interests.


* * * 

“The big story in that election [November, 2000] was the victory of
Republicans in Mississippi and Kentucky. The secondary story, however,
was a string of victories by affluent suburban areas in the Northeast.
In my state, New Jersey, Democrats took firm control of the state’s
Legislature.

What this tells us is that some people—either in New Jersey,
Mississippi or both –voted against their economic interests. For
whatever you think of Bush’s economic plan, it’s clearly much better
for New Jersey—a rich state, which gains a lot from tax cuts tilted
toward the affluent—than for a poor state like Mississippi.” Paul
Krugman, NYT, 11/07/03, p.23

There were several elements of the forged coalition of working class
whites (not just in the South) and African-Americans. First, the
depression framed the necessity for such unity. The depression
represented the total failure of capitalism. Second, the worldwide
revolutionary movement frightened liberals more than poverty. At the
time, the progressive movement in this country pushed an anti-racist
agenda inside the union movement and even within the Democratic Party
itself. 

World War II destroyed productive forces throughout the world and
concentrated enormous capital in the hands of a few groups in this
country. These groups consolidated their power, gave certain benefits to
workers, and purged communists and other progressives from unions,
universities, schools and every other possible institutional setting.
Facing a devastating criticism from the Soviet Union and progressive
forces in this country of Jim Crow segregation, these same forces had to
dismantle racist institutions in the South. That allowed corporations to
move south where low pay and an antiunion culture predominated, and was
profitable. 

The Democratic Party then became a strange structure with
African-Americans as the base and an uncomfortable white leadership at
the top. With its form of racism, this white leadership vacillated
between an opportunistic use of the Black vote and a programmatic
addressing of its needs. But it never addressed in any systematic matter
the protection of the political and economic rights of minorities within
its constituency. Nor did it formulate an openly anti-racist agenda.
Instead it moved more and more to the right. Calling it a move to the
“center”, the Democratic Party more and more ignored its base. 

Disgusted with the opportunism of the Democratic Party, white
progressive either left or acted in organizations outside the Party to
influence it. That left the power oriented Republican Party able to
exploit the contradictions within the Democratic Party. That is why the
wedge politics or hate politics has been so effective. But it is also
why the Republican Party is now the white people’s party. Republicans,
of course, must deny or hide their racist foundation. White progressives
acting within the Democratic Party could forge an anti-racist agenda and
expose the 
Republican Party. 

Outside the Democratic Party they become marginalized and often are
more “white” than the Republican Party. The Republican Party
continues to deny its whiteness with no alternative institution to
expose it. But that denial will ring hollow as time and information
reveals the invalidity of its claims.

“Winton claims, however, that the GOP had a breakthrough year among
Hispanics. He cites as evidence a drop in Hispanic support for
Congressional Democrats and rise in support for Republicans between 2000
and 2002. While Winston’s data for 2002 are wrong and exaggerate this
change, it is true that the Hispanic two party House vote was 65 percent
Democratic/35 percent Republican in 2000 and did fall modestly to 62
percent /38 percent in 2002. However, Hispanic support for House
Democrats traditionally falls at least several points from a
Presidential to an off-year election, so this says little about a real
trend toward Republicans. The more pertinent comparison is to 1998, the
last off-year election, where Hispanics supported Democrats 63 percent
to 37 percent. So, basically, we have shift in off-year Democratic
support from 63/37 to 62/38. If that’s a trend, Public Opinion will
eat his calculator.

Well, what about the Senate races? These were the most significant
races in 2002 and perhaps a pro-GOP surge can be detected here. Nope,
the Senate two party vote among Hispanics was 67 percent Democratic/33
percent Republican. Governors, then? Not here, either—Democratic
support among Hispanics was a healthy 65 percent to 35 percent. 

What about other minorities? Not much luck here either for the GOP. In
fact, blacks and Asians both appear to have increased their support for
Democrats. The two party black vote for the House went from 89 percent
Democrat/11 percent Republican in both 1998 and 2000 to a 91 percent/9
percent split in 2002. And Asians increased their support dramatically
for House Democrats going from 56 percent Democratic/44 percent
Republican in 1998 to 60 percent/40 percent in 2000 to 66 percent/34
percent in 2002!

Much more “progress” like this among minority voters and the
GOP—aka “the white people’s party”—will have a very limited
future indeed. Ruy Teixeira, Mid-Term Myths of the 2002 Election.
TomPaine.commonsense.http///www.tompaine.com/feature2.cfm/ID/9098/view/print.

