Time to Commit
By Bernie Sanders

As the only elected Independent in the U.S. House of Representatives and the longest-serving congressional Independent in American history, I want to take this opportunity to share some thoughts with progressives struggling over which candidate to support for president on Election Day.

First, let me state as clearly as I can that George W. Bush’s reelection would be a disaster. I write this as someone who is not a Democrat and who, as a member of Congress, has differed with John Kerry on a number of important issues. In terms of economic policy, among many other issues, however, the choice is clear. It is absolutely essential that Kerry win November 2.

If Bush is reelected the United States increasingly will resemble an impoverished Third World country in which a few families have incredible wealth while the vast majority struggle to survive.

The middle class is shrinking, the gap between the rich and poor is growing and poverty is increasing: This is the Bush legacy.

He will be the first president since Herbert Hoover and the Great Depression to oversee a decline in employment in a single term. Despite huge tax breaks to the rich and large corporations, our country has lost jobs under his reign. Equally important, the jobs being created pay substantially less than those lost. Incredibly, because of outsourcing and disastrous trade policies with China and other countries, in the last three years alone we have lost 2.7 million good-paying manufacturing jobs—16 percent of that sector. We are now on the verge of losing millions of high-tech jobs to India and elsewhere. In the midst of all of this, Bush and Co. support outsourcing and the anti-American actions of their corporate allies.

While corporate America throws American workers out on the street and move their jobs abroad, wages are no longer keeping up with inflation. They fell 1.1 percent in June—the steepest decline in real hourly wages since 1991. In fact, real hourly wages declined in five of the six previous months. Because the middle class is shrinking, the average American employee is working the longest hours in the industrialized world—and 62 percent say their workload has increased over the last six months, a situation about to worsen because of new Bush rules that cut overtime pay for 6 million employees. Poverty also increased by 1.3 million in the last year alone; hunger and homelessness are on the rise.

Yet, the wealthiest people have never had it so good. The gap between the rich and the poor is now wider than at any time since the 1920s, with the richest 1 percent owning more wealth than the bottom 90 percent. Corporate profits are soaring, and compensation of CEOs of our largest corporations is 500 times greater than their workers.

The United States also remains the only major country that does not guarantee healthcare for all its citizens, and this situation only worsened in the last four years. Five million more Americans lost their health insurance since Bush took office, and today we have a record 45 million without any coverage. As health insurance premiums soar, workers are being asked to contribute more in premiums, deductibles and co-payments. Meanwhile, the administration attempts to privatize Medicare and, just last week, announced the largest premium increase in the Medicare program’s history, raising the monthly expense by $11.60 to $78.20. While the cost of prescription drugs soars Bush has defended the pharmaceutical industry, which heavily funded his campaign, by trying to stop all efforts to end the national disgrace of Americans paying, by far, the highest prices in the world for their medicine.

President Bush and the Republican leadership have provided hundreds of billions in tax breaks to the richest 1 percent, people with an average income of more than $1 million a year. And in the process have created record-breaking deficits and a $7 trillion national debt—spurring Alan Greenspan and other financial leaders to advocate cuts in Social Security benefits. In fact, all programs that benefit the middle class are now at risk.

Bush has thrown 160,000 veterans off VA healthcare, and his new Veterans budget will substantially raise fees for the men and women who have put their lives on the line defending our nation. In the midst of a major crisis in affordable housing, the president also wants to decimate the Section 8 program.

This campaign isn’t about George Bush and John Kerry. (And it certainly isn’t about Ralph Nader; a progressive vote for Nader is in effect a vote for Bush.) It’s about a corporate class that has gained unprecedented ground in the last four years and, by extension, the territory ceded by the rest of America."

www.inthesetimes.com/site/main/article/1088/

Others on the left:

NOAM CHOMSKY

"Anyone who says "I don't care if Bush gets elected" is basically telling poor and working people in the country, "I don't care if your lives are destroyed."

- professor, author

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DAVID C. KORTEN

"I consider the 2004 election to be the most important in my lifetime. The Bush/Cheney administration is possibly the most extreme, incompetent, corrupt, and vicious in our country's history. We need to make a serious statement in this election: Bush and his messanic agenda of the extremist right must go."


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MICHAEL MOORE

"And all of us, from conservative Democrats to Greens who are voting Democrat, are all in this tent right now for one common goal. That's to get our White House back in our hands, the majority's."

- filmmaker, author


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DENNIS J. KUCINICH

"The word is unity. ...we recognize that unity is essential to bring change in November. Unity is essential to repair America. Unity is essential to set America on a new path. "

- Congressman (D - Ohio, 10th Congressional District); chairman, Congressional Progressive Caucus


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PAT LAMARCHE

"There are huge issues..." (listing the war, the environment, healthcare, the economy, and jobs) "But most important of all is making sure that George Bush is no longer president of the United States."

- Vice Presidential candidate, Green Party


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MEDEA BENJAMIN

"In the swing states, where this election's going to be determined, [Greens should] recognize that we owe it to the global community to get rid of George Bush. And if people in those swing states support that strategy of getting rid of George Bush, then voting for Kerry might be the strategic vote for them."

- US Senate candidate, California, 2000


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HOWARD ZINN

"If Kerry is elected, we'll have a little ledge to stand on... Presidents can be moved by their constituencies."

- author, A People's History of the United States


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RALPH NADER

"Well, he's [John Kerry] certainly better than Bush. . . He's got a lot of good in him, but there's got to be a lot of good citizens on his back to push him."


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NORMAN SOLOMON

"The emergence of 'GREENS FOR KERRY' reflects a growing recognition of what's at stake. There are many things wrong with John Kerry's political positions -- yet piling up sufficient votes for Kerry on November 2 is the only practical way to rid this country and the world of the horrific Bush presidency. Let's get to work on this historic imperative! Voting Bush out means voting Kerry in."

- activist, syndicated columnist, and author, Target Iraq: What the News Media Didn't Tell You, 2004


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JOHN RENSENBRINK

"People...are very focused on stopping the right-wing cabal that has taken over the country. Therefore, the focus has to be on defeating Bush."

- co-founder, Green Party of the United States


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BARBARA LEE

"I told Mr. Nader: 'A vote for Ralph Nader is really a vote for George Bush.' We can't risk this Bush presidency taking hold again."

- House of Representatives (D-Calif.)

See also:
changein04.com/
www.actforvictory.org