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Dean Begins Pandering to Get the Religious Vote
(Counterpunch, Lenni Brenner, January 8, 2004)
In an interview a few months back, he declared that "I don't think that religion ought to be part of American policy." But in fact he had already shown that it was part of his. In November 2002 he went to Israel and announced that his "view" of the Israel/Palestine issue "is closer to AIPAC's view," uncritical support for whoever runs that country . . . If elected, he solemnly swears that he will not meet with Arafat. He supports targeted assassinations of Hamas leaders. He's for the Zionist security fence, and hailed the bombing of Syria by Sharon: "If Israel has to defend itself by striking terrorists elsewhere, it's going to have to do that." In October he told the faithful at a New York synagogue that he opposes giving East Jerusalem back to the Palestinians. He started showing up in Synagogues on high holidays. He recited the prayers, in Hebrew, over Hanukkah candles, in New Hampshire. . . . Last week he told the Boston Globe that talking about God and Jesus are going to be key to his Southern strategy. . . . Dean has two kinds of liberal supporters. Naive college kids are the foot soldiers of his campaign. They lack the experience to grasp what he is doing with all his crap about the Dixie flag and Jesus. But the editorial hacks at the New York Times and The Nation know exactly what it means: President Dean won't change anything important when it comes to race relations, and he won't be found in the trenches when it comes to resisting right-wing assaults on Jefferson's "wall of separation between Church and State." This troubles them. But what choice do these do nothings have? They don't have a party of their own. Wool sellers know wool buyers. The Democratic hustlers understand that, as long as Dean stays an inch to the left of Bush on Iraq, he doesn't have to give liberals a damned thing. . . . So what do we do? Boycott the election? Vote for one of the above? If so, which one? Or does it matter? . . . It is impossible to see a left candidate winning. But Dean's gallop into unblushing demagoguery opens up serious possibilities of educating the youth and other healthy elements, in the anti-war movement and beyond. Ossified liberals will denounce us if we tell people that a vote for Dean is unprincipled, even if he were to win, and there is no assurance of that. But so what? We will go on building the anti-war movement. And we remind people, now, that the Vietnam era movement did get us out of the war, even though the Democrats lost the 1968 and 1972 elections. . . . Now is the time to start organizing public panels on what the left should do re the elections. Don't wait for someone else to do it. All groups with credibility on either the local or national level should invite the above mentioned candidates, including Nader, to give us the reasons why we should vote for them. And maybe, just maybe, they could also begin to discuss building a serious party, opposed to the bipartisan demagogues and imperialists.

posted by LoZo 7:45 PM