Like it or not political discussion occurs in this context. Third
parties either reach for some big name like Ralph Nader and are
therefore bound to his perspective or work in anonymity at the local
level. And they remain as segregated as the Republican Party. Even
though the long term prospects of the Republican Party are limited, it
will do enormous damage in the meantime. As will be discussed, later,
the Republican Party will consolidate its power through strongarm
tactics and election fraud. The identification of this rightwing,
probably fascist force, as the enemy of our democracy is only the first
step. 

The damage done by the Bush cabal is clear and horrendous: 1) rejection
of the repetitive injury standard for workers; 2) the withdrawal from
Kyoto; 3) the unpunished and unexamined fraud of Enron; 4) the
withdrawal from the International Conference on Racism; 5) the refusal
to support the International Criminal Court; 6) the appointment of
vicious rightwing judges who will dismantle protections for workers,
women, and minorities; 7) the undermining of constitutional protections
including but not limited to the use of noncombatant detainee status and
the attack on entire sections of our population; 7) the attack on the
separation of church and state; 8) broad scale wiretapping, etc, etc,
etc; 8) the elimination of 2,500,000 manufacturing jobs, the first
president since Hubert Hoover to have a net loss of jobs; 9) the sacking
of the American treasury by huge tax cut for the rich; 10) the
transition from surplus to deficit to the tune of 500 billion dollars.
The list goes on and on with a specific attack on the environment
accomplished by a multitude of executive orders, etc. 

But in a separate category, the Bush cabal is guilty of the murderous
unilateral attack on Afghanistan and Iraq killing thousands and
thousands and thousands of people first as an excuse not to deal with
Saudi Arabia and then as an attempt to steal oil. Lies are used to cover
the misdeeds and lies are used to cover the lies, all with the willing
compliance of the media. 

The propagandistic media has never mentioned the word “mandate”, a
requirement for dramatic change in a democracy. Because the
propagandistic media refused to discuss whether the Bush cabal had a
mandate for radical, reactionary change, our democracy has been brutally
damaged. Any effort by the progressive movement will be first to fight
for democracy and that has a majority constituency in this country.
Benito Mussolini defined fascism as corporate control of government. Of
course, German fascism included a racist perspective. The Bush cabal
embodies both elements with propaganda to hide both elements of their
program.

The Bush cabal is the enemy as is the rightwing movement that supports
his seizure of power. The destructive power of this coalition of forces
is undeniable. The above list, in fact, is incomplete and inadequate. It
only touches the wreckage that has been done, the institutions
dismantled, the lives destroyed and the capital wasted. 

While the wreckage done by the Bush cabal is awesome, it is not
surprising. Any serious analysis of the reactionary movement in this
country could easily have predicted the devastation. Yet, knowing the
dangers presented, thousands and thousands of people, overwhelmingly
white and a majority progressive, turned to third party alternatives or
ignored the entire process. Energized as never before, the
African-American community had the political sophistication to
understand the peril presented and the vulnerability of our democracy.
Under tremendous attack in Florida, this community was able to increase
its vote substantially which required the Bush cabal to steal the
election and not allow the counting of the votes.

As previously documented, the groups that constitute the backbone of
the working class movement voted overwhelmingly for the Democratic
Party. The African-American community is the core of the working class.
This community not only performs most of the most oppressive and poorly
paid jobs; this community is also a key element of the trade union
movement. Whether it is the demand for a stronger union movement or
women’s liberation, this community will be the political base. The
unity of working people is the only basis for change. As Abraham Lincoln
said: “The strongest bond of human sympathy, outside the family
relation, should be one uniting all working people of all nations and
kindred.”

The unity of African-Americans (92% Democratic); Hispanic (63%
Democratic) women (at least 60% Democratic); Asians (66% Democratic) is
key to any progressive movement. The political and cultural expression
of that unity is inside the Democratic Party. The struggle will be to
unite that political unity with progressives and force the Democratic
leadership to accept and respect its political base. Yet, progressives
consistently refuse to unite politically with this constituency.

Instead, the Green Party creates another white people’s party, runs
Ralph Nader who has 1% of his vote from minorities and assists in
visiting untold misery on the working class. The Nation magazine carries
a headline on its front page that Democrats are an endangered species in
the South. Democrats are not an endangered species; white Democrats are
rare. But millions of Blacks support the Democratic Party, and they are
not irrelevant as is consistently implied. They get almost no assistance
from the white leadership of the Democratic Party.

