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The New Print Edition of CounterPunch, Only for Our Newsletter Subscribers! From Nixon to Sarah Palin
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The New Print Edition of CounterPunch, Only for Our Newsletter Subscribers!
From Nixon to Sarah Palin
What’s happened to the Republican Party? What’s happened to populism? Read Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St Clair on the life and death of Nixonland, and the class politics of the war over Sarah Palin. ALSO in our new subscriber-only CounterPunch newsletter, read Serge Halimi on how Russia gave Georgia and the U.S.a well-deserved black eye. PLUS Carrie Dann’s wonderful first-hand account of the fight of the Western Shoshone to reclaim their land. Get your copy today by subscribing online or calling 1-800-840-3683 Contributions to CounterPunch are tax-deductible. Click here to make a donation. If you find our site useful please: Subscribe Now! CounterPunch books and gear make great presents.
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Today's Stories September 9, 2008 Vijay Prashad September 8, 2008 Mike Whitney Tariq Ali Pam Martens Bill Quigley Malini Johar Schueller / Robert Jensen Uri Avnery Win McCormack Howard Lisnoff Maria C. Khoury Website of the Day September 6 / 7, 2008 Alexander Cockburn Jeffrey St. Clair Linn Washington, Jr. Patrick Cockburn Gary Leupp Nancy Kurshan William Blum Michael Winship Fred Gardner Nikolas Kozloff Wajahat Ali Robert Fantina Karyn Strickler David Yearsley Richard Rhames James L. Secor Missy Beattie Eric Patton Ben Terrall Thom Rutledge Dan Bacher David Macaray Jane Stillwater Grady Harper Poets' Basement Website of the Weekend September 5, 2008 Elizabeth Walters Bill Quigley Alan Farago Dave Lindorff Ira Glunts Peter Morici Deepak Tripathi Manuel Garcia, Jr. Michael Donnelly Martha Rosenberg Website of the Day September 4, 2008 Jeffrey St. Clair Paul Craig Roberts Ron Jacobs M. Junaid Levesque-Alam Andy Worthington Osama Dawoud Stephen Lendman Fidel Castro Website of the Day September 3, 2008 Patrick Cockburn Sen. Mike Gravel Vijay Prashad Nikolas Kozloff Ralph Nader Howard Lisnoff Steve Early / Cal Winslow Shepherd Bliss Bill Quigley Website of the Day
September 2, 2008 Marjorie Cohn Jonathan Cook Robert Weitzel Corey D. B. Walker John Ross Eric Walberg Judith Scherr Richard Morse B. R. Gowani Michael Greenberg Website of the Day September 1, 2008 Nikolas Kozloff C. G. Estabrook Manuel Garcia, Jr. David Macaray B. R. Gowani Saul Landau Charles Orloski Gloria La Riva Website of the Day August 30 / 31, 2008 Alexander Cockburn Bill Quigley Jeffrey St. Clair Andy Worthington Deepak Tripathi Stanley Howard Dave Lindorff Wajahat Ali Robert Fantina Josh Schlossberg Benjamin Dangl Missy Beattie Howard Lisnoff Suzan Mazur Rev. Jim Rigby David Yearsely Serge Quadruppani B.R. Gowani Richard Rhames Poets' Basement Website of the Day
August 29, 2008 Mike Whitney Brian Cloughley David Ker Thomson Joanne Mariner Neve Gordon Chris Genovali Ron Jacobs Michael Donnelly August 28, 2008 Judy Gumbo Albert Paul Cantor Saul Landau / Andy Worthington Ben Terrall Leonard Peltier Niranjan Ramakrishnan Donna J. Volatile Website of the Day
August 27, 2008 Anthony DiMaggio Jordan Flaherty Ralph Nader Melissa Checker Bob Sommer Cynthia McKinney Ali Khan M. Junaid Levesque-Alam Dave Lindorff David Macaray Website of the Day
August 26, 2008 Patrick Cockburn Michael D. Yates Paul Craig Roberts Andy Worthington Rev. Jesse L. Jackson Huwaida Arraf Joseph Grosso Sheldon Richman Binoy Kampmark Website of the Day August 25, 2008 Patrick Cockburn Bill Quigley Jonathan Cook James McEnteer Uri Avnery Will Potter Robert Jensen Stephen Lendman Wajahat Ali Carl Finamore Website of the Day August 23 / 4, 2008 Alexander Cockburn Jeffrey St. Clair Patty O'Grady Nicole Colson Steve Conn Deepak Trapathi Robert Fantina Jonathan M. Feldman Joshua Frank Osama Qashoo Howard Lisnoff David Michael Green Dave Lindorff Christopher Brauchli Alan Farago Michael Winship Richard Rhames David Rosen Patrick B. Barr Jamie Newlin Poets' Basement Website of the Weekend August 22, 2008 Boris Kagarlitsky Laura Carlsen Bob Barr Marwan Bishara Peter Morici Manuel Garcia, Jr. Charles Mostoller Sumbul Ali-Karamali Keith Rosenthal John F. Miglio Website of the Day August 21, 2008 Allan J. Lichtman Dave Lindorff Loserville: How Obama Blew It Ralph Nader Joanne Mariner Wajahat Ali Ron Jacobs Rostam Purzal Anthony Papa Website of the Day August 20, 2008 Michael Neumann Ray McGovern Eric Walberg Fidaa Abed Daniel Haack Mike Whitney Website of the Day August 19, 2008 Paul Craig Roberts Deepak Tripathi Marwan Bishara Saul Landau William S. Lind Martha Rosenberg James Brittain Pratyush Chandra David Macaray Website of the Day August 18, 2008 Tariq Ali Gary Leupp Uri Avnery John Ross Farooq Sulehria Luis Rodriguez Manuel Garcia, Jr. Noah Baker Merrill Charles Thomson Website of the Day August 16 / 17, 2008 Alexander Cockburn Jeffrey St. Clair Deepak Tripathi Conn Hallinan Mike Whitney Robert Fantina Ray McGovern Nicole Colson Fatima Bhutto Jean-Luis Rocca David Michael Green Ramzi Kysia Dave Lindorff Lisa Martinovic Richard Rhames Don Santina Rannie Amiri Ramzy Baroud John Stanton Howard Lisnoff Ron Jacobs Seth Sandronsky Poets' Basement Website of the Weekend
