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Today's
Stories
September 28,
2004
Wayne Madsen
Where
is the Florida National Guard?
September 27,
2004
Gary Leupp
The
Expulsion of Cat Stevens
Patrick Cockburn
As British Muslims Plead for Bigley's Life, US Airstrikes Pound
Fallujah
Sam Husseini
The Problem with Public Opinion Polls
Lee Sustar
Putting Bosses First: Latter Day Democrats and Labor
Dave Lindorff
A Progressive Case for (Gag) Kerry?
Norman Madarasz
Talking International: Contra Kerry
Kevin Pina
The Tragedy of Gonaives, Haiti
September 25
/ 26, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
C'mon
Ralph, You've Got Nothing to Lose
Dave Zirin
The Courage of the NBA's Etan Thomas:
"I Am Totally Against This War"
Saul Landau
The Reality of Empire and Campaign Rhetoric
Dave Lindorff
Our Heroic Baby-Killers
Brian J. Foley
Bush at the UN: the Sound of No Hands Clapping
William Blum
Progressives and the Election
Alan Maass
Why is Kerry Running Such a Lame Campaign? You Can't Blame It
All on Bob Shrum
Lucson Pierre-Charles
Haiti: Another Lost Story
Solange Echeverria
An Interview with Kevin Pina on the Floods in Haiti
Nicole Colson
What About the Supreme Court?
Justin Smith
The New Sparta
Joshua Frank
Iraq: From Clinton to Bush
Karyn Strickler
Momma, Don't Let Your Babides Grow Up to be Cannon Fodder
Michael Donnelly
Rather Disingenuous: "Remember in November"
Greg Bates
The Politics of Nader's Republican Support
Todd Chretien
Lesser Evilism: We Are Living in the Logical Conclusion
William Loren
Katz
Dire Warnings from the Past: From Wilson to Bush
Omar Barghouti
Americans, You've Lost Your Alibi!
Poets' Basement
Holt, Clarke, Albert, Laymon and Ford
Website of the Weekend
Carnival of Chaos
September 24,
2004
Dr. Teresa
Whitehurst
The
Value of One Life: Keeping Up Appearances and Leaving Hostages
to the Wolves
William S.
Lind
Destroying
the National Guard
Mike Whitney
The Bush Tent Show
Nancy Welch
What's
at Stake for Women in 2004?
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
Logical Limbo
Joshua Frank
Fear Mongering 101
Victor Kattan
An Interview with Afif Safieh
Ben Terrall
Kerry and Haiti: Will He Stand Up?
Kathleen and
Bill Christison
"Finally
It Broke My Heart": Random Impressions from Palestine
Sex,
Drugs & the Blues!
Serpents in the Garden
CounterPunch's
Sizzling New Book on Culture and Sex is Now Available
Click here to purchase
September 23,
2004
Patrick Cockburn
Why
Are They Still Holding "Mrs. Anthrax?"
Christopher Brauchli
Ashcroft's "Distressing Lack of Care": Hamdi and the
Phony War on Terrorism
Derek Seidman
Fighting for a Union at Starbucks: an Interview with Daniel Gross
Michael Neumann
Three
Years and Counting? How Time Flies
September 22,
2004
Patrick Cockburn
Zarqawi's
War: the Mysterious Sadist from Jordan
Neve Gordon
The
Wall, the Court and Sharon
Joshua Frank
History Repeating: New York, 1832 and Now
Ron Jacobs
Stormy Seas on the Citizen Ship
Jack Random
Defending Dan? Rather Not
Tarif Abboushi
Kerry's Final Straw: Confessions of a Despairing Voter
Mickey Z
Stupid White Guy Quiz
John L. Hess
Faking the Difference: a Serious Debate?
Jeffrey St.
Clair
High
Plains Grifter: The House Rules
September 21,
2004
Gary Leupp
"We
Are Not Secure": Kerry's "Unwavering Commitment"
to Securing a Middle East Realm
Robert Jensen
Large
Dams in India: Temples or Burial Grounds?
Elaine Cassel
Fourth Circuit to Moussouai: Ask Your Questions; Prepare to Die
Stanley Heller
Reagan and the Killing Fields of Lebanon
Adam Federman
America Will Disappoint the World, Again
David Whitehouse
What's Behind the Horror in Darfur?
