I know everyone hates
plot-spoilers, but the story line is overplayed and the ending is worse
than lousy, so I”ll say it now: the will of the people will not be
expressed in the 2006 election.
This election won’t
give expression to the loathing seventy-plus percent feel for the
President. This election won’t set the stage for impeachment of a liar
who has sanctioned torture, spied on potentially millions, and left
Black people to die on rooftops. This election won’t usher in an end to
a gruesome war that the whole world is against nor will it prevent the
next one. It won’t stem the corporate polluters fueling global warming
or curb the locking up, deporting, and literal hunting of immigrants.
And it certainly won’t slow the momentum to force women and gays to
submit to the standards and punishments of the Old Testament Bible.
But don’t take my word for it-listen to the top Democrats themselves.
While sucking up to Pat Robertson’s vicious religious lunacy on the
700 Club, Howard Dean insisted, “I don’t think that the first thing on
our agenda is gonna be to get in a big partisan fight about whether the
President should be impeached or not.” Democratic House Leader Nancy
Pelosi’s spokesperson put it more bluntly, “Impeachment is off the
table; she is not interested in pursuing it.” Even John Conyers has
conceded in advance, “Rather than seeking impeachment, I have chosen to
propose a comprehensive oversight of these alleged abuses.”
As
for the war, the police-state spying, and the widespread networks of
torture, Connecticut Democratic Senator Chris Dodd put it well when he
described the Democrats” strategy not to run “to the left of President
Bush on national security but to the right.” Of course, Hillary Clinton
leads the pack with her refusal to rule out nuking Iran: “We cannot
take any option off the table in sending a clear message to the current
leadership of Iran.”
And then there is Bob Casey, the
new Democratic star, running for senator from Pennsylvania. Will the
fundamental rights of women really be any better protected if Dark Ages
Santorum is replaced with the anti-abortion, pro-Alito Casey?
With
choices like this it should be obvious to anyone possessing the courage
to be honest that the will of the people will not be expressed in the
2006 elections. And if people allow their opposition, finances, time
and energies to be funneled into this, one way or another on November 3
we”ll all be gritting our teeth listening to one candidate or another
declare a popular “mandate” on all of this.
No
matter what you may tell yourself you are doing, you will be pouring
your time into politicians who are OPENLY pro-war, pro-repression and
intent on kowtowing to theocrats.
Bush MUST Be Driven Out!
George
W. Bush is still extremely dangerous. Bush still believes he is on a
“mission from “God.”” Ask yourself: in the face of growing opposition
has he backed off this program?
Look down in the Ninth
Ward of New Orleans where thousands of homes have still not been
searched for bodies, the levees have still not been adequately
repaired, and miles stretch out in an uninhabitable war-zone. Recall
the “shoot to kill” orders against “looters,” how troops forced Black
people back into the flooded zones, and confront the fact that many
thousands will never again have a home.
Take a look at
the front page of the papers just last Thursday: the crumpled, faceless
bodies of civilian men, women, and children methodically massacred in
their homes in Haditha, Iraq. Note how this was covered up, repeatedly,
at many levels of the military. Recall Abu-Ghraib. Recall Bagram. And
ask yourself the cost to humanity every single day this war continues.
Look at the NSA spying. Remember how Bush lied
more than a dozen times, claiming he wouldn’t spy on civilians without
warrants. Remember the talk of impeachment that dwindled to censure,
that stalled anyhow-even as greater depths of this spying continues to
be revealed. And in the end Bush has ended up illegally
institutionalizing even more sweeping surveillance powers, promoting to
head the CIA a man who orchestrated this lawless police-state measure.
Look
at the young girls around you and ask yourself if the world they grow
up in will teach them that dreaming is too painful, that their bodies
are shameful, and that pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases are
appropriate punishment for sex. Think of the darkness encroaching not
just for women, but for all of humanity, as abortion is already banned
in South Dakota, and even birth control is assailed, and as analysts project that Roe v. Wade could be overturned as early as March of next year.
Finally,
take a sober look at the strength and momentum of the American
Christian Ayatollahs who preach biblical literalism and an unthinking,
self-righteous obedience to even the most violent and archaic passages
of the New and Old Testaments. Think what it means that they have
infiltrated the highest levels of the military, are preaching Holy War
to stadiums filled with young people, and are now howling that even
Bush hasn’t moved forcefully and quickly enough against gay people,
women, and science. And take a look as a top Democrat makes a
pilgrimage to the 700 Club to kiss the ring of Pat Robertson.
No,
Bush has not backed off and the key parts of his agenda have continued
to steam forward. All this must be stopped. It has to be ended. It
cannot be tolerated, compromised with, or ignored. And unless it is
stopped-unless this whole direction is REPUDIATED-everything that Bush
has done and will do will become part of the new norms. And again, it
would be extremely foolish to think that this man is still not
extremely dangerous and willing to take desperate action to push his
agenda forward.
Nearly a year ago the World Can’t Wait
Call said that “The Bush regime is setting out to radically remake
society very quickly, in a fascist way, and for generations to come. We
must act now; the future is in the balance.” These words were prescient
and still too true.
But we must be clear: it is only us – not the Democrats or the fall elections – that can do it” or that even wants to. The reason the Democrats won’t challenge Bush is not mainly because they think that will hurt their chances of getting elected. The problem is much deeper than that. The Democrats support most of Bush’s program. While they have differences with Bush, even sharp ones at times on some things, they agree with Bush on the fundamental question of upholding and expanding the U.S. empire, and they agree with Bush on the current unjust war for empire that is being waged under the guise of a “war on terrorism.”
