Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, November 26, 1994 TAG: 9411280008
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A11 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: PETER S. FOSL
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
I remember first becoming aware of the problem when voters returned to office in 1984 a president who promised them prosperity, but instead delivered the biggest recession to hit this country since the '30s. Despite his multiplying the nation's debt, gutting education and social services, exacerbating environmental degradation and transferring huge portions of the nation's wealth to the already super-rich, voters turned out for this Republican in droves.
More recently and closer to home, I've witnessed the curious spectacle of people who call themselves Christian voting for a blood-soaked militarist who sold arms to a belligerent Islamic regime, and used the proceeds to finance the murderous campaigns of a former Central American dictator's national guard. I've also encountered people who call themselves patriots supporting a treacherous Washington insider who disgraced the Marine Corps and the oath he took when he entered it by subverting, rather than defending, the U.S. Constitution for the sake of his own private financial gain and political agenda.
What can be the explanation for these strange incongruities? My colleague, Art Poskocil, on the Oct. 28 Commentary page (``North supporters: Television made them do it''), blamed the deceptively compelling images of television. Perhaps he's right, but the reality of the Democratic competition is also surely responsible. As an alternative to the mendacious and corrupt Oliver North, the Democrats offered voters only a lackluster party cog who smoothly meshed with both the Bush and Clinton machinery. Many Virginians opted for this candidate as much the lesser of two evils, but it was a choice few voters savored.
The opposition painted Chuck Robb as a liberal, even a socialist, which he most certainly is not. But people were right to discern that the Democratic Party, especially since the rightist Democratic Leadership Council gained control, offers little new to the nation. Moreover, although our conservative president and the conservative Democratic Congress who followed him managed to reduce unemployment, harness inflation, and even pare back the deficit (a feat no Republican administration has been able to perform), their achievements have rung hollow with most working people. There's good reason for this.
While the overall rate of unemployment has declined, most new jobs touted by the president have surfaced among the professional and managerial strata. Real wages, benefits, and job security among wageworkers - and, indeed, among much of the salaried middle classes - remain in decline. The exploitive use of temporary workers has skyrocketed, and as the Department of Labor quietly announced a few weeks ago, the number of the nation's poor continues to swell. These are facts for which Republicans and Democrats must be held accountable.
Change is, in fact, sorely needed. But Americans have made a terrible mistake in turning to the Republican Party for that change. Despite the occasional irruption of its theocratic and populist elements, this party is, has been and will remain the party of the international economic elite. This group is composed of a tiny cluster of powerful people and institutions whose interests are decidedly not consistent with those of the majority of Americans. The members of this privileged class have reaped vast profits from the status quo. While, therefore, its representatives may tinker with things a bit, you can bet your bottom dollar they have no interest in fundamental change.
Republican policies have brought and will continue to bring economic polarization, racial and sexual injustice, and environmental disaster at home, coupled with the maintenance of politically oppressive though economically cooperative regimes abroad. Small-business people may find short-term relief in the form of Republican tax breaks, but the boost will be short-lived as wealth continues to centralize in large conglomerates and the general economy continues to erode.
There is, however, an alternative to the Demopublicans and Republicrats. A set of new political organizations has begun to emerge that offers voters a different approach from the bankrupt policies of beltway bureaucrats and the dangerous fanaticism of right-wing extremists. These new parties have developed through grass-roots and community movements, and as such can more probably be counted on to represent real interests of the people.
The most remarkable among the newcomers are the Green Party, which was so successful in the New Mexican congressional race, and the New Party, which has made astonishing inroads in Wisconsin. These parties unabashedly advocate jobs, a clean environment, the rights of women and minorities, and economic justice. It's progressive movements like these - not the tired, old Democratic and Republican parties, Texas millionaires, or theocratic ultra-rightists - that will serve the common good. And it's to movements like these that Virginians and the rest of the American electorate should turn.
Peter S. Fosl is an assistant professor of philosophy at Hollins College where he teaches, among other things, social-political philosophy.
by CNB