M. Junaid Alam
How to Avoid Becoming an Anti-American
Paul Craig
Roberts
Attention
Deficit America
Website of the Day
True American War Heroes: the Iraq Refuseniks
September 20,
2004
Cockburn /
Buncombe
Get
Fallujah
David Price
Relying
on Phonies: What If The Problem with Phone Polls is That They
Are Phone Polls
Dave Lindorff
How
Dems Fight: Tigers Against Nader, Pussycats Against Bush
Harry Browne
Pre-Nup at Leeds: Talked Out, But Does IRA Give Up?
Mark Wesibrot
Bush's
Ownership Society: No Taxes for Owners, Only Workers
Karyn Strickler
The Keys to the White House v. the Shrum Curse?
Uri Avnery
The Temple Mount Bombers
September 18
/ 19, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Forgeries,
Fingerprints and Forensic Fakery
Jeffrey St. Clair
High Plains Grifter: Bush's Mask of Anarchy
Patrick Cockburn
Into the Abyss: the Week Iraq's Dream of Peace Fell Apart
Fred Gardner
Pot Shots: Financial Torture (Asset Forfeiture)
Joe Allen
The Comrades Kerry Abandoned: the Real Story of Vietnam Vets
Against the War
George Corsetti
Poletown Revisited: Finally, Some Vindication
Scott Handleman
The Knock-Knock of a Sledgehammer: Sequestered in Nablus
Richard Ward
Two Weeks in Beit Arabiya
Conn Hallinan
Ashcroft and Indonesia
Lori Smith
Health Care in America: And Then I Got Sick...
Dave Zirin
Hold the Booyah!: SportsCenter Out of the Middle East
John L. Hess
Rather Will Take the Heat, As Bush's War Deteriorates
Brian J. Foley
W is for Wimp: So Why do Manly Men Love Him?
Mickey Z.
Pat Tillman and Osama bin Laden: Odd Juxtapositions
Poets' Basement
Vest, Landau & Albert
Website of the Weekend
Eye on the NYTs
Septemeber
17, 2004
Ray McGovern
Gossing
Over the Record
Patrick Cockburn
The New Iraqi Economy: Baghdad's Thriving Kidnapping Industry
Lee Sustar
The State of Working America: an Autopsy of the American Dream
Mike Whitney
John Kerry: 195 Lbs. of Political Helium, Not an Ounce of Sincerity
Victor Kattan
Black September
Ray Hanania
Israel's Demographics
Greg Bates
Nader's Victories: a Mid-Campaign Assessment
Website of
the Day
The Road to Hell
September 16,
2004
Landau / Hassen
Meet
the New Villain: Syria
Joanne Mariner
Inside
Darfur: a Photo Essay
Patrick Cockburn
US
Offers Conflicting Accounts of Baghdad Bloodbath
Greg Moses
Four Million Children Might Be News
Joshua Frank
Nader in the Battleground States
Christopher Brauchli
The Bush Drug Lottery Flops
David Himmelstein
Folke Bernadotte: a Rosh Hashonah Remembrance
Website of the Day
The Abu Ghraib Index
September 15,
2004
Patrick Cockburn
Hell
on Haifa Street
Ron Jacobs
Oppose War, Not Just Bush
David Lindorff
Blanking Out Dissent
Joanne Mariner
Talking About Darfur: Is Genocide Just a Word?
Angela Godfrey-Goldstein
An Open Letter to Madonna: Please Don't Support Israeli Apartheid
Dave Zirin
Is the NFL Ready for Us?
Yigal Bronner
"They
Are Building Walls Around Us"
September 14,
2004
Gary Leupp
The
Problem of Chechnya
Jennifer van
Bergen
What's
Wrong with Torture?
Stan Goff
Wake Up and Smell the Jungle Rot
Patrick Cockburn
The
Punishment of Fallujah: US Precision Strickes...on Ambulances
Anis Memon
Nader
in Michigan
Michael Donnelly
The Nuance Comes Off: Former Naderites Beg for Kerry Votes
Werther
Zell Miller: the Peckerwood Pericles
Website of
the Day
Osama Bin Forgotten?
