IVAW March on the DNC -Big Noise Films-

I can respond only for myself, i don't speak for Indymedia:

I'm sorry, but the apparent assumption that the political arena is divided into conservatives and liberals demonstrates the shallowness of this anonymous commenter's world view. Liberals are responsible for continuing the war by fully funding it, even when they have control of the purse strings. Liberals (read: Democrats) are complicit in defending the two party system against any possibility that a third party could gain traction, by such nefarious methods as excluding third party candidates from debates, and such mundane processes as erecting hurdles to third party registration.

Liberals are part of the ruling elite. Consider, it wasn't the Republicans who, even with total control of the executive branch and its veto power, nonetheless championed NAFTA-- it was liberal William Jefferson Clinton. Liberals routinely exclude the voices of working people from the social conversation, meanwhile supporting the policies that send their jobs overseas.

And please don't quote statistics about how many delegates were union members. When it comes to purging the union movement of progressive tendencies for the sake of corporate profits, liberals have frequently been as vociferous as conservatives. For decades the mainstream union movement has acted as the boss's junior partner, favoring policies that disenfranchise the real economic power of working people, even embracing the foreign policy goals of the CIA. (I've been a union member for 39 years, i should know.)

And with only a few exceptions, liberals participate willingly in the obscene legal bribery that we call election finance, in exchange for which lobbyists for the corporations write our trade, safety, and employment laws. Under liberals as well as under conservatives, Congress tends to act as a rubber stamp for whatever big business desires.

Would i prefer Barak Obama to John McCain? Yes, probably. Do i have any illusions that much will change with Obama in the White House? No, not at all. I anticipate that the elites of this country will still embrace neo-liberalism, class warfare against working people, sweatshop economics, and a militaristic foreign policy (Obama's opposition to the Iraq War notwithstanding.)

There are some Democrats that i respect. Unfortunately, their politics, their philosophies, and-- in some cases-- their political careers have been marginalized-- and frequently, sabotaged-- by the Party.

I'll work alongside Liberals toward some goals, but i'm not a Liberal. Again, these are a sampling of my personal views, i don't speak for Indymedia.

richard myers