Last Dance for Bush and the 2008 Elections

[IndianaGreen]

Last Dance for Bush and the 2008 Elections

By Sam Webb
10-06-07, 9:16 am

2008 elections

Every bit as important, all democratic and peace minded people in my country must throw themselves into the 2008 elections. And while we can’t dismiss the possibility of an "October surprise," the main thing for the labor led people’s movement in the U.S. is to fight for the broadest mobilization of the American people in order to break the right-wing grip on our nation's political structures.

Why do I say this? Because the elections are the main arena where a fundamental and necessary realignment in the balance of forces can be effected at this moment. Other struggles can weaken the Bush administration and the extreme right, but none of them, even taken together, have the same potential to inflict a deadly body blow to the far right and shift the balance of power in a qualitative way in a progressive direction.

The aim of the labor-led movement is to elect a Democratic president and larger Democratic majorities in Congress. A landslide Democratic victory – taking the Presidency and Congress by substantial margins – will create far more favorable conditions for progressive change than presently obtain. It won't change the conditions of life for the working class and its allies overnight to be sure, but it will change the political atmosphere and significantly alter the terrain of struggle on which they fight for the better. After a quarter century of right-wing rule, this should not be minimized.

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Racial and gender quality

Racial and gender equality, not to mention civil liberties, will command attention in these elections as well. The Bush administration with the full support of congressional Republicans has done immense damage to our constitutional liberties, while systematically dismantling structures and measures that promote racial, gender, and other forms of equality. The state and its agencies have been turned into a racist, misogynist, and anti-democratic wrecking ball, targeted at reforms, rights and freedoms won in the course of my nation's history.

These then are some of the issues in what make for a very contentious election.

http://www.politicalaffairs.net/article/articleview/5955/1/287/

--Sam Webb chairs the Communist Party USA