September 13,
2004
Gabriel Kolko
Elections,
Alliances and the American Empire
Phillip Cryan
How Do You Say "Death Squad?": Language in Colombia's
War
Patrick Cockburn
One of Baghdad's Bloodiest Days: "I'm a Journalist! I'm
Dying! I'm Dying"
Noah Leavitt
The War on Civil Liberties
Robert Jensen
Highjacking Catastrophe: Bush, the Neo-Cons and 9/11
Mike Whitney
Alan Greenspan: Fed-Master to the Wealthy
John Chuckman
Stop Talking About the "Election"
Mike Burke
Kerry/Edwards Website Censors Discussion of Israel/Palestine
Issues
CounterPunch
Wire
The Quotations of David Cobb: "I Don't Care How Many Votes
I Get"
Website of the Day
Keep It In Your Pants: the Bush Plan to Combat Teen Promiscuity
September 11
/ 12, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Swatting
at Flies
Fred Gardner
Yet Another Prozac Scandal
Saul Landau
When Our Assassins Go Free
Jennifer Van Bergen
How to Beat Bush: a Simple Strategy for the Average American
Roger Burbach
/ Jim Tarbell
The Real Dead Enders: Iraq and the Crisis of Empire
Christopher Reed
9/11 in an Historical Context: a Minor Event When Compared to
Worldwide War Casualties
Francisc Catalin
An ABC of American Interventions
Carl Estabrook
Big Science and Government Terror
Bernard Chazelle
Anti-Americanism: a Clinical Study
Sharon Smith
Third Party Blues
Dave Lindorff
Perhaps This Time We're the Silent Majority
Mike Whitney
Fallujah: an Iraqi Beslan?
Frederick B.
Hudson
Their Sons Perished in the Flames, But Not Their Faith
Mickey Z.
Round Up the Usual Suspects: a Look Back at 9/11
Ron Jacobs
Redneck Music for the New Century
Greg Moses
Soap Opera Moments in Texas School Funding Trial
Benjamin Dangl
/ Andrew Kennis
An Interview with Leslie Cagan
Poets Basement
Del Papa, Albert, Gelman
September 10,
2004
Patrick Cockburn
Disappointment
at Samarrah?
Michael Donnelly
Democrats v. Democracy
Alan Farago
Mosquitoes in a Hurricane
Doug Giebel
Karl Rove's Terror Playbook
Mike Whitney
Bob Graham's Political Tsunami
David Domke
God's
Will, According to the Bush Administration
September 9,
2004
Joe Bageant
Karaoke
Night in Bush's America
Ed Kinane
Abducted in Baghdad
Peter Bohmer
The Cuban Revolution: Present and Future
Todd May
The Emerging Case for a Single-State Solution
Jeremy Scahill
The New York Model: Indymedia and the Text Message Jihad
Joshua Frank
Green House Party Gasses
Fran Shor
The Crisis in Public Dissent: When Protest is Considered a Terrorist
Act
Patrick Cockburn
Welcome
to the Dirtiest City in the World: Despair in Baghdad
Website of
the Day
Liberty Street Protest: No to War at Ground Zero
September 8,
2004
Patrick Cockburn
This
Doesn't Smell Like Victory: A War on Two Fronts in Iraq
Dave Lindorff
Bush Confuses; Kerry Mute: Spinning 1000 Dead
Bulent Gokay
Russian and Chechnia After Beslan
Lisa Viscidi
Land Reform and Conflict in Guatemala
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
Byrd's Eye View
Mike Whitney
Afghanistan: American's Drug Colony
Stan Goff
Body
Count: 1001
Website of
the Day
Bush and the Love Doctors
September 7,
2004
Diane Christian
Hostage Tactics: a Game of Mortal Poker
Joshua Frank
Greens
Unravel from Within
Patrick Cockburn
Fallujah
Erupts Again: US Death Toll in Iraq Nears 1000
Ron Jacobs
Bush and Putin: "We're Not Girlie Men"
Chris Floyd
Cry Havoc: Bush's Own Personal Janjaweed
Dr. Carol Wolman
No Blood for Oil at Paul Bunyan Day Parade
John Ross
The
Politics of Darkness North / South
September 6,
2004
Alexander Cockburn
An
Anti-Labor Day That Lives in Infamy: How Many Democrats Voted
For Taft-Hartley?
Ralph Nader
The
Cruel Legacy of Taft-Hartley: a Labor Day Call for Rights for
Working People
Lee Sustar
What's Driving the Attack on Pensions?
Kathleen and
Bill Christison
Dual
Loyalties: the Bush Necons and Israel
September 4-5,
2004
Alexander Cockburn
Elephants
and Gramsci
Ted Honderich
The
Way Things Are
Sasan Fayazmanesh
The
Holy Empire: Who We Are and What We Do
Douglas Valentine
What the World Should Know About Guantanamo
Patrick Cockburn
New Iraqi Police State Flexes Its Muscles
Gary Leupp
Neo Cons Under Fire
Fred Gardner
Pot Shots: the Hempstead T-Shirt
William A.
