Why Tuesday’s Elections Are Not the Vehicle to Reverse the Course of the Bush Administration
An Opinion Piece By Tony Moon, World Can’t Wait Volunteer
As Americans gathered in homes and bars across the country last night to follow the elections, the theme that consistently emanated from television news was one of celebration. Images of wild Democratic victory rallies dominated the screen, while television pundits (and the next day’s newspaper columnists) offered the same conclusion over and over again: The American people have spoken, and they want change.
As several Republican Senators, Congressmen, and Governors
were booted from office, and as the prospect dawned of George W. Bush
actually having to place a phone call admitting defeat (to new speaker
of the House Nancy Pelosi), the temptation was dangled for the nation
to breathe a big sigh of relief.
That temptation only grows
greater with the news that Donald Rumsfeld, one of the principal
architects of the Bush administration’s policy of war and torture,
resigned.
But breathing a sigh of relief would be a fatal mistake..
Indeed,
the American people did speak with last night’s election, and just
about all major polls in recent months indicate that the vast majority do want change.
But
the change longed for by the majority of people in this country is in
sharp contrast – in direct opposition, even – to the change that has
been openly advocated by both sitting and newly-elected Democrats.
Over and over again during and leading up to last night, Democratic leaders spoke of the war in Iraq in terms of a change in the way the war was conducted.
For instance, there was Nancy Pelosi, celebrating her imminent
ascendancy to speaker of the House by saying: “Mr. President, we need a
new direction in Iraq. Let us work together to find a solution to the
war in Iraq.”
The new bipartisan commission being heralded as
an example of such efforts to work together – formed by former
Republican Secretary of State James A. Baker III and Lee H. Hamilton,
former Democratic Congressman from Indiana – is, in the words of the
New York Times, “exploring policy alternatives for Iraq” (italics added).
Here
I was reminded of the crucial point author Larry Everest drove home at
the emergency teach-in in New York City on October 30: “The whole conversation needs to change.”
The war in Iraq, Everest said, needs to be attacked as fundamentally
immoral and inhuman, not in terms of a strategic “error.”
Indeed, there is cause for hope that the conversation can
be changed in such a way. A poll shown on MSNBC last night was
consistent with several others taken in recent weeks: The highest
percentage of voters surveyed (38%) favored all troops being
withdrawn from Iraq, even when partial or gradual withdrawal was given
as an option. Among Democratic voters, a clear majority of voters
favored all troops being removed from Iraq.
But the source of
the hope for change is the people, not Democratic party leaders who
have consistently betrayed their base, and the vast majority of whom
oppose not only withdrawal of troops from Iraq but even setting a
timetable for withdrawal!
And the caving of Democrats to the
Bush agenda is hardly limited to Iraq. While the theocratic,
ultra-right wing Rick Santorum was deposed in Pennsylvania, his
replacement on the Senate – Democrat Bob Casey – vehemently opposes
abortion even in cases where a woman has been raped. Similarly, newly
elected Indiana Representative John Hostetler is opposed to abortion
and gay marriage.
By contrast, when the people of South Dakota –
a state hardly considered a liberal stronghold – were presented with a
direct referendum on a state law signed in March that banned abortion
even in cases of rape or incest, the voters struck down the law by a
margin of 10 percentage points. This victory for women’s reproductive
rights is a testament to the gap between the base of the Democratic
party who favor real change, and the leadership, which so often favors
capitulation to the existing order.
Furthermore, the silence
of Democratic leaders on several issues spoke volumes. If you watched
the election coverage on tv last night, or read about it in the papers
this morning, ask yourself these questions:
*How many times did Democratic leaders mention, much less condemn, the murder of more than 600,000 innocent civilians in Iraq?
*How
many times did Democratic leaders mention, much less condemn, the
Military Commissions Act, which defines torture as only practices that
cause death or permanent organ failure, legalizing the sadistic
treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo and Abu Gharaib and paving the way
for many more horrors?
*How many times did Democratic leaders
mention, much less condemn, the Bush administration’s declaration that
nuclear war against Iran is possible?
Instead, Nancy Pelosi
and the Democratic leadership has repeatedly promised to compromise
with the Republicans. Indeed, Chris Matthews asked Representative Jack
Murtha, widely viewed as one of the louder voices of opposition among
the Democrats, if he could “strike a deal” with the Bush administration
on the Iraq War.
Well, the vast majority of Americans do not
want to compromise with a hateful and murderous administration that
kills, tortures, and strips people of their rights all over the world.
The families of 24 unarmed Iraqis – including women and children – massacred in Haditha by U.S. marines do not want compromise.
Detainees
sitting in iron cages at Guantanamo Bay who can now legally be attacked
with dogs, severely beaten, subjected to mock drownings, smeared with
feces, and psychologically tortured do not want compromise.
Women
who lack the education and resources to obtain birth control, who were
raped, whose partner’s contraception failed, or who simply made a
mistake in the heat of the moment”. and who are in danger of being
forced to choose between a life-threatening back-alley abortion or
keeping a child they are not ready to raise, do not want compromise.
The
World Can’t Wait for compromise. 2008 is still too late. I urge all of
you reading this to join the movement to drive out the Bush regime. You
can start by getting everyone you know together to watch “It’s Worse
Than You Think: Where the Bush Regime is Taking The World and Why It
Must Be Stopped” – a teach-in held in NYC Oct. 30 that is being webcast
on worldcantwait.org through November and for sale as a DVD.
In
addition, I believe we can all make an important contribution by
vigilantly monitoring what the Democratic leadership actually says and
does now that, as of this writing, they have control of the House and
quite possibly the Senate as well.
We should document how what
the Democrats do and say in this next period compares to the expressed
will of the majority of those who voted them in office.
Let Bush admit defeat not to Nancy Pelosi, but to the people of the U.S. and the world.