WHAT DO WE DO IF DUBYA ‘WINS’?

Posted on October 21, 2004 by Dave Pollard
silence is consentThe pollsters, except for the bizarre Gallup organization, are teasing us again with hopes of a clear Kerry win. The electoral college looks especially good, though it’s extremely volatile. I’ve already said I think moderates will decide the contest, and they’ll vote for the candidate they perceive as least extreme. I’ve suggested what Kerry should do if he wins. And I’ve listed what Bush will do if he wins. What’s missing is the disaster recovery plan — what should we do if Bush wins, or steals, the election?

With the Republicans controlling Congress, thanks to the outrageous Texas gerrymandering and other dirty tricks, what we’ll have to do is fight like hell against the following programs:

  • Elimination of environmental & labour protections and other deregulation of business, and the sell-off of most remaining public land and resources for commercial purposes
  • Indifference and apology for the outsourcing and offshoring of millions of jobs
  • Indemnifying corporations against citizen litigation for misconduct
  • Pre-emptive attack on Iran, then Syria, and then, when the House of Saud is overthrown, Saudi Arabia
  • Elimination and privatization of government social services
  • Flat tax, estate tax repeal, and other subsidies for the rich
  • Patriot Act II
  • Ban on abortion, after replacement of retiring Supreme Court members with religious zealots
  • Other acts eroding the separation of church and state
  • Substantive withdrawal from the UN

That fight will have to be in arenas where the neocons don’t yet dominate: In the courts, below the Supreme Court level, the international arena, including the fledgling international court (even though Bush has refused to acknowledge its authority over the US), international trade tribunals (which are realizing that ‘free’ trade laws and globalization are stacked in favour of US corporations, and that the US routinely ignores international trade agreements when it suits their purposes to do so), the media (we’ll need to create a whole parallel media network to counteract the mainstream corporatist media), and the court of public opinion in the US and internationally (while Bush doesn’t care what people outside the US think of him, and of America, there is evidence that most Americans do). We will need to paralyze government by filibuster and by every other means at our disposal. We will need to mobilize online and through more traditional networks to protest in the streets and dog Bush at every turn. And we’ll have to stop being polite and coy in our public discourse, and wear our vehement opposition to Bush’s most heinous measures literally on our sleeves — making armbands and political buttons and bumper stickers and other demonstrations of resistance a constantly visible part of the costume and identity of the nation for the next four years, until moderates and even conservatives get alarmed and realize there is something profound going on, and take the neocon threats to everything their country was founded on much more seriously. The entertainment industry, too, will need to stop pussyfooting around and start producing programs that show Americans with their rights being trampled by government, their environment and jobs being destroyed by ruthless and greedy corporate oligopolies, and rampant government and corporate crime, in place of the citizen-on-citizen crime that currently dominates the cop shows. Using everything we have, we will need to isolate, contain and neutralize a second-term Bush regime.

The ten bullets above represent nothing less than a neocon war on the environment, on American workers, women, children and future generations, on citizen rights and freedoms, internationalism, pragmatism and consensus, on secularism, and on government’s role and responsibility as protector of the weak, the poor and the needy. For the last four years it’s been an undeclared war, but if Bush gets back into office it will be gloves off, and we must be ready. Expect that, for the first time since Vietnam, many unarmed Americans will die in the streets at the hands of fired-up and frightened police, and give up their lives for the principles that once made America a great nation.

When I say “we” will have to fight, I mean of course Americans who see the folly of creeping fascism will have to do so. If Bush wins, I’ll be setting up a permanent category of my blog to help Americans who can’t bear to see what another four years of this madness will do to their country, to immigrate to Canada. And if they’ll let me across the border, I’ll see you on the streets in solidarity. What this extremist ideologue does affects not just America, but the whole world. The whole world is watching, again.

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10 Responses to WHAT DO WE DO IF DUBYA ‘WINS’?

  1. gbreez says:
    October 21, 2004 at 11:09

    Thanks, Dave. I hope with all my heart that it does not happen that Bush wins. But, it is good to know that there is a Canadian friend out there. Your intelligence, sanity, and practical assistance will be, and are, invaluable. We will, perhaps, know soon though the messiness of the elections may make it weeks before the US has a confirmed Pres. Not certain I have ever been this frightened before, as much for myself as my son, my friends, and their children.

  2. Susan Hales says:
    October 21, 2004 at 21:02

    Dave, I doubt I’m alone in feeling this immense weight, which is not despair, (yet) but more like suspecting I have cancer but am putting off going to the doctor. It’s a verdict I may not be able to live with, and the daily despair over the loss of so many good young people is unbearable. It’s affecting my work, my conversations and my inability to plan beyond the next few weeks. I keep waiting for the next Rovian trick, the next batch of lies to refute, and although on balance it seems the tide is turning, I’ve just lived through one too many unpredictable hurricanes. Your extended hand is comforting indeed. Meanwhile I’ll be reading Suskind instead of Shakespeare, Josh Micah Marshall instead of Robert Morgan, and writing my blog instead of my thesis. I’ve been wearing my home-made protest shirts for four years already, and I’m tired. I don’t think it can get much worse, and I do think people are waking up to the reality that they have been deceived by a master deceiver.