August 15, 2008 Steve Niva David Remington Michael Winship Paul Craig Roberts Farzana Versey Harvey Wasserman Felice Pace Julian Critchley Website of the Day August 14, 2008 Saul Landau / Conn Hallinan Mike Whitney Reza Fiyouzat Ralph Nader Christopher Brauchli The Cheerleader in China Jack Bradigan Spula Patrick Irelan John Walsh Dan Bacher Website of the Day
August 13, 2008 Paul Craig Roberts David Remington Brian Cloughley Glen Ford Brendan Cooney Dave Lindorff Tom Lewis Stan Cox Alan Farago Martha Rosenberg Website of the Day August 12, 2008 Uri Avnery Anthony DiMaggio Bill Christison Eric Walberg Kate Connolly Diane Farsetta Peter Morici Thom Rutledge Lee Patton Niranjan Ramakrishnan Website of the Day August 11, 2008 Ishmael Reed Paul Craig Roberts Gary Leupp Douglas Kammen William Willers Greg Moses Jeff Leys Cynthia McKinney Alan Farago Website of the Day August 9 / 10, 2008 Alexander Cockburn Jeffrey St. Clair Bruce Jackson Kevin Young Chris Floyd Joshua Frank Robert Fantina Brendan Cooney Mark Almond Lois Gibbs Rev. William Alberts Kathy Kelly John Ross David Michael Green Bill Moyers / Ron Jacobs Richard Rhames David Yearsley Lee Sustar Brenda Norrell Ben Terrall Poets' Basement Website of the Weekend August 8, 2008 Patrick Cockburn Manuel Garcia, Jr. M. Shahid Alam Andy Worthington Lawrence J. Korb David Model Alan Farago Diop Olugbala Firmin DeBrabander Website of the Day August 7, 2008 Dr. Trudy Bond William Blum Paul Craig Roberts Ralph Nader Robert Weitzel Jacob G. Hornberger Binoy Kampmark David Macaray Howard Lisnoff Website of the Day August 6, 2008 Marc Herold Greg Moses Sheldon Rampton Kevin Young Michael Estrada Robert Weissman Dr. Susan Block Cindy Sheehan Ace Hoffman Website of the Day August 5, 2008 Paul Craig Roberts Jeff Halper Patrick Cockburn Nancy Welch Peter Morici Sousan Hammad Eamon Martin Shepherd Bliss Tim Matson Website of the Day August 4, 2008 Uri Avnery Saul Landau David W. Remington Rev. Jesse Jackson Dave Lindorff Peter Morici Joanne Mariner Ramzy Baroud Christian Wright Website of the Day August 2 / 3, 2008 Alexander Cockburn Jeffrey St. Clair Patrick Cockburn Winslow T. Wheeler James Abourezk Andy Worthington Brian Cloughley Robert Fantina Benjamin Dangl Marlene Martin David Yearsley Fatemeh Keshavarz David Michael Green Obama as Dukakis Harvey Wasserman Jason Hribal Phyllis Pollack Laray Polk Ron Jacobs David Macaray David Rosen Dan Bacher Joe Allen Poets' Basement Website of the Weekend August 1, 2008 Jonathan Cook Nikolas Kozloff Rannie Amiri Peter Morici Christopher Brauchli M. K. Bhadrakumar Patrick Cockburn James J. Brittain Dan Bacher Website of the Day
July 31, 2008 Michael Hudson Carl Finamore Mike Whitney Joshua Frank Andy Worthington Ralph Nader Bill Moyers / Robert Weissman Dave Lindorff Website of the Day July 30, 2008 Brian M. Downing Chuck Spinney William S. Lind David Ker Thomson Karl Grossman Mike Whitney Martha Rosenberg James Murren Dave Lindorff Ron Jacobs Website of the Day July 29, 2008 Jeffrey St. Clair John Ross Peter Morici Alison Weir Gary Leupp David Macaray Brenda Norrell Marjorie Cohn Eric Ruder Website of the Day July 28, 2008 Dr. Bryant Welch Kathy Kelly Mike Whitney Peter Morici Christopher Brauchli Clifton Ross Stephen Lendman Website of the Day
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September 9, 2008 The Decline of Minor Parties in the United StatesLosing GameBy VIJAY PRASHAD
Rarely does American politics excite. Even after the first term of George W. Bush’s presidency, the best that the Democratic Party could do was to rally around the dour candidacy of John F. Kerry. With an atrocious war on and a miserable economic future for large sections of the population, and with the Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib prison scandals, all indicators suggested that the Bush era would end before it could fully consolidate. But Kerry fell short in the popular vote (48.3 per cent) and well short in the electoral college (251 to Bush’s 286). Apart from the western, mid-western and north-eastern States, Kerry could win nothing. Nothing in the South and nothing in that swathe of States that runs from Iowa to