Katrina vanden Heuvel writes an effective call to arms for Democrats everywhere, after their defeat in the elections this week.
The debacle in Iraq that Bush created will also be his to face. At least half of the country understands that the war in Iraq is unwinnable. The most immediate need, perhaps, is for a revived antiwar movement, which not only calls for a withdrawal from Iraq but opposes and prevents new bloody adventures.
The Democratic Party is not the only vehicle for change. Historically, that party’s finest moments have come when it was pushed into action from outside by popular movements, from the labor movement to the civil rights movement to the women’s movement to the gay-rights movement. Such movements–independent of the Democratic Party but powerfully influencing it–must foster and increase their strength. The Nation will support these movements.
We must all stand and fight.
And to make right wingers out there just a bit more angry:
We saw two turnouts and Two Nations last night. Both sides of the chasm saw a major turnout of its voting base. Karl Rove talked about creating a permanent Republican majority. But the truth is, he has a divide-and-rule strategy. And the electoral college amplifies the rural, socially conservative vote. (Twenty percent of voters considered “moral values”–eleven states had anti-gay marriage ballots–more important than the economy or Iraq in this election.)
Perhaps more astonishing than the polling on the murky issue of morality (why aren’t poverty and unjust war considered immoral?) are the figures reported in the New York Times: “Voters who cited honesty as the most important quality in a candidate broke 2 to 1 in Mr. Bush’s favor…” The most mendacious Administration in American history won the honesty vote?