Cook
The
Day of the Lemming
Dave Zirin
Kobe Bryant and the Price of Freedom
John Chuckman
The Day the World Ended
Karyn Strickler
God Save the Endangered Species Act
Vanessa Jones
Bad Day with an Ikea Cup
Mike Whitney
Kerry: the "Better" War Candidate
Mark Donham
Dear John (Kerry): Start Explaining and Fast
Mickey Z.
McBypass Nation: Feeling Clinton's Pain
Alan Farago
Can the Everglades be Fixed?
Poets' Basement
Landau and Albert
September 3,
2004
Jeffrey St.
Clair
High
Plains Grifter: Jesus Told Him Where to Bomb
Rahul Mahajan
Bush's RNC Speech: an Annotated Response
Carl Estabrook
The
Book of Slaughter and Forgetting
Joshua Frank
The Florida of the Northwest: Oregon Dems Sabotage Nader Again
Gary Leupp
Music to My Ears: Sunday's March
James Hollander
Deja Vu in Manhattan: Assisted Political Suicide?
Mark Engler
Republicans
Among Us: a Week at the RNC, Inside and Out
Jesse Sharkey
Making Students and Teachers Pay for the Crisis in Education
Jane Stillwater
Calling the Cops on Your Own Kid
Stephen Green
Serving
Two Flags: the Bush Neo-Cons and Israel
September 2,
2004
Jeffrey St.
Clair
High
Plains Grifter: Part 3: More Pricks Than Kicks
Max Gimble
Et Tu, Menchu? Extrajudicial Killings and Clandestine Graves
in Guatemala
James Petras
President Chavez and the Referendum: Myths and Realities
Christopher
Brauchli
Bush and the Afghan Electoral Model: "If They Want to Vote
Twice, Let Them"
Todd Chretien & Jessie
Muldoon
Will the Democrats Expel Zell Miller?
Jack Random
Spite and Venom Day: the Turncoat and the Profiteer
Alan Maass
The Real Vietnam
Christa Allen
Contre Bush
Website of
the Day
[Redacted]
September 1,
2004
Alexander Cockburn
The
Stench of Doom
Kathleen and Bill Christison
Poor Larry Franklin
Dave Lindorff
Kerry's Litmus Test
Josh Frank
Protest in White: Not All of New York Rises Up
John L. Hess
Moles, Scoops and Flip Flops
Mike Whitney
Deconstructing Arnold
Jack Random
Kindergarten Night at the RNC
Andrew Wilson
War on the Pachyderms: Why Do Elephants Hate Us?
Jeffrey St.
Clair
High
Plains Grifter: Part Two: Mark His Words
August 31,
2004
Joseph Nevins
Escapism
and Global Apartheid: The Dominican Republic & the NYTs
Matt Vidal
Beyond
Bush's Rhetoric on the Economy
Neve Gordon
Kerry and the Middle East
Dave Lindorff
Bush
the Peace Candidate?
Mike Whitney
NPR Leads the Charge for War Against Iran
Jack Random
Opening Night: Playing the War Card
Jeffrey St.
Clair
High
Plains Grifter: the Life and Crimes of George W. Bush (Part One)
CounterPunch Photo of the Day
Pete Seeger in NYC
August 30,
2004
Justin Podhur
The
Disappeared Mayor
Shaun Joseph
The
Hypocrites at TheNaderbasher.com
Mike Whitney
Israeli Moles in the Pentagon: What More Could They Possibly
Want?
Ron Jacobs
Live, From New York: the Majority of Protesters Claimed No Candidate
David Lindorff
Sunday in Manhattan: the Sound of Marchin', Chargin' Feet, Boy
Dave Zirin
USA Basketball: The Team White America Loved to Hate
Sam Husseini
Israeli Spying on the US: a Long History
August 28 /
29, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Zombies
for Kerry
Patrick Cockburn
Najaf Ceasefire Good for Iraq, But Weakens Allawi and US
Ray McGovern
Blowing Smoke on Intelligence
Dr. Juan Romagoza
From El Salvador to Abu Ghraib: Reflections of Torture Survivor
Ray Hanania
An Israeli Spy in the Pentagon? Ridiculous!
Fred Gardner
Eddie Lepp Busted by DEA: Facing Life for Growing Medical Pot
Diane Christian
Big Men: the Better Leader Lets You Live
William S. Lind
The Desert Fox
Paul D'Amato
The Left Takes a Dive for Kerry
Joshua Frank
Greens at the Crossroads
Mickey Z.