Florida, from Indiana to Arizona. To be fair, in the three “battleground” States of Ohio, Pennsylvania and Florida, the gap between the two candidates was very narrow, and charges of voter intimidation and voter fraud against the Republicans linger (in early 2005, Congressman John Conyers released a report, “Preserving Democracy: What Went Wrong in Ohio”, which presents some of the evidence). Not for nothing did a website hastily appear after the election with the name, “Sorry Everybody: an apology to the world for the re-election of George W. Bush”. One little-mentioned fact about the 2004 election is that the minor parties earned their lowest percentage of the popular vote since the 1988 election. A tide of minor party support that began with Ross Perot’s run in 1992 seemed to shrink. Ralph Nader’s run on the Green Party ticket in 2000 was blamed by many liberals for taking votes away from Al Gore of the Democratic Party, particularly in closely fought Florida. With the incentive not to repeat that, many voters wished to register their disapproval of Bush by voting for the Democratic candidate. In 2000, as many as 2.9 million people voted for Ralph Nader; in 2004, only 400,000 went for him (he ran as an independent; the Green Party of the United States won only 118,000 votes, less than 0.01 per cent). Yet, even with such a low turnout for the minor parties, Kerry could not carry the day. In 2004, Barack Obama was the most powerful presence on the Democratic side. A keynote speaker at the Democratic National Convention, he mesmerised the party and many in the country with his talk of hope. “Do we want to participate in a politics of cynicism,” he asked, “or do we participate in a politics of hope? Hope in the face of difficulty. Hope in the face of uncertainty. The audacity of hope!” The message of hope over cynicism and fear resonates with many people in the country, and it catapulted a little-known community organiser, lawyer and activist into a major political figure (Obama could not get credentials to go to the 2000 Democratic National Convention). The excitement generated by Obama is of course because of his remarkable oratorical talents and the air of cool authenticity that he The millions who come out to see him and to greet him are moved beyond his programme, beyond the nitty-gritty of what he says about this policy or that policy. They are taken with his presence, in almost a religious way. And they are taken by each other, by the Obamamania of which they are a part. Obama borrowed a slogan from the world of community organising (We Are The Ones We’ve Been Waiting For), which is one way of seeing how the enthusiasm is not simply for a man and his message but much more for the man as the lightning rod for all kinds of hopes and aspirations. How does one run against this kind of a phenomenon, against this Obamamania that can as easily pack Berlin’s Tiergarten with 200,000 people as it can move 80,000 people to gather at Denver’s Invesco Field to anoint Obama as the presidential candidate of the Democratic Party? The Republican Party ought to get shut out completely in this election cycle. But things are not so easy. They benefit from a series of institutional and cultural factors that work against the Democrats. First, the entire electoral college system preserves the power of each of the 50 States, which means that those with much greater populations do not undo those with low populations. The Democrats are strong in the densely populated States (such as New York and California) where, it turns out, the population is more diverse. The ethnic diversity is significant because the second important factor is that with a black candidate, there will be a residual discomfort among sections of the white population, which will be slyly mobilised by the Republicans. This vote is in these smaller States, where their margins will give the Republicans numbers in the electoral college. It should be remembered that Al Gore won the popular vote but lost the electoral college. John McCain will rely upon these advantages. The savvy choice of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate increases the uncertainty of the elections as she offers both youth (she is 44 to Obama’s 46) and a first (the first female Vice-President to Obama’s first black President). Sarah Palin might draw some people, and add to the slim fraction of the electorate that still holds faith in the Bush agenda, and those who are unwilling, for whatever reason, to jettison the Republican Party. The politics of fear that Obama derides is alive and well, and it is effective. It will not disappear overnight. McCain will not have an easy task. But if it is hard for him, it is even harder for the minor parties. Scott