hanging death: swing state

[Dan Scanlan <dscanlan@xxxxxxx>]

I wrote the following to friend who has worked for Nader for 40 years
and is working for Kerry now and who accused me of working for Bush.

Dan Scanlan

-----------------------------

Thanks for being civil to me. Very much unlike so many in my
neighborhood who want to kill me for not rolling over for Kerry.

I'm not working to elect Bush any more than Gore was working to elect
him when he didn't fight the important fight in Florida or in the
Senate. He was fighting to protect the stable rule of the
corporations to whom he reports. Me, I'm fighting the corporations.

The war in Iraq, and the draft that Kerry or Bush is sure to
implement, trump everything else, including the nebulous Supreme
Court appointments. Anyone who has ever been arrested in this country
knows there is no rule of law. It's a fantasy. Kerry not only favors
the PATRIOT Act, he wrote some of the worst of it. Besides, we
survived McCarthyism, the Alien and Sedition Acts, even 9/11.

Bush doesn't scare me. He's very transparent, and purposefully
maddening. Kerry isn't obvious, although it's apparent he's never NOT
run for the presidency. He's a study in tepidity. I see Kerry's job
as corralling the intelligentsia and frightened left, in much the
same way as Gore's was to give hope (false, of course) to common
environmentalists. Kerry's very good at it. Of course, he has the
context provided by the corporate press, and today, the cowering left
press.

This idea of working for Kerry and then hoping that he will change
his stripes after he's elected is a symptom of how far down the road
Americans have travelled toward a spectator-ocracy.

It takes a special kind of presidential candidate to throw away the
most important issue -- the war. He's either dumber than Bush or
working with him. He does not get my energy.

By the way, there is no way I could elect Bush. I don't have the
power. Kerry could have it but he's intent on rendering voters
harmless.

Today I was sent a proclamation signed by many people I admire --
Chomsky, Zinn, Medea, et al -- calling for voting for Kerry in swing
states. Blow my goddamn mind!  We called this selling out in the
sixties. I'm still there. I still want jail for MacNamara, a monument
to Daniel Ellsberg, a GI Bill for peace activists and forfeiture of
assets for criminal corporations. This whole idea of throwing away a
positive vote in swing states began at the end of the 2000 campaign.
It was fear of Bush then. Misplaced, as it turned out. The fear
should have been directed at the Democrats who did nothing to throw
the Electoral College into the turmoil that was needed.
Disenfranchised black voters were never an issue to the Democrats.
The nation was treated to a circus of chads, the food of spectators.
Hanging from a tree at the end of a rope -- that's the swing state.

You may call me a dreamer, but I'm not the only one. And I sure as
hell won't relinquish my dream for a shill.

Dan Scanlan
--
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Nobody but Nader.
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