Media Declares War on Anti-War Protests
Winslow T. Wheeler
Sen. McCain's Pork Chops: an Exchange
Justin E.H.
Smith
The New Age Racket and the Left
Thomas St. John
Burning Slaves at the Stake: On "Sinners in the Hands of
an Angry God"
Ali Tonak
Help the NYPD?
Mark Engler
New York Says "No"
Justin Felux
Haiti: the Attica of the Americas
Poets' Basement
Gelman, Albert, Ford and Hamod
August 27,
2004
Gary Leupp
Neocon
Musings
Robin Cook
The
Ghosts of Abu Ghraib
Diane Christian
Disarming
Michael Donnelly
Situational Democracy: the Show Me the Green Party?
Jack Random
4F and Other Heroes: an Army of War Resisters
Mike Ferner
"To the Swift Boats!"
Mazin Qumsiyeh
7000 Palestinian Political Prisoners
Veronza Bowers, Jr.
"You Won't Be Leaving Tomorrow"
August 26,
2004
M. Shahid Alam
The
Clash Thesis: a Failing Ideology?
Diane Christian
War
Rules: Bush is No Sun Tzu
Derek Seidman
"They're As Bad As Wal-Mart:" Starbucks Workers Get
Organized
David Lindorff
Court to RNC Protesters: Drop the Rally
Christopher
Brauchli
Signs of Dissent: the Bush in the Bubble
Stew Albert
Reporting Suspicious Activity
Mark Donham
Judgement in Athens: Give the Koreans Their Day in Court
Saul Landau
Pinochet:
the Al Capone of the Southern Cone
Website of
the Day
The Kerry 527 Ad You'll Never See
August 25,
2004
Amelia Peltz
Can
I Have 9.8 Seconds of Your Time?
Noah Leavitt
Defining and Redefining Torture
Ron Jacobs
Takin' It to the Streets: It's Not About the Election, It's About
Democracy
James Brooks
Coronado Crosses the Jordan
Akiva Eldar
How to Win the Jewish Vote: Turn Gaza into a "Mini-Afghanistan"
Gemma Araneta
Chavez's New Brand of Populism
Philip Cryan
Uribe's Boys: the Death Squads of Colombia
CounterPunch Wire
Cheney Opens the Closet Door
August 24,
2004
Jeremy Scahill
John
Kerry: the Warchurian Candidate
Gary Leupp
"We
Want Them to Go Away"
David Domke
God
Willing: an Echoing Press and Political Fundamentalism
William Loren Katz
The Meaning of Hugo Chávez: Black and Indian Power in
Venezuela
Jonah Gindin
With Chavez? Reading the International Private Media
Fran Schor
Denying Atrocities: From Vietnam to Fallujah
Joe Bageant
Driving
on the Bones of God
Website of the Day
The Great America Lockdown: a Primer for the RNC
August 23,
2004
Winslow Wheeler
Don't
Mind If I Do: Porkbarrel and the War on Terror
John Pilger
Bush
May Be the Lesser Evil
Stan Goff
Swift
Boat Dogfight
Bill and Kathleen
Christison
Notes
from the West Bank: Build, Demolish, Rebuild
Mike Whitney
The Unraveling of Afghanistan
William Blum
Brave
New World of Iraqi Sovereignty
Ralph Nader
A Letter to the Washington Post: a Shameful and Unsavory Editorial
August 21 /
22, 2004
Cockburn /
St. Clair
"They
Want Blood:" The Bi-Partisan Origins of the Total War on
Drugs
Landau / Hassen
Failing
the Mission? Form a Commission
Brian Cloughley
The
Bush Team in Iraq: Moral Cowardice, as Practiced by Experts
Josh Frank
Nader as David Duke? The ADL Wants You to Think So
Mike Whitney
Reincarnating Mengele: the Torture Doctors of Abu Ghraib
Ron Jacobs
Day Labor Blues
Mickey Z.
Shooting at Whales: 40 Years After Tonkin
Fred Gardner
Dr. Wolman Comes Out: The Cannabis Consultants
Dave Zirin
Uprising in Athens: Iraqi Soccer Team Gives Bush the Boot
Josh Saxe
Witnessing Police Brutality in LA
Yanar Mohammed
Letter from Baghdad: a Democracy of Killings and Bombings
Helen Williams
Ali's Story: a Taste of Reality from Baghdad
Michael Donnelly
Elemental and NaturalForests, Fire and Recovery
Elizabeth Schulte
The Crisis in Affordable Housing
Poets' Basement
Adler, Albert, Virgil, Ford and Krieger
Hot Stories
Alexander Cockburn
Behold,
the Head of a Neo-Con!
