> In a message dated 11/3/2004 3:51:27 PM Eastern Standard Time,
> nathanne at nathannewman.org writes:
> He ran on a very
> progressive platform-- pro-union, anti-death penalty, pro-choice,
> pro-education-- with concrete goals to improve the lives of people we
> all
> care about.
> And he LOST!!!!
> I see this election as a repudiation by the American People of any
> progressive values. The fact that Kerry ran a kind of populist
> campaign and lost despite running against a president who is widely
> perceived as a failure should put to rest any notion that the American
> public is receptive to any progressive message.
I don't draw that conclusion at all. First of all, Kerry didn't run any kind of populist campaign -- I agree with the anti-ABB people about that. No question that he was a puppet of the DLC. The sole reason for voting for him was to get rid of Bush -- he was just a means toward that end, and as it turned out, an ineffective means.
Secondly, a heck of a lot of Americans obviously don't perceive Shrub as a failure.
And thirdly, the American public is quite receptive to a progressive message, I believe, if it is delivered in the right way. There have been plenty of progressive steps in American history -- otherwise, we would still be in the age of slavery, no women's suffrage, no unions, and on and on. We just have to figure out how to help the American people take the next steps.
Jon Johanning // jjohanning at igc.org __________________________________ A sympathetic Scot summed it all up very neatly in the remark, 'You should make a point of trying every experience once, excepting incest and folk-dancing.' -- Sir Arnold Bax