Should we vote for anyone but Bush in 2004?

Millions of people all over America are disgusted by Bush and his policies – everything from his invitation to the Iraqi resistance to “bring 'em on” to his huge tax cuts for the rich, from his claim to “support the troops” while cutting veterans' benefits to filing a brief with the Supreme Court attacking affirmative action on Martin Luther King day. Many people on active-duty and in the Reserves are paying the ultimate price for Bush's policies in the sands of Iraq.

A lot of people are so fed up with Bush that “anybody but Bush” would be better – that anybody would, of course, be a Democrat. But do the Democrats deserve our vote? Let's look at their record and what the candidates are saying about bringing the troops home.

The majority of the Democratic Party back in October 2002 voted to give Bush the authority to attack Iraq. None of them questioned Bush’s WMD lie, or the Al-Qaida-Iraq connection lie, or the Iraqis welcoming the U.S. lie, or any of his lies. Half of the Democratic Party in Congress voted against Bush's $87 billion occupation budget – the other half voted for it.

All of the candidates are saying that U.S. troops are not coming home any time soon. Howard Dean said: “Now that we're there, we can't leave. First thing I would do is bring in 40,000 to 50,000 other troops. . . . We're gonna be there for a long time in Iraq.” Of course he later said the “40,000 to 50,000 other troops” would be troops from other countries – but let's be realistic. What other country wants to rescue the U.S. from the Iraqi quagmire and send thousands of their soldiers to fight the Iraqi resistance? If 40,000 or 50,000 more troops get sent to Iraq by Dean, most of them will be American.

Not far behind Dean in the race is Wesley Clark, a Vietnam vet, retired general, and former NATO commander.

Clark let the cat out of the bag when he told Newsweek: "I would have been a Republican if Karl Rove had returned my phone calls." Karl Rove is Bush's chief political strategist and election advisor – the one who dreamed up Bush's landing on the aircraft carrier with the "mission accomplished" banner behind his head that was supposed to coast him to easy victory in 2004. If the only thing Clark's principles, opinions and allegiances hinge on are a phone call – from one of Bush’s cronies – how can we trust him to stop Bush's policies, to bring the troops home, or do anything to make our lives better?

The other Vietnam vet in the race, John Kerry, isn’t much better. He likes to brag about how he earned a Silver Star, three Purple Hearts, and the Bronze Star with Combat V awards during his tour as a boat captain in the Mekong Delta. For someone who knows combat first hand, he hasn’t said a single word about reservists not getting ceramic plates for their body armor. But that’s because Kerry is a child of privilege: his wife owns the Heinz food empire and his mom comes from the Forbes family. Kerry and his wife are worth about $840 million, so they spend their time worrying about their money, not soldiers, their spouses, or their families.

All of the Democrats support the continued occupation of Iraq – their only difference with Bush is about bringing in the United Nations, NATO, or other Arab countries to help out. Even if any of these other countries send troops, it won't mean that you get to go home any sooner, out of harm’s way and back into the arms of your loved ones. It will mean that more soldiers – who speak French, German, Russian or even Chinese – will be in the line of fire and will be made to suffer the same fate as you. It will mean that a French Halliburton or a German Bechtel get a small piece of the contact pie.

The reason all the Democrats back the occupation and most of Bush’s policies is because, just like the Republicans, they are a party for Corporate America, for big business. Most of the money that the Democratic Party gets is money from big corporations, and as the old saying goes: “Tell me whose hand you eat out of and I’ll tell you whose song you sing.” The Democrats are against Bush the man, but not his main goals: helping the rich at taxpayers’ expense, starting wars for oil and empire, and incarcerating minorities.

So far for 2004, big business has contributed $393,495,895 – 61% of their money has gone to Republicans, and 39% to the Democrats. For Corporate America, it doesn’t matter whether the Democrats or the Republicans are in office – either way, they win.

All of the quality of life issues that service people have to deal with today – lack of health care, cuts in veterans benefits – were issues under the Democrats too. As Vietnam veteran and President of Veterans for Peace Dave Cline explained, “Say you got your leg blown off, and they put you in the hospital for a month before they send you home. You go home without $240 or your leg. It’s outrageous when you think about it. A lot of this stuff comes back to shortchanging soldiers, privatization - and this was going on before Bush. Rumsfeld is a major architect, but it was also happening during the Clinton administration.” Clinton approves of the way Rumsfeld is abusing the armed forces, saying: “I hope that when the smoke clears from the Iraq thing, some more attention would be given to Rumsfeld's ideas.”

Voting for the Democrats didn’t stop Bush in 2000 – while Bush was throwing out black votes in Florida, Gore kept his mouth shut about it and instead whined about “chads.” Millions of people who voted against Bush in 2000 looked on helplessly as Bush slithered into the White House despite the popular vote.

The only way we can win is by organizing ourselves and fighting against the Democrats AND the Republicans, who agree more than they disagree.

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