As
the Call to Drive Out the Bush Regime says, “There is not going to be
some savior from the Democratic Party. This whole idea of putting our
hopes and energies into “leaders” who tell us to seek common ground
with fascists and religious fanatics is proving every day to be a
disaster, and actually serves to demobilize people.” And this too has
proven prescient and comes into sharper relief every day.
We Can Do This ”
In
the last few months I have traveled extensively across this country,
speaking to people about the need to rely on ourselves and millions
more like us to ourselves drive out this regime. Everywhere,
I have met people who are thinking deeply about the future, agonizing
over how we could actually drive Bush out, and wrestling over what it
would look like to leave the well-worn, familiar, and dead-end
political ruts.
After speaking to a gathering in a
coffee house in Texas I received a letter from a student whose insight
and honesty stands out. He said, “I felt more and more that I was
living in a time of great potential change. Seeing the immigration
protests, and hearing about youth victories in France, inspired me in
particular. I do believe that, despite the general defeated atmosphere
this country is mired in, and despite all the impoverished and
despairing developments in the world, that there is also such raw
potential at this time for something absolutely unprecedented to occur.
And I want to be a part of it.”
If the millions who are
truly sickened by the direction of this regime could organize and start
setting the dynamic, if people who feel this way begin acting in their
masses, then a different future becomes possible.
” But It Will Take Work and Struggle
World
Can’t Wait has issued a call for massive action on October 5. The
vision is this: “taking off work, taking off school, shutting down
campuses and coming together in mass gatherings” [letting] the country
and world know that millions of us reject this illegitimate regime that
is as criminal as it is dangerous to humanity.” This is a powerful
vision. If realized, it could change the whole terms of how people in
this country and the world see what is acceptable and what is possible,
and make a huge step toward actually driving out this increasingly
hated regime and the whole direction they stand for.
My
Texan friend also pointed out that “the taking on of not just a
president and his administration, but of their entire program, is a
huge shift. You”re asking people to do something that is truly
terrifying, and something the majority of them have probably never
imagined themselves capable of doing.”
Indeed. But wouldn’t you rather be part of stepping into the unknown and fomenting this,
than swallow your deepest aspirations and values and find yourselves
betrayed again, hurtling on a horrific trajectory, as time runs out?
The beginnings of this movement have been built in the World Can’t Wait movement to Drive Out the Bush Regime. Go to worldcantwait.org
and check out the incredible range of people who have signed the WCW
Call. Take in the faces of the youth who helped launch this movement
when they walked out of hundreds of high schools last November 2. Check
out the NY Times and Air America ads that reached
millions. Then start setting the stage for an outpouring of such size
and defiance on October 5 that it sets new terms for the whole country
and brings forward wild and seemingly unimaginable new things by aiming
really high.
The mood is pregnant. Yes, there really could be a massive outpouring on October 5 and it really could
change things. But that’s going to take many hundreds, soon thousands,
decisively rupturing with passivity, trepidation, and “wait-and-see”
attitudes. Making October 5 something more than ritualized, symbolic protest will take a lot of work, a lot of learning, a lot of risks and a lot of fun.
Right
now, there are young people, looking for a life that matters;
immigrants, who have so bravely taken to the streets; women, and men,
shocked to life by Alito and then South Dakota; Black people and others
for whom the word “Katrina” is still a raw wound; GI’s who are sickened
by the butchery they are being ordered to conduct. They are hanging out
in gay bars and libraries, in movie theaters and on street corners, in
huge cities and tiny towns, day labor corners, and yes, even
mega-churches and military bases-waiting for you to find them.
Grab
some friends and a bunch of Calls. Make a “Drive Out the Bush Regime”
banner, hop in a van, and hit the road. Drive up to South Dakota with a
bunch of bloody hospital gowns and coat hangers and hold your
ground-and come back with substance-when you draw a crowd arguing
against the biggest critic you encounter. Read up on evolution, call
the media, and stage a “Descendents of Apes Against the Bush Regime”
picket outside your nearest creationist museum. Pull a “Ray McGovern”
and steal the headlines from the criminals of the Bush regime
everywhere they try to show their faces. Organize a block party, host
an art show, place an ad, read the Call at open-mics and on buses. Go
door-to-door and really talk with people. Trust me, you”ll get invited
in and then have the very good challenge of enabling others to take
this up.
If you have a public voice, be like Gore Vidal
or Harold Pinter or so many others and use it to expose the Bush regime
and point people towards the World Can’t Wait movement as a vehicle
they need to make their will heard and felt.
Everywhere,
collect email addresses and phone numbers, raise money, spread the Call
and the word about October 5 as the day for tens of thousands to muster
everything they”ve got to set a new momentum in society towards driving
out the criminals in power.
We do have a choice. Sit back
in our seats and watch as a real-life horror flushes this mood and
potential down another election betrayal that stamps the intolerable
“winning” program with the mantle of popular mandate. Or, jump in the
fray and fight to coalesce a movement that bursts forth with the
potential strength and audacity to drive out this regime.
What
could be more worthwhile, more joyful, or more urgent? It’s not too
late to determine the end of this movie, but it is too late to deny
that it will take acting in unprecedented and unscripted ways.
Step out of character. Spread the resistance. Make October 5 a day that goes down in history” and changes the future.