Clearly there is a lot shaking right now within the halls of power. Congressman John Murtha urged withdrawal of US troops from Iraq in the near future and Bush is facing criticism for the war, Libby has been indicted and new information keeps surfacing about this, renewal of the PATRIOT Act is being threatened with a filibuster, and Bush’s approval ratings continue dropping.
But it needs to be asked: where will all this go if there is not a massive movement of millions of people taking independent political action to drive out the Bush regime?
Clearly Bush and Co. are bent on forging ahead with their plans for endless war and taking the ‘homeland’ in a fascist direction. Anytime they are faced with criticism, they lash back on the offensive, arrogantly declaring their right to continue their deadly program and even accusing moderate Democrats of treason. A key part of their program includes seeking to impose a hateful brand of Christian fundamentalism on all of society, with an organized movement that stretches from the White House to a base of millions of followers. This is what reared its ugly head when Miers was replaced with Alito as a more certifiable fascist Supreme Court nominee. And the Bush regime currently control the key positions of power, from the executive, Congress, the military, and the Supreme Court, and have no intentions of giving this up (even if it means stealing elections).
And where are the Democrats? While occasionally raising criticisms or appearing as though a show down is shaping up, in practically every instance they are either in agreement with or capitulating to Bush’s program. Take the Patriot Act: while there has been some talk of a filibuster, the Democrats almost all voted for the Patriot Act in the first place, and are ready to agree to make 14 of 16 provisions of the law permanent (and we know what happened the last time there were rumblings of a filibuster ( nothing but more capitulation). Or take the recent ‘victory’ in the governor’s race in Virginia ( where Democrat Kaine promoted his conservative religious values and vowed to enforce the death penalty in order to be elected. Translation: take up the Bush program to get elected. Or take the war: why hasn’t any major Democrat stood up and called out the war as illegitimate and wrong, and called out the torture as just plain disgusting and brutal (rather than framing their criticisms in terms of how it will ‘hurt our image’ abroad).
You cannot rely on ‘leaders’ who share much in common with the Bush regime, and won’t stand up against what they may disagree on, and are willing to compromise away things like the right to abortion. And you cannot allow the Bush regime to get ahead with its fascist program. So what do you do?
Break out of the killing confines of ‘politics as usual.’ Take independent politic action, and build a massive movement to drive out the Bush regime. Start mobilizing to drown out Bush’s State of the Union speech in protest this January, with the demand ‘Bush: step down, and take your whole program with you!’
The World Can’t Wait! Drive Out the Bush Regime!