Democrats
Stifle Antiwar Voices, Again
By Joshua Frank
22 August, 2006
Countercurrents.org
Ned
Lamont’s victor over Senator Joe Lieberman in Connecticut’s
Democratic primary two weeks ago has been hailed by many as a victory
for the movement against the war in Iraq. Lamont has been an ardent
critic of the Bush administration’s handling of the war and has
stated that “our best hope for success ... is to take the very
American military face off of this occupation and ... start bringing
our troops home.”
Lamont, however, is still
facing an uphill battle for the US Senate. Sen. Lieberman has declared
an independent candidacy and is leading in the polls by 5%. But even
if Lamont is attempting to rock the boat on Iraq, he is still in full
defense of Israel and the country’s bloody three-week bombardment
of Lebanon.
The Democratic Party doesn’t
allow dissent, and like the Republican Party, they are even willing
to stifle democracy in order to ensure their ascendancy on Election
Day. Here in New York the Democratic Party has willfully ignored Jonathan
Tasini’s popular antiwar campaign against Hillary Clinton. Tasini,
unlike Lamont, is critical of the close relationship between the US
and the state of Israel.
“In a sense, I understand
why my opponent has to try to silence the truth. She, and a broad segment
of our political leadership, bear responsibility for the deaths of these
(Qana) children,” Tasini recently wrote. “They gave cover
for what many rank-and-file Israeli citizens (and some Israeli politicians)
are now calling a moral and military debacle.”
On August 21, the New York
Times called on Hillary Clinton to debate Tasini, writing, “Since
Mr. Tasini is running an antiwar campaign, it would be very useful for
New Yorkers to have a chance to hear the two Democratic candidates debate
that one issue.” Hillary, of course, isn’t likely to take
heed, and truthfully, that’s undemocratic. But that seems to be
the Democratic strategy of late.
Perhaps the debacle in New
York is not quite as egregious as the Democrats’ move to stifle
opposition in Pennsylvania, where antiwar Green Party candidates have
been forced to withdraw their names from the state ballot because they
cannot afford the costly legal fees needed to challenge the Democrats’
snooty lawyers. The Democrats claim the Green Party used "fake
names, names of unregistered voters and illegible signatures" to
get on this year’s ballot. But really, the Democrats just didn’t
want any challenges to their support for the war in Iraq or the US’s
unconditional support for Israel.
You may remember that the
Democrats used similar tactics to keep Ralph Nader’s antiwar campaign
off the ballot in swing-states just two years ago. They hired legal
teams (several of them Republican firms) to challenge his petitions
across the country. They didn’t want Nader’s antiwar voice
to be heard by voters. And this is the party that was supposed to stand
up against alleged voting fraud in Ohio and Florida? Give me a break.
The Democrats, like the Republicans, detest the democratic process.
They have done a superb job of discounting genuine antiwar candidates
across the political spectrum, especially those who oppose Israeli incursions
in Palestine and Lebanon.
While the mainstream antiwar
movement was celebrating Lamont’s conquest over Lieberman, Democratic
Rep. Cynthia McKinney’s (who has been openly critical of Israel)
campaign took a bullet in Georgia. Where were the MoveOn.org and the
DailyKos mobs then? Certainly not demanding that their members donate
money to her antiwar campaign. Was it because she doesn’t think
that US taxpayers should be supporting American and Israeli military
aggression in the Middle East? Is that why they are all ignoring Jonathan
Tasini and others?
Absolutely.
Joshua Frank, author of Left Out! How Liberals Helped Reelect George
W. Bush (Common Courage Press, 2006), edits http://www.BrickBurner.org