Subcomandante
Marcos
The
Death Train of the WTO
Norman Finkelstein
Hitchens
as Model Apostate
Steve Niva
Israel's
Assassination Policy: the Trigger for Suicide Bombings?
Dardagan,
Slobodo and Williams
CounterPunch Exclusive:
20,000 Wounded Iraqi Civilians
Steve
J.B.
Prison Bitch
Sheldon
Rampton and John Stauber
True Lies: the Use of Propaganda
in the Iraq War
Wendell
Berry
Small Destructions Add Up
CounterPunch
Wire
WMD: Who Said What When
Cindy
Corrie
A Mother's Day Talk: the Daughter
I Can't Hear From
Gore Vidal
The
Erosion of the American Dream
Francis Boyle
Impeach
Bush: A Draft Resolution
Click
Here for More Stories.
|
September 28, 2004
Choking on
Progressives for Kerry
A
Response to Dave Lindorff's Gag Reflex
By
GREG BATES
I got to know my good friend Dave Lindorff
while editing his excellent book, Killing
Time: An Investigation into the Death Row Case of Mumia Abu-Jamal,
which I was fortunate to publish. I decided to drop usage of
the more distant last name; we're on a first name basis and might
as well be in print too. Now I find myself in awkward opposition
to Dave's call for all progressives to gag but nonetheless vote
Kerry, saying that a vote for Nader is no more than a dangerous
protest. (Counterpunch, September 27, 2004) Behind every plea
of this ilk is a simple demand: THINK STRATEGICALLY! Okay, let's
get real.
I'll leave aside Dave's argument
that there is no such thing as a safe state, an argument I have
reviewed extensively elsewhere. The guy needs a train ticket
to Massachusetts, or Texas, or Illinois, or California, or he
can practically walk from his hometown of Philly to DC so he
can check it out for himself. The value of a vote for Nader in
a safe state is obvious: a growing protest vote, or even a steady
one in these times, would show that the  politics
of fear may not be enough to keep progressives in line, and that
to win, real policy change may be needed to head off a bigger
vote next time.
This was essentially the lesson
of Socialist Party candidate Norman Thomas during the Great Depression.
Powerful social movements had an impact on FDR. He started out
more fiscally conservative than the man he replaced, Herbert
Hoover, coming out strongly against deficit spending, before
becoming the voice of the New Deal. The pressure of the social
movements was aided by pressure from Norman Thomas. In 1932 Thomas
got over 887,000 votes; some evidence suggests the number voting
for him was much higher, and that many socialist ballots were
thrown out rather than counted. Then, responding to the threat,
FDR's New Deal stole the thunder from Thomas's challenge. The
massive appeal of FDR's programs helped reduce Thomas's votes
in the election of 1936 to 187,000, which FDR won in a landslide.
The New Deal was, at least in part, a victory for the threat
and pressure of a third party.
Let's turn to consider the
logic of Dave's position that we should all vote Kerry and reserve
our protests for the streets, confining any progressive presidential
electoral strategy to working inside the party during primary
season. He writes:
"Voting for Kerry is only
the first step. Any progressive who casts a vote for this unprincipled,
calculating, Democratic Leadership Council member needs to simultaneously
take a vow to remain active-no, to become even more active--in
pushing for a progressive, anti-war agenda after November 2.
A President-elect Kerry must be confronted with a million anti-war
demonstrators at his inauguration ceremony. He must face a one-million-member
jobs march in April 2005."
But wait a minute. Part of
the punch of the street protest is an implied threat: change
your policies or we will vote you out of office next time. March
loudly and carry a big ballot. Dave would change the deal: We
protest what you are doing, but don't worry; we'll vote for you
no matter what you do. True, protests exert pressure in other
ways besides threatening a politician's re-election. But taking
that electoral tool completely off the table-or relegating it
to local elections, as Dave is in effect advocating-robs movements
of essential thunder.
Dave would confine progressive
electoral politics on the presidential level to the primaries.
How can any serious progressive argue this on the heels of what
the Party did to the platforms of Kucinich, Dean and others?
This in effect says: don't worry about the fun we are having
in our progressive sandbox in the spring, we will vote for whoever
you nominate. As I have pointed out elsewhere, reformers inside
the party need progressives outside the party to demonstrate
that, if the Democrats don't move left, we will walk. Otherwise,
why would the party, drunk with corporate cash, hand over the
keys to reformers? The existence of large numbers of progressives
working and voting for other options can be used as leverage
to pull the Democrats along. It may not work, but without it
reforming the party is all the harder.
