The Election is Over We Lost

http://www.counterpunch.org/smith03042004.html

The winner is a supporter of three of the worst government decisions of our time: the war in Iraq, the Patriot Act, and the Bush education law.

He is a Yale graduate and a member of a secret society of dubious values and influence. He is arrogant with the sense of self-entitlement of the fully privileged yet has done little in life to justify this self esteem. And he is a tenured and servile member of an establishment that has trashed the Constitution, badly weakened the economy, made us hated around the world, and effectively brought to the end of the First American Republic.

To be sure there will be a consolation runoff in which we get to decide who we would rather do battle against for the next four years. This choice of battleground is not an insignificant matter but neither is it what a democratic election is supposed to be about. It is more like a cancer patient choosing between surgery and chemotherapy. We don't have to wait for Katherine Harris; this election has already been fixed.

How people of democratic inclination react to this dismal fact will vary considerably. Some will go forth with the cry of "Anybody But Bush," some will stay home on election day, others will support Nader or a Green. There may even be a portion of this constituency that will argue for Kerry's virtues beyond the gossamer assumption of 'electability' but this argument --- usually central to any vigorous campaign --- has so far been strangely muted.

...more...

I'm sure this will touch a raw nerve...but then again, we need
shock therapy within the democratic party...

Do tell.

i don't care if you don't like Clinton, the enemy of my enemy is NOT my friend.

:puke:

Same old stuff from them. America sucks, all other nations rock. Jews suck, Arabs rock. Republicans suck, but Democrats suck even worse.

Very helpful, factual and uplifting.

Not.

how "progressive"... :eyes:

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Also progressive. :eyes:

:eyes:

cause the author of this editorial is the main editor of
Progressive Review.

Clinton years, he chased after Clinton's cock and held up Henry Hyde, Kenn Starr and Larry Klayman as heroes. Look up Progressive Review archives if you don't believe it.

There's a faction that calls itself progressive yet hits Democrats MUCH harder than Republicans. I don't trust them. Sam Smith and CounterPunch belong to this faction.

:eyes:

:eyes:

Guys like to hang around in groups, no?

why I should listen to a site that considers NewsMax a credible source on ANYTHING.

Right up at the top of the links page, here you go:

Here are some of CounterPunch's favorite websites. We've picked sites that we've found useful, amusing and, occasionally, outrageous. Not all of them mirror our politics, of course. But most display a certain energy and zest that make them worth a serious look. Let us know what you think and if there are any sites we should add to the list.

Get it? NewsMax is obviously one of the sites they consider "outrageous" and maybe "amusing".

Did you really think CounterPunch advocated NewsMax? Are you serious? You really thought this?

News Max: Chris Ruddy's command center. Daily issues of biting news on the Clintonoids.

not exactly, "hey look at this stupid sack of shit and laugh at it."

there is no reason to give legitimacy to NewsMax's anti-Clinton smears just because you don't like Clinton (and I'm not a huge fan.) If you are, how can you say the rest of the site is total shit?

I simply don't.

St. Ralphie Ratfuck will save us.

Not.

ROCKS!

aside from the fact they endorse a right wing smear machine that has connections to Rupert Murdoch and Richard Mellon Scaife!

but they do have a knack for publishing unpleasant and unwelcome opinions that are unpleasant and unwelcome because they typically cut to the fucking bone.

Of course Newsmax is shit, but even they have interesting and worthwhile pieces every so often. Nothing wrong either with knowing what your enemies are thinking and saying.

I've got them bookmarked and I go there a lot. But I have to say that they're the kind of leftists who, during the Clinton years, turned me off of the extreme left. Granted that the Bush years have made me much more politically aware and much more liberal or even radical. But Counterpunch frequently makes me angry with this kind of article. (I read it too.)

In the early nineties I spent some time working for a non-profit who raised money to free South Africa. The other people working there were die-hard "old school" liberals who hated everything Clinton did. When Clinton gave his State of the Union address (I can't remember which one; like '94 or thereabouts) I came in the next day to a bunch of scowling faces. Every one of them hated the speech and explained loftily that it was a "Republican speech."

Out the window of that office, I could see the World Trade Center, every day.

Counterpunch reminds me of those people. They make me angry because they can't seem to absorb the whole spectrum of political thinking. They (like Naderites) actually think that it's possible to get a country like ours at this point in our history to actually adopt a radical globalist position; they are incensed that it hasn't happened yet.

I'm sure that every one of my former co-workers at the non-profit would do anything now to get Clinton back. And I'm sure that Alexander Cockburn and his ilk, under a second Bush admimistration, would do ANYTHING to magically switch to Kerry.

My $0.02

but I love them for the fact that I can read stuff there that's NEVER going to get printed elsewhere, particularly in relation to I/P and it's funny, I've never seen "jews suck" there anywhere. Nice try though Jim

And while Clinton was OBVIOUSLY a damn sight better than the evil empire of today that DOESN'T make him a saint - the plain fact is that in most of the Western world the political parties of the left have taken an enormous leap to the right, unsurprising when the politicians are generally rich priviledged white men who know that he who pays the piper calls the tune, and it's big business making all the songbooks right now. Personally I'm damn sick of "Lefty-Lite" (Tory Blair can you hear me) and LOVE the fact that Counterpunch points out the increasingly small difference between the "left" and right in UK/USA/Aust and elsewhere. If I were a voting American I'd vote for Kerry if for no other reason than to save a few lives in Syria and Iran but I'd still feel dirty in the morning

Despite the author's sometimes insulting and essentially incorrect assertions that there's little or no difference between Kerry and Bush, the 2nd half of the article makes some sense.

We can't just sit back and relax after Kerry is elected -- we need to organize and advoctae more than ever if we really want meaningful change.

Idealism over realism leads to the death of more innocent people.

ibid

but we are stuck with him now. It pisses me off royally that I really wasn't allowed to participte in the selection process - it was all over before the voting got down here.

I don't even read their stuff anymore. What's the point of caring if we've already lost? Geez.