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Across the country there is a growing anti-Bush feeling, but that alone is not enough. To win requires that millions be convinced that the differences between Bush and Kerry are real, substantial and consequential to their lives on the whole range of issues: Social Security, Medicare, health care, overtime, minimum wage, public education, affirmative action, civil rights, reproductive rights, immigrant rights, gay rights, civil liberties, tax policy, environmental protection, Cuba, preemptive war, and nuclear weapons testing and use.
Even on Iraq, there are differences between the two. But more importantly, the defeat of Bush would be a repudiation of his policies of war and occupation, and that could not be ignored by a Kerry administration.
Thus, the remark heard in some left circles, "I will vote for Kerry but hold my nose," misses the point and is demobilizing. It may bring some momentary self-satisfaction to those expressing it. But it will do little to convince swing, undecided, or stay-at-home voters to go to the polls.
In my experience, aside from right wing talk show hosts and their loyal listeners, few people believe that Kerry is a candidate of the left and progressive movement. Most know that he is closely tied to the U.S. ruling class and a defender of capitalism, as is Bush.
That common class affiliation and fondness for the "free enterprise" system, however, doesn't prevent millions of voters from understanding that Kerry is a political centrist and espouses different policies than Bush.
Nor does it keep them from realizing that a Kerry victory would give the broader movements more political leverage than they now have.
The biggest danger in this election is not that people have unrealistic expectations of a Kerry administration, but rather that a substantial section of voters still believe that it doesn't make much of a difference who they vote for on Nov. 2. The responsibility of left and progressive people is not to spend their time bellyaching over Kerry's shortcomings, but to convince millions of people that there is a choice and that the outcome of this election will have enormous consequences for our nation's future. http://www.cpusa.org/article/view/590
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