Dave argues:
"The problems with this
[Nader voter] approach are two-fold. First, the next presidential
election is four years away, and there is no mechanism for transforming
the pressure of a third-party protest vote in 2004 into a leftward
swing by the Democratic Party in 2008. Second--there is little
evidence that prior such third party efforts have led to shifts
in Democratic Party position. If anything, Nader's 2000 run created
a toxic reaction in 2004 among Democratic voters to those who
supported Nader in 2000. If votes for Nader in 2004 swing this
election to Bush, the same reaction can be expected among Democratic
voters in 2008, only worse. (It might even be argued that another
2-3 percent vote tally this time around for Nader could just
convince Democratic candidates that there's no point trying to
win over that group of voters, so they can just be ignored.)"
Concerning Dave's first argument,
the lack of mechanism, I disagree. As I argue in my book, if
Nader's run does not invigorate an existing third party, and
a new party isn't founded in the wake of his efforts, little
will have been gained. But if a party is founded, and starts
running candidates locally and nationally, its presence would
serve as potent leverage on the Democrats to stop aping Republicans-or
a foundation for replacing them.
On Dave's second point, I do
agree: third party efforts may not sway these Democrats. But
an argument that Democrats are inured to political pressure from
the left is a powerful argument for starting third parties, not
an argument for continuing to work inside the party.
Dave later states,
"The third reason to vote
Nader is to help build a third, an anti-corporate party that
could offer a real alternative to the Republicrats. The problem
with this admittedly beautiful idea is that it has been tried
many times and hasn't worked."
I am writing in a future column
about the prospects of replacing the democrats. But Dave has
fundamentally lost touch with the power of third parties. Their
success does not necessarily rest on winning office, but on applying
pressure. In No Debate: How the Two Parties Secretly Ruin
the Presidential Debates, George Farah reviews the impressive
history that has gone hand in hand with social movements,
"From the early labor
parties of the 1830s, to the Free Soil Party of the 1850s, to
the Prohibition Party of the 1890s, to the Bull Moose Party at
the start of the twentieth century, to the Reform Party in the
1990s, third-party movements have forced policies and issues
onto center stage and into mainstream political discourse. The
result of these third-party campaigns has been the adoption of
some of the most significant pieces of legislation in American
history, such as the abolition of slavery, women's suffrage,
the establishment of pensions, unemployment insurance, the minimum
wage, Social Security, child labor laws, public schools, public
power, the direct election of senators, the graduated income
tax, paid vacation, the forty-hour workweek, higher civil service
standards, the formation of labor unions, and democratic tools
such as the initiative, the referendum, and the recall."
We can see this critical lesson
in perspective by further analyzing the Norman Thomas/Hoover/FDR
match of 1932. FDR got nearly 23 million votes against Hoover's
nearly 16 million and Thomas's less than 1 million. Thomas came
nowhere near overtaking FDR, and didn't even make the election
a close call. But FDR took action nonetheless to address the
grievances Thomas raised. Thus for a third party to exert meaningful
pressure-especially when combined with social movements-it may
not have to reach as large a size as we might think to have a
big effect. Kerry's meeting with Nader, and the Democrats desperate
attempt to keep him off the ballot are signs that the day we
have a real impact may be sooner rather than later. Kerry could
still win, and Nader could still have some influence this time;
a third party could have a greater one next time.
Ironically, without being aware
of it, Dave then backs up exactly that point, providing evidence
that Nader's candidacy is actually working to pressure Kerry.
Dave writes:
"How do we know a President
Kerry would pay attention to us? He's already doing it. After
having run since he declared for the presidency as a pro-war
candidate, he has finally started calling the war a mistake-the
first step away from the deep hole he dug himself during the
primaries and this past summer. For the first time, he is openly
citing his 1972 anti-war credentials, instead of just his medals.
He has clearly recognized that he cannot hope to get elected
without the support of the anti-war movement and is belatedly
going about trying to win that support. Even if it's just posturing,
this is an enormous rhetorical shift, and we should recognize
it for what it is-evidence of our power. Faced with a hostile
Congress in January, he will have to do the same thing, not just
on the war but on every issue (but only if we stay organized
and in the street)."
