U.S. PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION RESULTS
Unofficial results suggest a record low participation in voting for
the U.S. presidential and congressional elections on Tuesday,
especially among the working class and national minorities. Even
commentators in the monopoly-media were dismayed at the continuing
decline in voter participation, which strongly indicates that
Americans are fed-up with the archaic political system. By
boycotting the vote, a majority of the American polity were
demonstrating their disgust with the present political system and
their strong desire for democratic renewal.
There are approximately 190 million eligible voters in the
United States. Most media accounts put the percentage of those who
voted at less than 49 percent of the total. The U.S. Committee for
the Study of the American Electorate predicted that the final tally
will be as low as 48.5 percent making it the lowest in U.S.
history. Initial data from the individual states indicate that in
13 states voter participation dropped as much as 10 per cent from
the 1992 presidential vote.
The unofficial figures are: total number of the polity who
boycotted the election = 97,850,000 (51.5 percent); total votes
cast = 92,150,000 (48.5 percent); number of the polity who did not
vote for U.S. imperialist chieftain Bill Clinton = 144,846,500
(76.2 percent); number of votes for Clinton = 45,153,500 (23.8
percent); votes for Republican Bob Dole = 38,703,000 (20.4
percent); votes for Texas billionaire Ross Perot of the Reform
Party = 8,293,500 (4.4 percent).
The 23.8 percent votes for Clinton is not far from what most
ruling parties in Canada receive. Even though this represents an
approval rating of less than one-quarter of the polity, it does not
stop the ruling class from declaring that they have a "mandate" to
do exactly as they please. This represents a dictatorship of the
bourgeoisie, using a political system and mechanisms that are
firmly rooted in the nineteenth century.
A modern political system where the working class and their
allies hold political power would have a political process and
mechanisms to guarantee that the people could participate in
governance at all times. It would allow the people to select the
candidates for political office and easily recall them if they were
not responding to the wishes of the polity. In a truly democratic
country where the working class and people hold power no person
would be able to hold any office with less than 50 percent support
of the polity.
The present U.S. political system is a farce and a hollow
shell that does not even do a good job of camouflaging the brutal
dictatorship of the financial oligarchy. Even U.S. bourgeois
commentators are disturbed, making comments such as "This tells us
that we have a democracy in crisis in America;" and "We have
progressively destroyed the impulse for civic engagement;" and open
cynicism from Chief of Clinton's Staff, Leon Panetta, who said
after the election, "Let us now deal with the issues...."
It is up to the huge U.S. proletariat to overthrow the
dictatorship of the bourgeoisie and lead the way for revolutionary
changes to the U.S. political system.
HOW THE ARGUMENT IS WON AND THE AGENDA SET
In Germany and France the anti-social offensive is in full swing.
To justify the attacks on the living standards of the working
class, the arguments used in Europe and the world over are
well-known: the "necessity to control the deficits and
debts, live within our needs, suppress labor costs to be
competitive in the global market and of course there is no
alternative to cutbacks." The European twist is that certain
"economic targets must be met in order to qualify to have the new
'euro' as their currency." The discussion never gets around to
capitalism itself and its demand for new sources of capital and
places to invest in order to satisfy its drive for maximum profit.
The media attempts to convince the people that there "must" be
a greater union of Europe, and that this greater economic union
"must" have a unified currency, and in order to have a unified
currency each member state "must" meet certain targets for deficit
and debt reduction. Highly-paid economists play a central role in
creating this fiction. For weeks the German media has been full of
the following tale: "Germany will fail to make the grade for
European monetary union on two counts, according to a forecast by
the country's six leading economic institutes. The assessment sent
politicians and central bankers into a spiral of panic.... The
institutes believe that...the public deficit will reach 3.5 percent
of gross domestic product, significantly higher than the 3 percent
benchmark set by the Maastricht treaty for single currency
candidates. Public debt will exceed the 60 percent of GDP
prescribed by Maastricht. That would, in effect, derail the whole
European monetary union project.... An additional US$12 billion
would have to be saved in order to meet the reference values set by
the Maastricht treaty."
The media paints a scenario of hysteria among the bourgeois
political parties over the "necessity of further spending cuts
against the wishes of an angry people.... Six Christian Democrat
deputies, accompanying Helmut Kohl on a tour have broken off their
trip to return to Bonn. An emergency debate on the budget and its
shortfalls will be held today." The discussion then centers on ways
to "convince" the public of the "necessity of controlling labor
costs and increasing the cuts in social spending."
Capitalism is beset with a serious crisis. It has "no
alternative" to attacking the people. It is withdrawing everything
it previously said it championed. This shows that it cannot be
reformed; it must be overthrown. Everything it used to declare were
its greatest achievements it is now withdrawing, such as public
education and public health. Politicians can no longer "pretend"
to be progressive. This fact is a real danger to the capitalist
system. It is incumbant upon the progressive people to organize for
revolutionary change.
Shawgi Tell
University at Buffalo
Graduate School of Education
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
