WIPE YOUR TEARS AND GET ORGANIZED!

WIPE YOUR TEAR AND GET ORGANIZED!

By Eddie Yuen

If the extent of fraud in the Bush/Cheney coronation is unclear at the time of this writing, what is clear is that the world and people in the U.S. will be living with an even more destructive and dangerous regime for at least the next four years. The corporate media and the Democratic Party have already concluded that the election is valid, thus averting a repeat of the legitimacy crisis of 2000. The worst immediate effect of all this may be that the people of the world are tempted to give up on the people of the United States. How can the conscious people who live in this country demonstrate to the world that the 59 million people in the U.S. who voted for the Bush regime are not even a plurality, let alone a mandate?

The key question is what will the newly politicized anti-Bush legions, who number in the millions, do in the wake of this debacle? Many people in the U.S., unlike people in the global South, have the privilege to retreat into their cocoons of consumption when things do not go their way. However, there are several reasons why this is unlikely to happen (despite the widespread declarations of intended flight to Canada). The U.S. political and military defeat in Iraq and the grim outlook for the U.S. economy both augur a continued politicization on the part of many formerly complacent Americans. If Bush follows through on his threats to implement a theocratic social agenda, the mobilization of women, GLBT communities and environmentalists will increase dramatically. It seems quite possible, then, that the usual mass demobilization after electoral campaigns (eg. Matt Gonzalez in SF, Jesse Jackson in 80s, etc.) may not take place on the same scale this time around.

So what forms might this potentially vast new opposition take? Undoubtedly, a huge chunk of it will remain in the electoral arena, particularly in the perennially futile campaign to reform the Democratic party. Given that the Republican Party fiercely mobilizes its base, and that the Democratic Party is scared of its (potentially much larger) base, such efforts are bound to fail. It is likely, however, that thousands of the Anybody But Bush brigades, Move On contributors and Air America listeners will throw themselves into grassroots organizing, alternative media projects, direct action politics, community building and networking, and will be asking themselves some serious questions about how things got to be the way they are. Once the shock of the election subsides, people will begin to recognize that this society is not only polarized, but politicized=a rare moment in U.S. history.

So, as dire as things are, it is important to put the opposition of the last couple of years in perspective:

More people voted against Bush than against any president in U.S. history, despite widespread voter intimidation, harassment (6 hour waits) and ballot spoilage.

The numbers of people in the streets exceeds that of the 1960s or any other historical period. The anti-war demonstrations in 2003 were among the largest in U.S. history and the 500,000 people who protested the Repubican National Convention in NYC in August, 2004 was 50 times larger than the historic Chicago Democratic Convention protests in 1968. The pro-choice rally in DC in April 2004 was the largest feminist march in U.S. history. The immigrant labor caravan of 2003 was an unprecedented mobilization of non-citizen workers.

The opposition to the war and the regime is not only broad but deep. The level of animus against Bush amongst millions of people in the U.S. is at or near apoplectic, and will only increase.

The splits in the ruling class around the Cheney/Bush regime are even more dramatic than during the Nixon era. Many powerful members of the permanent government (CIA officers, State Department officials, military brass) have openly dissented against the disaster in Iraq, and, according to the Wall Street Journal, more millionaires oppose Bush than support him. These splits create a climate in which the regime cannot totally suppress popular dissent.

The level of awareness and resistance amongst soldiers in Iraq is increasing at an astonishing rate. Tens of thousands of physically and mentally scarred veterans are returning to the U.S., and they definitely do not have the luxury of returning to "normal" life. Some of them are already speaking out, and their voices are powerful.

In a little more than a year after the post-911 suppression of political speech (remember Ari Fleischer's "People need to watch what they say"), criticism of the Cheney/Bush regime had become ubiquitous. Popular culture is more politicized in an anti-establishment direction than it has been in years. Expressions of dissent which were deeply undergound in '80s hardcore punk and Hip-Hop are now mainstream; iconic figures such as Howard Stern, Jon Stewart and Eminem have enhanced their careers by condemning the regime as harshly as radicals in San Francisco.

This poses a challenge and an opportunity for the radical left, which has been so deeply invested in subcultures for many decades that it has not noticed how many people are now hungry for critique and action.he corporate media is in a legitimacy crisis, and is unlikely to ever regain its Cronkite era imprimatur of neutrality. Ironically, this is partly due to the success of Fox News, which has persuaded both its detractors and supporters that all media is a form of propaganda. The disintegration of the phony liberal consensus of 20th century corporate media has forced many formerly trusting Americans to acknowledge that there is power embedded in the way news is told.

nprecedented numbers of people in the U.S. are tuning to alternative media, such as Pacifica’s “Democracy Now”, radical websites, and countless documentaries and books. Noam Chomsky and Arundhati Roy are on the bestseller list. Growing numbers of people are making their own media, and talking back to the media they engage with.

Since the Battle of Seattle in 1999, it has been possible for the first time since 1919 to utter the words “capitalism” and “imperialism” in an analytical way without being denounced as a “communist”. It is increasingly possible to talk seriously about the way the world actually is now that the ideological hegemony of Cold War liberalism has collapsed. More and more people are entering into this conversation.

Opposition movements in the U.S. have powerful allies all over the world. In fact, the accelerated decline of U.S. power since the Iraq invasion has created a space for radically democratic and anti-capitalist movements to thrive, especially in South America. The Cheney/Bush regime has failed utterly in its attempt to characterize oppostion to its policies as being sympathetic to Islamic terrorism. The majority of the inhabitants of nearly every nation in the world will cheer on any U.S. opposition.

The legions of disaffected liberals (and conservatives) who mobilized against Bush do not share the familiarity with defeat that characterizes the American Left. Many of these people have a sense of entitlement and are used to getting what they want ("Dude, Where's My Country?"). Unlike leftists, people of color and GLBT folks, many white middle class Bush haters are not accustomed to being marginalized and repressed, and it will be interesting to see how they respond. If history is any indication, nobody is more radical than a newly disillusioned liberal who becomes aware of how bad things really are.

Finally, there is nothing that the Cheney/Bush regime can do to alter the U.S. defeat in Iraq and the diminishing stature of the U.S. in the world economy. No amount of “faith” can change this, although the corporate media will certainly hide these realities from those Americans who still trust it. The next few years will be catastrophic, yet interesting.