Dave is right: this is a shift
of some sort, even if less than skin deep. But note the timing:
it comes just days after the Democrats finally failed to keep
Nader off the ballot of the largest swing state in the country,
Florida, and amidst new polls that suggest Nader voters could
still be a factor in the election's outcome. Perhaps it's not
all Nader, but I'm sure glad he's out there. And I'm sure glad
there are enough progressives smart enough to refuse to declare
for Kerry prior to Election Day. Maybe many who represent what
appears in polls to be a 2 plus percent support for Nader will
in the end vote Kerry. That is up to them. In the meantime, the
choice to keep saying "I'm for Nader," especially in
the swing states, keeps the pressure on.
Dave then unravels into wishful
speculation, writing,
"The other argument made
against voting for a DLC Democrat like Kerry is that he might
just copy Clinton, who decided, in a major betrayal of progressive
Democrats just two years into office, that he'd rather work with
a Republican Congress than fight for a liberal Democratic one.
There is this risk with Kerry, but I suspect that while such
a pact with the devil might also seem attractive to him, the
times and the Republican Party are different, and he wouldn't
be able to do this even if he wanted to. Kerry, if elected, will
face open hostility from a Republican Congress, and will need
all the help he can get from the progressive wing of the Democratic
Party. Stymied at every turn by an opposition-run Congress, he
will be desperate to elect a Democratic majority in 2006, and
to widen his base in preparation for a re-election bid in 2008."
Confining to a "risk"
the possibility that Kerry could become like Clinton rather than
understanding it is a full-blown certainty is like the buyer
of a lottery ticket saying that there is a "risk" they
might lose. To assess that risk you need only look at Kerry's
record:
* voted to confirm Antonin
Scalia for Supreme Court;
* backed many of Clinton's
initiatives;
* voted for the USA Patriot
Act and complains that in the War on Terror, Bush has done too
little, not too much;
* voted for Bush's No Child
Left Behind;
* switched from death row opponent
to favoring it for terrorists (a shameful advocacy of death to
those least able to defend themselves because they can lack access
to lawyers, evidence, and regular due process, as bad as it is);
* and advocated we go into
Iraq to rid it of WMDs-in 1998, years before Bush, and crucially
years before the new era of 9/11; among many other policies.
For some juicy details, I cannot
resist putting in a plug for Dave's new fine book, This
Can't Be Happening: Resisting the Disintegration of Democracy,
that takes Kerry as well as Bush to the mat, and which I have
the honor of publishing. It's great, in my unbiased opinion!)
There is no "risk"
of Kerry running to the right. He's been there for decades, and
an accurate assessment would predict a further march right. What
Dave hopes for is a conversion to moderate. I do too, but I am
much less sanguine. I just don't see the case for giving up the
threat of third party and independent alternatives.
Dave may well be correct that
Kerry "will be desperate to elect a Democratic majority
in 2006, and to widen his base in preparation for a re-election
bid in 2008." But if that desperation does not include a
real fear that progressives could walk to a third party or independent
candidate, then he will logically concentrate on expanding his
base by pandering to the right, secure in the knowledge that,
courtesy of missives from the likes of Dave, the left promises
to stand by his side when the crucial vote comes.
Nader voters aim to stop that
from happening.
Greg Bates is the founding publisher at Common
Courage Press and author of Ralph's
Revolt: The Case For Joining Nader's Rebellion. He can be
reached at: gbates@commoncouragepress.com
Weekend
Edition Features for September 18 / 19, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Forgeries,
Fingerprints and Forensic Fakery
Jeffrey St. Clair
High Plains Grifter: Bush's Mask of Anarchy
Patrick Cockburn
Into the Abyss: the Week Iraq's Dream of Peace Fell Apart
Fred Gardner
Pot Shots: Financial Torture (Asset Forfeiture)
Joe Allen
The Comrades Kerry Abandoned: the Real Story of Vietnam Vets
Against the War
George Corsetti
Poletown Revisited: Finally, Some Vindication
Scott Handleman
The Knock-Knock of a Sledgehammer: Sequestered in Nablus
Richard Ward
Two Weeks in Beit Arabiya
Conn Hallinan
Ashcroft and Indonesia
Lori Smith
Health Care in America: And Then I Got Sick...
Dave Zirin
Hold the Booyah!: SportsCenter Out of the Middle East
John L. Hess
Rather Will Take the Heat, As Bush's War Deteriorates
Brian J. Foley
W is for Wimp: So Why do Manly Men Love Him?
Mickey Z.
Pat Tillman and Osama bin Laden: Odd Juxtapositions
Poets' Basement
Vest, Landau & Albert
Website of the Weekend
Eye on the NYTs
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