With Senator John Edwards ending his campaign for the Democratic nomination, Senator John Kerry will be the Democratic Party's candidate against President George W. Bush. The "Anybody but Bush" folks will no doubt be out in force over the next eight months telling us how great John Kerry is and how the Democratic Party will be a dramatic improvement over the Republicans. Certainly, we do not want President George W. Bush in office, but we need to be realistic about what the Democratic Party will do. We must not forget that this is the same "progressive" party that brought us NAFTA/WTO, "welfare reform," sanctions that killed 500,000 Iraqi children under the age of 5, and a host of military interventions around the world.
While there are differences between Bush and Kerry--especially on abortion, civil unions for gay people, and the notion of "faith-based" social services--there are many similarities between the two. Kerry voted for the USA PATRIOT Act, he voted for the resolution authorizing the most recent attack on Iraq, and he supported President Bush's "No Child Left Behind" education reforms. He supports the same neoliberal trade policies; he is also a member of society's elite, and supports an increase in active-duty troops.
"Anybody but Bush" may have a nice ring to it, and indeed it may accurately reflect the sentiments of many, but we need to be cognizant of the Democratic Party's track record and realize that no matter who wins, progressive movements are going to have to continue fighting. Progressives should not just fall behind Kerry, being content with handing out literature for a candidate they only half-heartedly agree with or registering people to vote. In conjunction with such efforts, we need to be building off the immense amounts of time and energy that will be spent on the effort to beat Bush, channeling the anger many feel towards Bush into a strong progressive movement that can eventually do away with leaders of both political parties.
Some recent articles on differences between Bush and Kerry:
