[Peace-discuss] Zinn, Election Madness

[Morton K. Brussel]

Zinn reiterates that that is needed for change is activism from below.

…Today, we can be sure that the Democratic Party, unless it faces a  
popular upsurge, will not move off center. The two leading  
Presidential candidates have made it clear that if elected, they will  
not bring an immediate end to the Iraq War, or institute a system of  
free health care for all.

They offer no radical change from the status quo.

They do not propose what the present desperation of people cries out  
for: a government guarantee of jobs to everyone who needs one, a  
minimum income for every household, housing relief to everyone who  
faces eviction or foreclosure.

They do not suggest the deep cuts in the military budget or the  
radical changes in the tax system that would free billions, even  
trillions, for social programs to transform the way we live.

None of this should surprise us. The Democratic Party has broken with  
its historic conservatism, its pandering to the rich, its  
predilection for war, only when it has encountered rebellion from  
below, as in the Thirties and the Sixties. We should not expect that  
a victory at the ballot box in November will even begin to budge the  
nation from its twin fundamental illnesses: capitalist greed and  
militarism.

So we need to free ourselves from the election madness engulfing the  
entire society, including the left.

Yes, two minutes […the time it takes to complete your ballot]. Before  
that, and after that, we should be taking direct action against the  
obstacles to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.…

The full article, from The Progressive magazine,  is at
http://www.progressive.org/mag_zinn0308

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