Looking Back, Looking Forward (Page 14)

The defeat of John Kerry, combined with the Republican advances in the House and Senate, has unleashed waves of dismay and perplexity within liberal and progressive circles. What happened? Why did so many voters embrace a President whose Iraq policy was paved with lies and deceptions, who has shown contempt for science, the rule of law and many of the principles of the Enlightenment, and whose economic policies favor the rich at the expense of the vast majority of Americans? What lessons do we draw from Kerry's failure to win over the electorate in spite of the Bush Administration's conspicuous failures? Are the Democrats crippled, or merely wounded, and is the party really out of touch with "mainstream" values? Finally, what should the priorities of the progressive movement be in this era of Republican dominance, and what is the best formula for future electoral success? The Nation asked some of the country's leading political activists and intellectuals for their thoughts on one or more of these questions. Their brief essays follow.   --The Editors

MEDEA BENJAMIN

MANY OF US IN THE GREEN PARTY made a tremendous compromise by campaigning in swing states for such a miserable standard-bearer for the progressive movement as John Kerry. Well, I've had it. As George Bush says, "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me--you can't get fooled again."

For those of you willing to keep wading in the muddy waters of the Democratic Party, all power to you. I plan to work with the Greens to get more Green candidates elected to local office.

Let's stop the infighting, though. Dems, Greens and other progressives must not only respect one another's choices, we must start using these different "inside-outside" strategies to our collective advantage. A strategically placed Green/progressive pull could conceivably prevent a suicidal Democratic lurch to the right.

Regardless of our party preferences, we must build strategic alliances on two key issues of our day: electoral reform and ending the occupation of Iraq.

Let's jointly promote a Voters' Bill of Rights that includes standardized voting machines with paper trails, nonpartisan administration of elections, instant-runoff voting, a national election day holiday, an end to felon disenfranchisement and others changes outlined in our ten-point Voters' Bill of Rights (see www.globalexchange.org).

Let's get millions of Americans to sign on to the Voters' Bill of Rights; let's get city, county and state legislators on board. And once we have a groundswell of support, then we demand that Congress enact legislation enshrining these rights. When we have an electoral system that's free, fair and trustworthy, it will be much easier to get progressives elected.

Re Iraq: We need--urgently--to send massive people-to-people aid to Falluja (see www.codepinkalert.org). They desperately need the aid and we desperately need to show the world that there are caring, compassionate Americans who are appalled by Bush's thuggery. We need to demand from both the Republicans and Democrats a realistic exit strategy to end the occupation. We need to hound Halliburton until it cries uncle and gives up on war profiteering. We need to widen and deepen our peace movement by reaching out to people most affected by this war--poor communities and military families. And given the ominous statements about Iran of late, we need to steel ourselves this time to effectively stop a new war.

Strengthening the framework of our internal democracy (count every vote, every vote counts) and fighting against empire (money for jobs, not for war) are strategies that will resonate with the vast majority of Americans and set the stage for future electoral victories.

Medea Benjamin, co-founder of Global Exchange and Code Pink, was a Green Party candidate for Senate in 2000.

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