PGHIMC - Pittsburgh Independent Media Center

2004 Elections and Actions
by Ken Monday, Sep. 20, 2004 at 11:13 PM

As I sit here awake late tonight, I can't help it wonder what is the best direction for political activists. But I do know that we need to start considering serious change.

The 2004 election is nothing short of depressing. Two pro-corporate, pro-war candidates that compete for Bullshitter of the Year. As I sit here late tonight, I wonder what the best direction is for political activists all over the country. One thing I am sure of is that we need serious changes to be made and we need them soon.
What I once saw as allies in the political scene have become opponents. Naive moderate liberals root for a candidate in the Democratic Party that may as well be a Republican. Those that claim to be "speakers" of the Left in America like Michael Moore or Al Franken have proven themselves lapdogs of the Democratic Party, suckered into the trap of "vote for me or you will throw your vote away." I have a feeling this excuse will be resurrected every four years until we wake up and realize that the time has ended for making changes inch by inch.
In Boston, Tom Hayden said that there are those who believe changes must occur gradually, and there are those who feel it has to get worse before it gets better. I am in the worse before it gets better crowd, because gradual change has failed us repeatedly and I'm not going to sit around and wait while the pigs of the Democratic Party sell the working class and minority citizens of our country out the way they did under Clinton.
The Million Worker March and a Counter-Inaugural must be the beginning of a massive, long-term commitment from the Progressive community here in the USA to fight relentlessly for social change, just as the right-wing has fought to destroy our country since Reagan arrived in charge in 1980.
This path became so much more necessary to me after what I saw on the streets of Miami in the protests against the FTAA. This gov't shows it has no interest in allowing peaceful change. We gotta fight for every inch of ground that we can gain. Groups like POG have begun the direct resistance here in Pittsburgh. Let's do what we can to build on this and fight for the democracy we have been promised, yet not received.

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