----- Original Message -----
From: "Chuck0" <chuck at mutualaid.org>
> Hey Nathan, not everybody out there wants to defeat George W. Has it
> occured to you that the people who support the Green Party and/or Nader
> want to defeat both the Republicans and Democrats?
Sure. But you are only going to defeat one of them. And the fact that Naderites can't deal with that fact is why most Democrats have such scorn for them.
>Surely you understand that it would
> defeat the purpose of promoting a third party to suddenly start
> supporting a candidate with one of the wings of the Corporate Party.
Actually, no. Many third parties started as caucuses within a bourgois party and only split when the caucus became large enough to compete on its own. The Labour Party is the most obvious example-- splitting from the Liberals-- but there are many other examples around the world. The Communist Parties around Europe mostly started as factions within the Social Democratic parties. Only in almost purely proportional representation systems have third parties been able to start from scratch, rather than as factions within a larger bourgois party.
>If
> the Democrats want their candidate to beat Bush, then it's up to him to
> take some tough stands that differentiates himself from Bush.
Let's see * Kerry is for repealing tax cuts for the wealthy; Bush is for increasing them * Kerry supports expanding labor laws; Bush is for gutting them * Kerry is for raising the minimum wage to $7 per hour; Bush opposes that * Kerry is for Roe v. Wage; Bush is against it * Kerry is for ending job discirmination for gays; Bush is against new legislation * Kerry supports expanded health care for most working families; Bush opposes that * Kerry is for a $4000 tax credit (refundable) for every college student; Bush doesn't * Kerry is for earned legalization of immigrants; Bush has no legalization in his immigration proposals * Kerry supports the Clean Air Act; Bush has gutted it * Kerry supports DREAM Act to allow undocumented immigrant children to go to college; Bush doesn't
Yes, he doesn't agree with every left position, but he clearly differentiates himself from Bush on many issues.
>The Bush
> regime may be pretty crazy, but it's not much different than Clinton,
> Bush 1, or Reagan.
We disagree.
Nathan