The Bush cabal provides a good example of the differences in strategy:

“Mr. Bernier’s program is part of a network of conservative-minded
local radio shows in politically important states on which campaign
officials are heard daily, programs like ‘Mid-Day with Charlie
Sykes’ in Milwaukee, ‘The Martha Zoller Show’ in Atlanta and
‘The Jerry Bowyer Program’ in Pittsburgh.

It is a network that the Democrats do not have -- though they are
trying to cultivate one -- and one that Mr. Bush’s campaign
strategists believe will give him an edge in an election that could go
to whichever side best mobilizes its core voters.

Presidents have used radio to reach voters virtually since its
invention. But strategists and radio experts say the Bush campaign has
taken it to a new level of sophistication, using it far earlier in the
campaign cycle and appearing regularly on shows with even the tiniest of
audiences.” (New York Times 12/29/03, Page 1 – Emphasis added)

This example provides an example not only of weakness of the Democratic
Party, but also the racist ideology that underlies that weakness. There
exists a tremendous network of Black, and Hispanic radio stations that
would effective contrast the Republican and Democratic Party approaches:
Tom Joyner, Tavis Smiley and others speak to millions of people every
day. Given support, that audience would broaden and take on ever more
political clout.

“LOS ANGELES – A sign that Tavis Smiley’s new PBS talk show is
not standard-issue for public television: The set was created by tennis
star and aspiring designer Venus Williams.

That’s just the start. Smiley, retuning to TV less than two years
after he was canned by BET, says his daily late-night series debuting
next month will be more than visually striking.

‘Tavis Smiley,’ PBS’ first West Coast-based talk show, will be
fast-paced and aimed at drawing a younger, more ethnically diverse
audience than typically watches public TV, its host says.

Smiley, whose punchy, baritone delivery and pointed questions are
familiar to his growing National Public Radio audience, is ready to get
back on the tube. (His radio program, aired locally at 9 a.m. weekdays
on WDET-FM (101.9) will continue)


* * * 

Smiley says he intends his program to be the same kind of forum he’s
created on NPR’s ‘The Tavis Smiley Show,’ one that challenges its
audience to consider issues from new viewpoints and addresses
over-looked issues.

‘I want to use this show, as I try to do on my NPR show, to introduce
Americans to each other. In many ways, we still live in a very
segregated country,’ he says.

Recently, Smiley examined heavy opposition by black Americans to the
war in Iraq.


* * * 

Not everyone is impressed by his ecumenical efforts. Last year,
National Review managing editor Jay Nordlinger referred unadmiringly to
Smiley as ‘the black leftist radio personality.’

His reach is increasing. His NPR show, which started with 16 stations
in January 2002, has enjoyed one of the fastest NPR expansions ever to
major markets and now is carried on more than 80 stations and reaches an
audience of more than 1 million.

He has brought in a somewhat younger crowd and definitely attracted
more blacks listeners – 30 per cent of his audience, compared to about
5 percent for most other NPR shows.” Lynn Elber, the Detroit News,
12/29/03, Page 60 – Emphasis added)

The Democratic Party could easily tap into this network if it was
willing openly to confront the racism of the Republican network.

The Democratic Party leadership consistently refuses to build the party
at the precinct level, choosing instead to rely on rich donors to then
buy advertisements. We have this terrible spectacle of Democrats going
to bunch of rich people to raise money to give to the rich media to get
its message to the people. No wonder the message is so weak. The
Republican Party has more money but instead builds its party from the
ground up. The reason is obvious. To build the Democratic Party from the
ground up would require putting a lot of money and political muscle into
the Black community. And the party and apparently progressives are
afraid of that. The Black community is then left twisting in the wind.

That political fact represents a tremendous opportunity for the
progressive community. Green Party activists are not barred from
participating in the Democratic Party. They could run for precinct
delegate, unite with the large representation of the minority
communities and force the Democratic Party to be responsive to its base.
In fact, that could be done as the Green Party because there is no
prohibition against dual membership. Then, when an independent candidacy
is realistic, it would have the ability to forge the necessary
alliances. But that would require engaging Black delegates as equals or
more importantly to accept their leadership based on their power within
the Party.

The Labor Party could do the same, and so could every other progressive
group. All of this could be done without losing any group identity. The
Democratic Party has an organized, national delegate system in place
ready for organization, especially since the leadership is afraid of
mobilizing its base.

Yet progressives continue to cling to the myth that there is no
difference between the two parties. Once they start organizing in the
predominantly Democratic precincts, it would soon become clear that
there is an enormous difference. Undoubtedly, Green Party and Labor
Party activists live in primarily white communities. That would make
them minorities in most of those communities. That would make it easier
for them to be elected precinct delegates. But it would also require
that they confront the racism in those communities and raise money to
empower the base of the Party.

