Under today's circumstances, yes, Kerry's defeat will be another major rightward shift, because, if Kerry loses, it won't be because of massive votes for Nader and other candidates on the left, but probably because Bush has mobilized his base and bagged more of swing voters at the center than Kerry has. In that case, many will understandably conclude that "no one supports anti-war and pro-working-class positions to the left of Kerry's" and that "Kerry has not moved to the right enough." If Kerry wins, many will say that "moving to the right of not only rank-and-file anti-war Democrats but also of Bush on some issues has definitely paid off! Let's do more of that!" -- resulting in another major rightward shirt. What is tragic is that even leftists like Doug, Tariq Ali [!], etc. -- not just career Democrats -- contributed to the creation of the circumstances that ensure such a lose-lose choice for those who are opposed to the occupations of Palestine, Afghanistan, and Iraq, the Patriot Act, tax cuts for the rich, a "genuine bipartisan reform of Social Security," etc.
What leftists should have done is, through complementary electoral and social movement organizing, to create the circumstances for a win-win outcome in which, if Kerry won, his victory would be clearly the result of his having mobilized his base and won new recruits by moving to the left and stealing Nader's thunder, and if Kerry lost, his defeat would be unambiguously the result of massive votes for Nader and other candidates on the left. -- Yoshie
* Critical Montages: <http://montages.blogspot.com/> * Greens for Nader: <http://greensfornader.net/> * Bring Them Home Now! <http://www.bringthemhomenow.org/> * OSU-GESO: <http://www.osu-geso.org/> * Calendars of Events in Columbus: <http://sif.org.ohio-state.edu/calendar.html>, <http://www.freepress.org/calendar.php>, & <http://www.cpanews.org/> * Student International Forum: <http://sif.org.ohio-state.edu/> * Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osudivest.org/> * Al-Awda-Ohio: <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Al-Awda-Ohio> * Solidarity: <http://www.solidarity-us.org/>