What Now?

What Now?
Wednesday, November 8, 2006

Bush must be having a lousy morning! And it looks like, even after the recounts in Montana and Virginia, the Democrats will be in control of the Senate and have a wide margin of power in the House. In a clear repudiation of the war in Iraq and the Republican agenda, Democrats also won the majority of governorships across the country. Millions of people are fed up with politics and are desperate for a change. They want to get out of Iraq, they want health care and better public education, they support immigrant rights and a women's right to choose, and equality for the l/g/b/t community. They are sick of the attacks on our unions and they are angry at the super rich who run this country.

I am very happy that they made their feelings known last night. However, there is a problem, in most places, the only means they felt they had to express their anger was by voting for the Democrats. And the Democrats don't want what the people who voted for them want. The big question is, "what will the Democrats do now?" My best guess is that they will try to do as little as possible so as to not "alienate moderate voters." They will make some changes, but primarily, they will continue to verbally assault Bush and hope that repeating the "we're not Bush" strategy will lead them into the White House in 2008.

So what do we do? The people of Iraq can't wait two years for the revitalization of the anti-war movement. We need to organize now. Millions of people's expectations have been raised by these elections. We have to patiently explain to our friends who voted for the Democrats why we believe those expectations are misplaced, but we also have to convince those people that, instead of passively waiting for the Democrats to do something, now is the time for them to join, or return to, the anti-war movement.

Of course, we wish that our anti-war Green Party campaigns could have won more votes, but we were clearly swept aside by the desire of most people to get rid of the Republicans. There's no problem with being a bit frustrated with the fact that the pro-war Democrats benefit from this anti-Bush mood. However, now the Democrats have a lot of power in their hands and they are about to begin proving that everyone of our criticisms of them as a party is true.

Everyone who worked on my campaign and the rest of the anti-war Green Party California campaigns should be very proud of their work. I really appreciate your efforts and your commitment and, especially, your ability to see beyond the trap of the two-party system. Many more people will follow you in the future because of the principled stand you are taking today.

This election is over. Let's take a breath and get back to fighting to make sure the is over before the bi-partisan war makers kill another million people in Iraq.