Instead, the third party movement expects the base of the Democratic
Party that is multinational and working class to move into their parties
and accept a new white leadership. What form of racism is that—it
needs a new name. 

There are two coterminous changes in this country that require
immediate attention by progressives and require immediate movement into
the Democratic Party. First, redistricting by the Republican Party has
now made almost all congressional districts safe seats with a majority
going into the Republican Party. Second, the combination of money,
fraud, and coercion has made almost all elections rigged. The use of
computer voting machines with no paper trail and owned by partisan
Republican corporations has resulted in elections that are turned upside
down without any reason other than the fraudulent control of machines.
Max Cleland in Georgia, Janet Reno in Florida and the senator from
Nevada are glaring examples. 

“Roxanne Jekot, who has put much of her professional and life on hold
to work on the issue full time, puts even more strongly. ‘Corporate
America is very close to running this country. The only thing stopping
them from taking total control are the pesky voters. That’s why
there’s such a drive to control the vote. What we’re seeing is
the corporatization of the last shred of democracy.

I feel that unless we stop it here and stop it now ‘ she says, ‘my
kids won’t grow to have a right to vote at all.’ Andrew Grunbel,
Published on 10/13/03 by the Independent/UK.”

The article by Andrew Grunbel is too long to quote but begins with the
following synopsis:

“A quiet revolution is taking place in US politics. By the time
it’s over, the integrity of elections will be in the unchallenged,
unscrutinized control of a few large - and pro-republican -
corporations.”

In addition, the following is a quote from An Open Letter to America:
It’s Time to Take Back our Country by John and Elaine Mellancamp.

“The vote count was not conducted by state election officials, but by
private company that sold Georgia the voting machines in the first
place, under a strict trade-secrecy contract that made it not only
difficult but actually illegal—on pain of stiff criminal
penalties—for the state to touch the equipment or examine the
proprietary software to ensure the machines worked properly. There was
not even a paper trail to follow up. The machines were fitted with
thermal printing devices that could theoretically provide a written
record of voters’ choices, but these were not activated. Consequently,
recounts were impossible. Had Diebold Inc, the manufacturer, been asked
to review the votes, all it could have done was program the computers to
spit out the same data as before, flawed or not. Astonishingly, these
are the terms under which America’s top three computer voting machine
manufacturers—Diebold, Sequoia, and Election Systems and Software
(ES&S-have sold their products to elections officials around the
country.” 

Republican money has now taken over California and will rig the
election for Bush II in 2004. 

It is at least interesting to observe subtleties of this process of
distorting and cooking the election results.

“Let’s hear it for California’s secretary of state, Kevin
Shelley. Based on the findings of a public task force, he has now
decided that all electronic voting machines used in his state must print
out a paper receipt. Inexplicably, Shelley postpones implementation to
the 2006 election.” Jim Hightower’s Lowdown, Vol. 5, #12 (12/03)
(Emphasis added)

That probably will insure that Bush II can steal the 2004 presidential
election. The only place where progressives have a chance to act is in
the Democratic precincts and primaries. Most of the other elections will
be controlled by rich corporate Republicans. With a war chest
approaching $1,000,000,000.00, Bush II can buy the election, and
that’s what the Bush cabal intends to do. Even if, by some wild
chance, a Democrat were to be allowed in the presidency, the media
attack dogs would not allow that president to have any effect
whatsoever. 

Because the Republican media will make sure to hide the stolen election
and put a spin on these rigged elections, progressives will have a
wide-open field to show the courage to fight that the Democratic
leadership lacks. 

One of two things will happen in November of 2004. Either the Bush
cabal will steal or buy the election using computer control to steal key
states, or a Democratic President will be allowed to be elected. In the
latter case, such a President will be paralyzed by the media attack dogs
who will make it impossible for the elected President to govern.

Under either scenario, progressives will have to build a base inside
the Democratic Party. Such a movement will address the question of
marginalization that now exists. Progressives, if effective, can speak
for the Democratic Party, showing the courage that the current
leadership lacks.

While the Democratic Party will have a majority of the votes, and
certainly a majority of the working class votes, it will have a minority
of power and a minority of positions. The Democratic leadership will
weekly protest the fraud and unfairness of the system. In those
circumstances, progressives will have fertile ground to till especially
as the Democratic leadership continues to ignore its base. Taking
leadership at the base will enable progressives to support mobilization
of that base with direct action, civil disobedience and strike
activity.