McLarty, National Media Coordinator for the Green Party, told me that it was “very difficult” to run their candidates against Obama. “If Hillary Clinton had been the candidate, it would have been far easier.” Nonetheless, there are several minor parties that have fielded candidates. Ralph Nader, the perennial challenger, spurned the Green Party in 2004 and is not its candidate this year. He is running as an independent, with the charismatic Matt Gonzalez as his running mate. Nader held a rally in Denver during the Democratic convention, where he told the 4,000 college-age people in attendance: “Every politician I’ve ever known from the major parties starts flattering the people. Oh, how they flatter the people! Because that’s what gives the people weak knees.” As the journalist Jesse Hamilton reported, Hollywood actor Sean Penn, a guest speaker at Nader’s rally, confessed that he did not know whom he would vote for, and a young woman wore an “Obama ’08” T-shirt to the rally. It is hard not to get weak knees when confronted with as appealing a candidate as Obama. Forty years ago, the distinguished American historian Richard Hofstadter bemoaned the narrowness of the U.S. polity. The two-party system, he wrote, is not a consequence of history and tradition but is indeed built into the very constitutional and legal system. “Our entire electoral arrangement,” he argued, “the absence of proportional representation, the exorbitant cost of political campaigns, the legal difficulties in getting on and staying on the ballot in many States, even the quasi-official role of the majority parties as supervisors of elections – all these things work against the rise of minor parties. The method of electing a President with the winner-take-all system in the electoral college, the very leadership function of the presidency itself, work to keep power in the hands of the two major parties.” The two parties dominate the structure of electioneering, deciding through arcane rules who gets to be on the ballot and who gets to enter the media-spectacle debates. The party leaders set up the rules for the contests, and the party financiers pour money into the campaigns of those who are seen as viable by the leaders. The public chooses a candidate from among those already selected by a representative elite. This is what political scientists call a plebiscitory democracy. Since the 1800s, two parties have dominated the U.S. electoral landscape – the Democrats and the Republicans. For a brief time in the early 19th century, the Whig Party held sway alongside the Democrats, but the issue of slavery destroyed the party and sent its base and leaders into the refashioned Republican Party. Over the years, a series of parties of various political complexions has emerged to challenge this consensus. Two early examples are the Free Soil Party and the Know Nothing Party, the former against the extension of slavery and the latter against the extension of immigration. Both parties dissolved into the Republican Party. These two major parties have since morphed in various ways, absorbed different political visions and class fragments. Until the 1930s, both parties had strong populist strains alongside a commitment to the stability of business. Neither was a class party in the European sense, and so neither evolved into a Labour Party of any kind (a Labour Party was formed in the 1990s, but it has made no impact). The most significant “third party” challenge came in the aftermath of the collapse of agrarian prices in 1873. A revolt by farmers joined with the nascent working-class organisation, the Knights of Labor, created the Populist Party, which lasted for two election cycles (1892 and 1896). The party’s programme called the Omaha Platform combined the grievances and hopes of farmers and wage-workers (notably railway workers) into an anti-monopoly ethos. Ignatius Donnelly, who drafted the Platform, bluntly wrote, “What is liberty worth to the man who is dying of hunger? Can you keep a room warm next winter with the thermometer 30 degrees below zero by reciting the Declaration of Independence?” Four years after it made an impact on the national scene, the Populist’s star waned as the Democrats adopted significant parts of its platform (the two parties had the same man, William Jennings Bryan, as their presidential candidate). Quirky parties dot the landscape of the 19th and 20th centuries, such as the Silver Party (1892-1902) and the Vegetarian Party (1948-1964). In 1992, the billionaire-tycoon Ross Perot was dissatisfied with what he saw as the evisceration of American power by free-trade agreements, overseas military expeditions and too much social welfare. Perot personally financed his campaign, took advantage of the