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News :: Elections & Legislation |
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An Open Letter to Progressives: Vote Kerry and Cobb |
Current rating: 0 |
by Medea Benjamin/Peter Coyote/John Eder/Daniel Ellsberg et al
(No verified email address) |
23 Jul 2004
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While helping Kerry-Edwards defeat Bush-Cheney, we don't want to endorse Kerry positions that are an insult to various causes we support, including movements for global justice and peace that have burgeoned in recent years. Indeed, we want to communicate to Kerry and the world that we oppose many of his policies, including some that are barely distinguishable from Bush policies. |
There is no greater political imperative this year than to retire the Bush regime, one of the most dangerous and extremist in U.S. history. As people dedicated to peace, economic justice, equality, sustainability and constitutional freedoms, we are committed to defeating Bush.
The only candidate who can win instead of Bush in November is John Kerry. We want Kerry to replace Bush, because a Kerry administration would be less dangerous in many crucial areas, including militarism, civil liberties, civil rights, judicial appointments, reproductive rights and environmental protection.
But while helping Kerry-Edwards defeat Bush-Cheney, we don't want to endorse Kerry positions that are an insult to various causes we support, including movements for global justice and peace that have burgeoned in recent years. Indeed, we want to communicate to Kerry and the world that we oppose many of his policies, including some that are barely distinguishable from Bush policies.
Accordingly, we encourage progressives to organize and vote strategically this year.
1. In "swing states," where few percentage points separate Bush and Kerry, we encourage activists to mobilize voters behind Kerry. (A frequently updated list of swing states is posted at www.swing04.com.)
2. In "safe states" (and Washington, D.C.), so overwhelmingly pro-Bush or pro-Kerry that we can be confident of who will win in November, we encourage activists to mobilize voters behind Green Party presidential candidate David Cobb.
3. In all states, we encourage activists to engage in election-year vigilance to ensure that all votes count, especially those of racial minorities -- and to advocate for instant runoff voting and other reforms so that voters in future elections can support the candidate they most believe in without risk of electing the candidate they most oppose.
David Cobb has earned our endorsement in safe states by deftly steering the Green Party toward a nuanced strategy dedicated to ousting Bush, while seeking to grow a grassroots party that stands unapologetically for peace, racial and social justice, economic democracy, civil liberties and genuine ecology. The Green Party gives political voice to movements that challenge Bush's Iraq policy and resist trade arrangements that trample on workers' rights, human rights and the environment.
Despite a Democratic Party base that is increasingly progressive, anti-NAFTA/WTO and anti-war, John Kerry has lost the strong, brave voice he had as a young man who challenged the Vietnam War and now offers a faint echo of too many Bush policies -- from Iraq and military spending to the global trade regime and corporate coddling (e.g. Kerry's plan to reduce corporate taxes).
We are disappointed that, four years after the Florida disaster, Kerry and leading Democrats (with exceptions such as Dennis Kucinich, Jesse Jackson Jr. and Howard Dean) do not promote common-sense electoral reforms like instant runoff voting that would once and for all eliminate the "spoiler" risk that deforms U.S. elections.
With our electoral system yet to be fixed, we are left this year with the improvised solution of endorsing one candidate in some states and another candidate in other states. This dual-endorsement solution is preferable to endorsing either a candidate with important positions we oppose or a solidly progressive candidate whose votes in swing states could help Bush get four more years.
In this crucial election year, we encourage progressives to work tirelessly to vote Bush out -- as we build grassroots networks and coalitions to hold the Kerry administration accountable to the progressive values and policies shared by most Americans.
Medea Benjamin
Peter Coyote
John Eder
Daniel Ellsberg
Angela Gilliam
Kevin Gray
Tom Hayden
Elizabeth Horton Sheff
Rabbi Michael Lerner
Robert McChesney
Norman Solomon
(Signers endorse this statement as individuals, not as representatives of any groups.)
Medea Benjamin (Code Pink, Global Exchange); Peter Coyote (actor); John Eder (Maine state legislator/Green Party); Daniel Ellsberg (Pentagon Papers whistleblower); Angela Gilliam (professor/feminist scholar); Kevin Gray (Jackson '88/Sharpton '04); Tom Hayden (former California State Senator/activist); Elizabeth Horton Sheff (Hartford City Council/Green Party); Rabbi Michael Lerner (Tikkun); Robert McChesney (communications professor/author); Norman Solomon (author/columnist) |
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Re: An Open Letter to Progressives: Vote Kerry and Cobb |
by NRA4Freedom
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
24 Jul 2004
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Obviously, I am not a progressive or a democrat. I would really like to see more voting choices though, rather than the limited two party system we have manufactured somehow. Just as some people want to see a seperate progressive party, I would like to see a seperate constitutionalist one. But my obvservation on the above article would be that the "strategy" in trying to help the democrats unelect Bush really does nothing for a progressive party other than to make them look like common lapdogs of liberal democrats. If anything, it probably actually hurts it because it totally blurs the distinction between a progressive party and the modern democratic party. IF the progressives cannot offer the public a real distinction between the two, and are seen to be nothing more than another fringe group aiding and abetting the liberals, then the progressive party is dead as a door nail before it ever gets off the ground AS a seperate "party".
This article is nothing but a "raise the white flag" one that is the same shtick that will be fed to the green party and any other one that they believe they can fool into abandoning their ideals in order to side with democrats. But democrats have already proven that they do not hold with all the other groups that they coerce into voting for them. They say the things people want to hear to get into office, and then they ignore the people that voted them there in favor of towing the DNC party line.
I would wonder, if someone was truly a progressive or a green, how their conscience reacts when they walk out of the voting booth after casting their vote not for the people that truly represent their idelas, but for the democrats instead. In that case, there are only two possibilities, either they never really were progressive or green to begin with and they are just paying lip service, or they like the progressive or green party but their hatred for Bush runs deeper than their marginal liking of the party that truly represents them. Either way, they are living a lie and are doing nothing to further their stated cause. |