This strategy is increasingly important because the Republican Party
leadership intends to dismantle the entire governmental structure that
supports working people. The recent Medicare bill was passed with no
debate and is designed to require destruction in 2011. Ted Kennedy
describes this as the Trojan horse strategy. (See Paul Krugman NYT
121/14/03 p A25)

Even Head Start is under attack. With a Republican attack, it is now
fighting for its existence.

“Facing an increasingly raw fight over the future of Head Start,
Congressional Republicans asked the General Accounting Office today to
examine the federal government’s financial oversight of the program,
which serves almost one million preschoolers who live in poverty.”
NYT, 11/20/03 p. A22

In these circumstances, the Black Panther Program of feeding the
children becomes, again, an important part of the political struggle,
and the struggle will be multinational, potentially revolutionary 

In addition, the Republican economic program continuously concentrates
wealth in fewer and fewer people, which leaves a bigger and bigger
constituency for progressives. The Republicans always concentrate first
on activating its base. As Bush II said in January of 2000: “you can
fool some of the people all the time and those are the ones we
concentrate on.” 

The strategy of the Republican Party is to solidify its base and tell
enough lies, make enough appeals to racism, male supremacy and
homophobia to steal elections

“The thirteen states in which ‘sodomy’ laws were struck down by
the Supreme Court were all states that Bush carried in his first
election. But the Republicans’ decision to embrace political
homophobia anew is more than simply a sop to the Christers and the far
right—given that antigay backlash; it’s shrewd political strategy.
Karl Rove never tires of pointing out that 4 million of the 19 million
evangelical Christians didn’t vote in 2000. With 2004 shaping up as
another close elections, Rove & Co want to energize the Christian-right
base to which Bush is already so heavily indebted (it motored his 2000
primary victories against John McCain) and insure a maximum turnout
among the AWOL evangelicals and other Christian traditionalists.” Doug
Ireland, Republicans Relaunch the Antigay Culture Wars, Nation, 10/20/03
p22.

The base of hate politics is racism in this country. The response to
such hate politics is first to consolidate the base—that is, to
address the question of racism, the Republican Party’s reliance on
racism and the other hate politics and then address the economic
strategy that underpins the reason for hate politics. That can be done
by forcing the Democratic Party to address its base just as the
Republican Party always caters first to its right wing white base before
it addresses other issues. 

Certainly, progressives cannot address the question of racism in this
county by promoting another form of racism. The African-American
community represents a powerful voting block inside the Democratic Party
and also understands that the Democratic Party’s white leadership has
refused to recognize that base. That is why some of the more reactionary
and opportunists elements inside the Black community have become
Republicans or pork chop nationalists or both.

Progressives need to look ahead. There are only two possible scenarios
in 2004. Probably, the Bush cabal will steal the election. In those
circumstances, progressives must build the Democratic Party base to
confront the fascist movement that will emerge once Bush II consolidates
power.

With the remote possibility that a Democrat takes the presidency, he
will not be allowed to govern. The media attack dogs will immediately
block all possible efforts to repair the damage of the Bush cabal:

“From the beginning, his enemies portrayed Clinton as unworthy to
occupy the office of president of the United States. This assessment
held firm despite his acknowledged intellect, industriousness, and
charm, and also despite the fact that by almost every statistical
measure, the American people and their government were in far better
condition by 1999 than when the Arkansan took office in 1993. With is
remarkable political skills, the president had broken the Republican
‘lock” n the electoral votes of the southern states, muted his
own ‘party’s clamorous left wing, adapted portions of the Republican
agenda to how own uses, restored fiscal discipline, and outmaneuvered
his bitterest foes in the GOP leadership again and again. But the better
the president and the country did, the more his adversaries appeared
willing to endorse almost anything short of assassination to do him
in.” (p xiii – Emphasis added) The Hunting of the President, The
Ten-Year Campaign to Destroy Bill & Hillary Clinton, Joe Conason & Gene
Lyons (St. Martin’s Press, NY)

If a Democratic president is elected, progressives must make it
impossible to silence the “clamorous left wing”. If Bush II is
elected, progressives must mobilize the Democratic base to attack the
fascist moves that most certainly will come.

The beauty of the current constellation of forces is that progressives
can now seize the moral high ground and speak for the majority needs and
dreams of people in this country. We need only the courage and vision to
seize the time. 


Yours in Struggle,


Ronald D. Glotta

 
http://www.glottaassociates.com/articles/thirdparties.html


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