populist strains and channelled it through his own irreverent brashness. He won almost 19 per cent of the vote in 1992 although when he ran again four years later, this time as the candidate of the party he founded, the Reform Party, he earned only 9 per cent (still a respectable figure). Perot’s sort of cultural disdain for professional politics was mirrored when his party successfully ran former World Wrestling Federation champion Jesse “The Body” Ventura for the governorship of the State of Minnesota (in 1998). The Reform Party has since floundered (Nader ran on its line in 2004, and this year it is running a party apparatchik). The Libertarian Party, founded in 1971, is the third largest party in the country, with an amalgam of commitments that are premised on personal freedom from state control (to free markets, to freedom of choice in social matters, to freedom from state control). This year the Libertarian Party picked former Georgia Congressman and former Republican Bob Barr as its candidate. Barr takes a very strong position on withdrawal of troops from Iraq but carries with him all kinds of unpleasant baggage from his Republican past (including unaddressed accusations of his fealty to the white supremacist Citizens’ Council and his sleazy role in the Clinton impeachment process). he other party of the Right is the Constitution Party, founded in 1992 as the U.S. Taxpayers Party. This party replicates the Republicans in many of its positions although, not being in the mainstream, it is more honestly able to articulate its anti-immigrant positions and its unhinged economic proposals. Neither the Constitution Party (150,000 votes) nor the Libertarian Party (397,000 votes) made a significant showing in 02004, and they are unlikely to grow as long as the Republicans do their work for them. The Left picked up the populist and progressive strains from the 19th century and carried them into the present. The Socialist Party of America ran their leader, Eugene Debs, for President from 1904 to 1912, winning 6 per cent in his last outing (he ran once more in 1920, from prison, but did dismally). The communists absorbed the energy of the socialists in the 1920s and 1930s (in the late 1920s, the Communist Party of America had a membership of close to 25,000). A combination of repression and sectarianism, the population’s experience of the golden years of growth in the U.S. (from the late 1940s to the 1970s) and faith in the two major parties meant that the Left resided in the margins of political life (although it played a central role in the major progressive struggles of the 20th century, the civil rights struggles in particular). There is still a Left presence in the electoral sphere: some abjure the process, others throw in their lot with the Democrats, and some run their own candidates. Others support the Green Party. As its name suggests, the Greens are mainly environmentalists although their ranks are also filled with anti-war people and those who would like to be socialists but dare not speak the name. With a progressive programme, the Greens have been able to attract the support of several far Left groups as well as the consumer advocate, Nader. This year, the Greens are running former Georgia Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney for President and hip hop activist Rosa Clemente for Vice-President. The Greens use the election as a time to lay out a set of alternatives. As Rosa Clemente pointed out sharply, “I don’t see the Green Party as an alternative. I see it as an imperative.” McLarty, of the Greens, agreed with this but said that the real purpose of running was to try and attract 5 per cent of the electorate, which would earn the party national status and so federal funds for the next election cycle. The Greens are on a mission to work through the institutional straitjacket of the two-party system. It is an ambitious strategy. “We are in this to build a movement,” said McKinney. “A vote for the Green Party is a vote for the movement that will turn this country right-side up again.” But will an electorate terrified of a “third Bush term” be brave enough to check the Green box instead of the Democrats? It seems that this is not the year for the minor parties, but then, given the system, each election cycle seems like the wrong year. Vijay Prashad is the George and Martha Kellner Chair of South Asian History and Director of International Studies at Trinity College, Hartford, CT His new book is The Darker Nations: A People's History of the Third World, New York: The New Press, 2007. He can be reached at: vijay.prashad@trincoll.edu This article was originally published by Frontline, India's national magazine.
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