The correlative to a politics of 'Anyone but Bush' has become: not a word against Kerry! Alexander Cockburn on the great silence of progressive America as the Democratic candidate pledges more troops for Iraq, greater fiscal austerity and a strong hand in the war on terror. New Left Review 29, September-October 2004 http://www.newleftreview.net/NLR26301.shtml
"Every four years, liberals unhitch the cart and put it in front of the horse, arguing that the only way to a better tomorrow is to vote for the Democratic nominee. But unless the nominee and Congress are pushed forward by social currents too strong for them to ignore or defy, nothing will alter the default path chosen by the country’s supreme commanders and their respective parties. In the American Empire of today, that path is never towards the good. Our task is not to dither in distraction over the lesser of two evil prospects, which will only turn out to be a detour along the same highway."
- All this business about supporting Kerry and 'opposing Bush' is an excuse for progressives not to do the tough work of cultivating authentic oppositional discourse. Progressives who refuse to vote for Kerry are not subsidiary to progressives who will, these are two distinct groups.