By Jim Lafferty
(Jim Lafferty is the Executive Director of the Los Angeles Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild and a member of the Los Angeles A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition Steering Committee. He presented this commentary on the elections on his weekly radio show–the Lawyers Guild–on KPFK, 90.7 FM on November 4.)
But before turning to tonight’s topic, I would like to do something I’ve never done on The Lawyers Guild Show before. I would like to offer these few thoughts of my own tonight to those of you out there who hunger for peace and social justice and who are, as a result of Bush’s election, beside yourselves with anger and despair. Certainly, George Bush’s election is a very sad and alarming commentary on both the state of mind of the U.S. electorate, and on what passes for a fair and democratic electoral system in America. But was Tuesday’s election of George Bush really the disaster so many liberals and progressive s have pronounced it to be?
My own view is this: whatever else may be said about Bush’s election, it is not necessarily bad news for the progressive movements in this country and around the world who, whatever their particular cause, must also struggle with the most critical, over-arching issue facing our nation and the world today: That issue, of course, is U.S. imperialism. After all, Kerry and the Democrats offered nothing more than a kinder and gentler imperialism..a slicker imperialism…a less open and overtly rapacious imperialism.
On the other hand, Bush’s imperialism is open, and naked, and on view for all the world to see.