Abstract

The Two Parties of Empire

The author argues that U.S. presidential candidate John Kerry is a middle-of-the-road Democrat who would bring back the economic and foreign policies of Bill Clinton. Behind all the liberal hysteria over Bush as a demon of monstrous, Hitlerian proportions, I get the sense of a certain embarrassment, that the man is bringing the imperial office into disrepute. into disrepute. Hence we are served up those plaintive invocations of the distress of "America's allies," to be cured by a competent steward of empire like John Kerry. With leadership of barely conceivable arrogance and incompetence, the United States has managed the amazing feat of uniting Iraqis in detestation of its presence, and of leaving itself with zero palatable options. Amid this bloody disaster, with popular distaste for the occupation of Iraq swelling up in the polls, Kerry, with McCain at his elbow, has been goading Bush into sending more troops. As a prospective rationalizer of empire, Kerry sends forth the word that the Democrats are the Second Party of War. With hardly a backward--or forward--look, the bulk of the surviving American left has blithely joined the Democratic Party center, without the will to inflect debate, the influence to inform policy or the leverage to share power. In line with these same imperatives of the corporate system, Kerry announced on April 7 that his primary economic policy initiative would be deficit reduction. Deficit reduction will do nothing to directly promote the growth of jobs, which is the fundamental problem in the economy now. There are progressive ways to close the deficit.