Media Benjamin and others (CommonDreams): An Open Letter to Progressives

[Jack Rabbit]

From CommonDreams
Dated Friday July 23

An Open Letter to Progressives: Vote Kerry and Cobb

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.
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.

Medea Benjamin
Peter Coyote
John Eder
Daniel Ellsberg
Angela Gilliam
Kevin Gray
Tom Hayden
Elizabeth Horton Sheff
Rabbi Michael Lerner
Robert McChesney
Norman Solomon

Read more.

I mostly concur with and only insignificantly dissent from the above statement.

For my part, I will vote for Kerry-Edwards although I live in California, which is by most accounts a very safe state for Kerry. However, like the writers above, my vote for Kerry is not to be taken as an endorsement of his principles. Instead, it is to be taken as a measure of the desperation to remove those who seized power in the 2000 coup; those people embody neither the principles of traditional American political thought nor modern democratic thought.

To underscore my firm belief that it is of the utmost importance to oust Bush and his yuppie fascist regime, I changed my registration from Green to Democrat about a year ago. However, my goals and values are much more in line those of Ms. Benjamin, Dr. Ellsberg, Rabbi Lerner, Mr. Solomon and the other signatories of this open letter than with those of Senator Kerry, PPI founder Will Marshall or DLC founder and president Al From. No matter what these people say, the war against and occupation of Iraq is still a colonial enterprise, not a liberation, and global capitalism is contrary to the principles of democracy. Accordingly, I reserve the right to change my registration again to Green after the election as a small statement of protest against the policies adumbrated by Senator Kerry should he continue to pursue them, as we should expect he will.

In the early forties, the French Resistance agreed to follow the lead the General de Gaulle in order to rid their nation of foreign Occupation and a collaborationist regime. That did not mean that the Resistance, largely made up of left wing elements, endorsed de Gaulle's program of maintaining France's oversea colonies in a post-war era. As an American progressive, I will follow Senator Kerry's lead to rid my country of an illegitimate regime that adheres to principles alien to those of American government. That does not mean that I embrace Senator Kerry's stated vision of a post-Bush world. I most emphatically do not.

[mzmolly]

1. Glad to see *common* dreams promoting a common dream.

NO MORE BUSH!

:hi: Thanks for the post.