I'm impatient to get on with the
important job of rebuilding
the American civil state once we've dumped Bush. It will take at
least a generation to undo and recover from the damage that this
incompetent and reactionary regime has inflicted on the world in four
short years. And I'm not entirely comfortable that corporatist
interests and power elites aren't so well entrenched in the political
and economic fabric of America that even an enlightened Democratic
president can make quick or significant progress once he takes power.
Even worse, the disgraceful gerrymandering of Congressional districts
has virtually guaranteed Republicans will retain control over the House
indefinitely, essentially rendering that body undemocratic, with all
that entails for a country that alleges it is trying to encourage (and
sometimes impose) democracy on other countries.
But the immediate task at hand is to get rid of Bush, and we can worry
about all these other problems once that's done. So from the
perspective of an outsider, here's my advice for the Democratic party
and their nominee to accomplish that goal:
Keep
your eye on the moderate and 'swing' voters and the 'swing' states.
This election, incredibly, is going to be close. Continue to use
high-profile, popular speakers like Michael Moore (people who can actually get media
attention even though they aren't running for office) to do the
'dirty work': Calling Bush a deserter and hammering home the evidence of his moral weaknesses:
his early drug arrests, his open bragging about how his father's
connections got him out of military duty, his refusal to take an army
medical, his army AWOL record. Moderates and 'swing' voters will vote against a coward, a liar, a
braggart, a user, before they will vote for any issue. And keep harping on
Bush's disgraceful treatment of American soldiers: failure to even
mention them in the State of the Union, under-equipping them for
life-threatening situations, cutting their pay and veterans' benefits.
But this dirty work is not
the job of the nominee or candidates, who should be focused on their agenda. Now that Wesley Clark
has dropped out, he can help by going on the full-throttle offensive
before the media lose interest in him. And the Democrats should
definitely pick a VP from a
swing state, not another sure-to-lose
Southern state.
Get
the vote out. More than anything else, the corporatist agenda of
the Bush regime has been to discourage individuals from believing they
have any power as citizens, and to render them meek and subservient
consumers. The election will be won by the side that can overcome that
sense of futility, indifference and helplessness enough to get more of
their people to the voting booth.
Try
to get the electorate mad about the domestic situation. This
won't be easy: Most Americans tend to blame themselves, not the
government, when they're unemployed or underemployed. They don't
understand that the Bush deficits are ruinous to the economy and will
condemn their children to enormous struggle to find work and to pay
these irresponsible debts off, so there's no point in even talking
about this issue, critical as it is. But connecting the Bush
corporatists to outsourcing and offshoring, to an elitist and
inadequate health care system, and an equally elitist and bankrupt
education system, should work -- these are issues people understand and
relate to personally, and they're Bush's fault. I'd also like to
believe that Americans can be angered about Bush's ghastly
environmental record and his outrageous gifts of public property to his
private friends -- but sadly I don't believe that's a critical issue
this time.
Prepare
people for the worst in Iraq and Afghanistan. This will be even
harder. No one wants to hear, or believe, that the massively expensive
and globally unpopular invasion and occupation of these countries was
an almost complete waste of money, reputation and human life. But it
was, and this summer the situation there is going to get really, really
ugly. Bush will use this to divert attention from domestic and personal
issues and ask voters to give him time to 'complete the job' overseas.
Democrats need to prepare people now for the inevitability of further
Middle-East crises, and preclude Bush from using this tactic. Very
difficult. Absolutely essential.
Come
up with two or three really innovative programs. Americans love
new and bold ideas, and haven't heard any in a long time. But these
need to be actions, not
slogans. Example: Joe Biden has proposed that America build and operate
1000 new schools in Afghanistan and Iraq. The cost of this is
negligible by US budget standards, but the symbolic value of doing so
would be enormous. And terrorists cannot win by killing schoolchildren.
Another example: An across-the-board 20% rollback of prescription and
OTC drug
prices. Pharma companies have an average ROI that is 30% higher than
other industries, and now outsource all new drug development risks to
small biotech firms, so they could easily afford it. They wouldn't like
it. Voters would love it.
MADE IN CANADA
trust your
instincts 
