Howard Dean and the shrinking US political “mainstream”

[RBHam]

By Bill Vann,
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2003/dec2003/dean-d20.shtml
20 December 2003

Excerpt:
The trajectory of the Post over the past two decades has provided an accurate barometer of the shift by the US political elite, and both of its parties, sharply to the right. In its foreign policy views, it has become virtually indistinguishable from the Wall Street Journal. In common with the modus operandi of that newspaper’s editorial pages, the Post’s editorial on Dean eschews reasoned argument for the dishonest language of political thuggery and intimidation.

Contrasting Dean to the other five “leading Democrats” in the race for the presidential nomination, the Post editorial declares: “...only Mr. Dean made the extraordinary argument that the capture of Saddam Hussein ‘has not made Americans safer.’ Mr. Dean’s carefully prepared speech was described as a move toward the center, but in key ways it shifted him farther from the mainstream.”

Why is Dean’s argument so “extraordinary?” Saddam Hussein was a hunted man, hiding in a hole in the ground without even a cell phone. His capture was all but inevitable, and there is no sign that it has had an effect even on the level of attacks on US occupation forces and their local agents in Iraq. Indeed, US soldiers interviewed in Iraq have said they do not anticipate any lessening of the dangers and casualties they experience daily. Some of those familiar with the politics of the country predict that Hussein’s imprisonment may have the effect of convincing many who have held back for fear of restoring the ex-dictator to join in a nationalist struggle to expel the US occupiers.

As for the US itself, no evidence has been produced linking Hussein to either the September 11, 2001, attacks or any other terrorist acts or conspiracies against the American people.

more...

[maggrwaggr]

1. If he'd had a cell phone, would it have been WorldCom service?

and would it have worked in that rathole?

[w13rd0]

2. Do you hear me now?

Who knows, who has the telecom contract for Iraq?

[rucky]

3. The old question used to be... "Does the media react to public opinion...

...or shape it."

That chicken-or-egg question has been answered.

[cryofan]

6. amen! n/t

[The Mighty Boot]

4. How many

American lives have ended or been forever
altered since Bush's terrorist attack?
I don't care if they "volunteered", that
only covers accidental death/injury in the
course of naormal duties. I don't think that
common Iraqis even thought about us-unlike
Saudis and Pakistanis who are indoctrinated to
see us as infidels insulting God.

Bush is a piece of shit.

[JaySherman]

5. That's true, but...

The point of this article is that this goes much deeper than Bush. The system is broken. It's infected with a disease that presently has no cure. That disease is the latest brand of fascism: corporatism. Pray that we can find the cure before it consumes us all.

Edit: Welcome to DU! :hi:

[xchrom]

7. nicely put

it echos my thoughts.

[IndianaGreen]

10. a break with the two-party system...

In the end, the many millions of people opposed to the Bush administration’s policies of militarism abroad and social reaction at home will find no real alternative in Dean or in any other Democratic candidate. Such an alternative is possible only through a break with the two-party system and the emergence of an independent, mass political party of the working class.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2003/dec2003/dean-d20.shtml

The crisis of American capitalism and the war against Iraq
By David North
21 March 2003

The war itself represents a devastating failure of American democracy. A small cabal of political conspirators—working with a hidden agenda and having come to power on the basis of fraud—has taken the American people into a war that they neither understand nor want. But there exists absolutely no established political mechanism through which the opposition to the policies of the Bush administration—to the war, the attack on democratic rights, the destruction of social services, the relentless assault on the living standards of the working class—can find expression. The Democratic Party—the stinking corpse of bourgeois liberalism—is deeply discredited. Masses of working people find themselves utterly disenfranchised.

11. The twentieth century was not lived in vain. Its triumphs and tragedies have bequeathed to the working class invaluable political lessons, among which the most important is the understanding of the significance and implications of imperialist war. It is, above all, the manifestation of national and international contradictions that can find no solution within “normal” channels. Whatever the outcome of the initial stages of the conflict that has begun, American imperialism has a rendezvous with disaster. It cannot conquer the world. It cannot reimpose colonial shackles upon the masses of the Middle East. It will not find through the medium of war a viable solution to its internal maladies. Rather, the unforeseen difficulties and mounting resistance engendered by war will intensify all of the internal contradictions of American society.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2003/mar2003/iraq-m21.shtml

[newyawker99]

8. Hi The Mighty Boot!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[bobthedrummer]

9. The role of Pakistan's inetelligence /ISI in 9-11 link

Hi The Mighty Boot :hi:
http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/CHO111A.html