  3. Andrew says:
    October 22, 2004 at 03:56

    Yet another poll however this time its from Nickelodeon channel. Children have predicted correctly, the last 4 elections in this poll. This time around its Kerry with 57%. Said Cyma Zarghami, president of the television channel, part of Viacom International (Nick Channel): “The ‘kids’ vote’ seems to work as a good barometer of the actual presidential vote because, developmentally, kids between the ages of two and 11 share the same opinions and outlooks as their parents”. Fasciniating stuff.

  4. Jon Husband says:
    October 22, 2004 at 04:15

    Dave, I thought of you immediately upon reading this, which I found as a link over at the Happy Tutor’s place.Here are some cogent thoughts on what “we” might be able to do, which I think fits well with many of your thoughts about interconnected possibilities for positive activism and the wisdom available in linked-up crowds.We’ll need more of this, for sure, to avoid sliding into the Dark Ages. Pisses me off to no end to witness how much power a relatively small band of rich, white, middle-aged and older North American men have been able to amass and then begin systematically using, in ways that are clearly hurtful to humanity.

  5. David Johnson says:
    October 22, 2004 at 10:40

    A Bush win would be bad for the world, and the United States in particular. If you thought the United States was isolated now, just wait for another Bush reelection. As we all know, most of the world is anti-American right now. Much of that sentiment is not so much against Americans in general but the current American administration. Should the citizens of the United States re-elect that hated administration it will mean the hatred will spread from hatred of the administration to hatred of the United States in general.If the United States thought it was difficult getting global cooperation now, it will only get worse if Bush were reelected. The good news is this is going to make any more pre-emptive attacks on any nation very difficult. The Iraq failure is going to sit in peoples minds for a long time and the fact that the United States is losing the battle for Iraqi hearts and minds to Iran is huge as it appears that if January elections actually do happen it is more likely that an Iranian backed candidate will win over an American backed candidate (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6303257/).I can see the outcome now. Iraq and Iran form close bonds in battle against Isreal and United States. For the United States this outcome might be even worse than the outbreak of an Iraqi civil war.I guess what I am saying is that with the Iraq war being such a huge failure (although Americans are still reluctant to admit it) and a global hatred of the United States things like “Pre-emptive attack on Iran, then Syria, and then, when the House of Saud is overthrown, Saudi Arabia” will be next to impossible for another Bush administration to take on.Unfortunately some of the domestic nonsense will still continue but being Canadian I don’t have to worry about that too much and I think even many Americans (including Republicans) are getting worried about the mixing of church and state.

  6. Rajiv says:
    October 22, 2004 at 16:31

    Dave,You should also look at the article “Post-Election: We Are Everywhere” athttp://bigleftoutside.com/which refers to articles athttp://narconews.com/Issue34/article1083.html

  7. Dave Pollard says:
    October 22, 2004 at 17:26

    Thanks, Rajiv. The book “We Are Everywhere” sounds like a must-read, the message (even if Kerry wins, we have to keep fighting) is important, and the term Authentic Journalism Renaissance is a wonderful one. Just finished reading Into the Buzzsaw which shows we cannot depend on the mainstream media to tell us what’s happening, and perhaps not even to tell us what is really happening on Nov.2.

  8. gbreez says:
    October 22, 2004 at 17:30

    My fear is that the Iraq war has not been a failure at all to those who planned and executed the project. Granted, I may have “lost it,” but, the idea keeps hitting me in the face. I mean, why else would they all be continuing to act the way they are (current administration and creators of this horror)? Can it be that they are getting exactly what they want out of all this? If I wrote this as a fiction novel, I do not think it would work. That fact scares me the more.

  9. Jon Husband says:
    October 24, 2004 at 01:39

    I’ve suggested something similar to your idea, Dave, which I’ve called the Underground Blogway, borrowing shamelessly from the notion of the Undergorund Railway. We can help people cross the border and get involved in a new life here, much as many Americans and Canadians helped slaves who wanted to deny the yoke of slavery in the mid-19th century.

  10. Joe says:
    October 24, 2004 at 20:52

    This blog is typically very positive and proactive. The above post is negative and bitter, bordering on the paranoid.Why not the following:-repect the will of the majority (I realize its hard given 2000)-the Democrats need to clean house and have zero tolerance for corruption. Just because the other guys are snakes doesn’t mean we have to be snakes as well-start behaving in a non partisan way – respect all points of view and give credit where creidt is due. Most Republicans are decent people have good ideas for improving the US -start building bridges to Bush voters. It mystifies me as a Canadian how the people who Bush treats poorly support him to the end of the earth-start analyzing the old media and make improvements – for example the NYTimes openly mocks religious people – maybe the NYTimes needs to look in a mirror and make changes.-go to church and try to understand people who don’t vote like you. Meet some other people and engage them. Don’t live your life in a cocoon where everyone thinks like you.Things might work out for the better – one likely scenario is that Iraq will occupy so much effort in the next couple of years Bush or Kerry will accomplish nothing else.As a Canadian I was horrified last election when we returned a corrupt and tired Liberal party to power. But it has worked out well so far. The Liberals are actually listening – something they haven’t done federally for 25 years.Thanks for the blog – I apprciate your work and points of view.Joe

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