On Charlie Rose last Fri, Hitchens was firm that his cause was not Bush's cause. Though his war of liberation is not Bush's war of occupation, he was certain that he may yet change this.
-- Shane
fwd'd to me from a Salon reader:
Can Bush be toppled? In Part 3 of our series, Tom Hayden, Paul Berman and Ross Mirkarimi say yes -- but they disagree about whether the Green Party should be accommodated or destroyed.
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Paul Berman, author of "Terror and Liberalism"
I think he's beatable; he's got to be! He's inarticulate, dishonest and completely incompetent in some areas, such as diplomacy (up till now anyway). The economy is doing badly in some appreciable measure due to his policies. He ran up the deficit. He turned a healthy situation around in no time at all. His tax cut ensures that not just the federal government, but states and cities are really crushed in terms of supplying social services. And they'll be crushed for years to come. I think the effect of what he's done is extremely radical, in the worst sense of the word. It's what he said he was going to do when he ran; he announced that he was in favor of a giant tax cut. Unfortunately Bush had, in effect, a coalition with Ralph Nader to defeat the Democrats.
The Democrats have to come forth openly and loudly, and with great clarity and enthusiasm. In order to defeat Bush, the Greens really have to be crushed politically. The Democrats need to really emphasize what the social issues are -- above all, how they affect poor people -- and they need to do so not by conceding to the Greens. The Democrats are going to have to say to the Greens, "No, you cannot sacrifice the interests of poor and working people for your own ideological whims, you need to show a little solidarity for the great bulk of the population who needs social and government services."
I interpret the Green Party as a movement of the middle and upper-middle class, as actually having a certain satisfaction with the way things are -- which is to say, the reason you should vote for the Greens is because you want to feel the excitement of political engagement, the adventure of it, but you don't really care what it's going to mean for other people if the Republicans get elected. It's the sexiness of sheer political fantasy. The advantage of the Green Party is that you can feel good, like you're playing a role, but your own good feelings about yourself aren't going to do anybody else one bit of good.
That's only half of it. The Democrats are going to need a very strong position on defense and terrorism, and what I call anti-totalitarianism. They have to show they're just as committed and fierce and decisive as Bush, and in fact, want to go further than Bush. Where Bush appears to be satisfied with military measures, the Democrats should be saying it's not nearly enough: that much more effort should be put into Afghanistan and Iraq; that the U.S. government should be engaging in enormous programs to conduct a war of persuasion and ideas; that much greater resources should be committed to building up a political culture of liberal democracy and institutions in these places -- which is ultimately the way to defeat the fanatical movements that present so much danger to us and the rest of the world.
So how can the Democrats possibly take a strong position in favor of social services and equality, and government at home, and at the same time take a very strong -- even aggressive -- position with regard to defense and anti-totalitarianism? There's a simple formula for how to do this. It is, in fact, the greatest tradition of the Democratic Party. There's a three-word name for it: "Franklin Delano Roosevelt." FDR was the president who was most ambitious with social reforms and measures to create social equality and justice at home; at the same time he was absolutely idealistic and ferocious in his determination to fight totalitarianism around the world. Ultimately, these two things are the same thing. All the Democrats have to do is reclaim that tradition, and say that although Bush's military measures have been good, he hasn't done enough. He has failed in the war of ideas.
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