Below we post a selection of recent letters to the WSWS concerning the debacle suffered by the Democratic Party in the US midterm election.
Yes, voter alienation. Let me go a step further and describe my take on citizens. There is a malaise here in Florida that I suspect is typical of other parts of the country as well.
In Palm Beach County, where I live, I haven’t met a single living soul who supports, or admits to supporting Jeb Bush or his brother, for that matter.
As a student of human behavior, this particular election was fascinating to me. “Election, what election?” The reduced turnout had nothing to do with satisfaction with the existing system. It had everything to do with apathy. We have learned that we are powerless, and we are acting like obedient depressives.
There’s only so much outrage one can feel. Enron. Tyco. Greed. The “Bush Dynasty” bought and paid for. A few thousand outraged citizens can be silenced by the “get out of jail free” cards given to the very, very rich. But the simmering anger is there. It’s palpable. When enough of us acknowledge this government in no way represents us I predict (and hope) meaningful change will take place.
And that change will take place on the local level, obviously. Maybe a few more hard working, underpaid citizens will grasp what a sham being able to vote is. I hope we’ll educate ourselves, call a liar a liar, a thief a thief, and reclaim our dignity.
I apologize for digressing. My point is we’re not voting because it doesn’t make a whit of difference. Is this any way to run a country? Being able to vote does not a democracy make.
Meanwhile, we’ll wordlessly watch Mr. Bush invade Iraq. We won’t ask how or when Osama morphed into Saddam Hussein. We won’t ask because we know. It’s about oil. It’s about money. It’s about the Bush family. It’s about the powers that be that will benefit. It’s not about us. We, the citizens, are just a nuisance.
I live in Palm Beach County. I am not poor, although my net worth has decreased considerably to pay for the thieves mansions in Boca Raton. I feel no loyalty or patriotism toward the United States. If you’re thinking, “So Leave, Why doncha???”...I am giving that serious thought.
LD
15 November 2002
Dear Sir:
I read your article with great interest about this past election and the losses in the Democrat Party. What you did not mention was the plotting strategy of Karl Rove, Charles Black and Ralph Reed and the methods they used to get out the vote. Most important you did not mention the two-year campaign of Bush flying all over America raising money and pushing his agenda. “Give me a party that will give me MY PLAN FOR AMERICA, not what is good for America. Give me a group of spineless, backboneless, rubberstamp whimps and I will control America.”
By the way, when the White House was asked for an expense account of his travels it refused. The Washington Post did find out it cost $75,000 an hour to fly Air Force One, not counting security expenses, so you can see the American taxpayer paid to give Bush what he wanted—over 70 trips and $145 million for the radical right-wing party. All news coverage gave Bush 24 hours-a-day coverage. If a Democrat tried to get coverage it was with ridicule. The party did not fail, the controlled media and press did a great job, as it is doing now to get the homeland security office, something else to take away from Congress, to be a cabinet job. The Congress was almost phased out with the anthrax scare in Congress. If Tom Daschle had closed the Senate office it would have never been opened again. America would have AN EMPIRE.
CD
South Carolina
13 November 2002
I have read your evaluation of the US midterm elections and also the article analyzing the support by the US Democratic Party for Bush’s war drive. Well done. Yours is a great site to which I came by sheer chance. Do continue your critique of the American warmongers.
Professor HT
Moscow
8 November 2002
I read your article and I totally agree with it. I think people like me who are in the lower to middle class category (we live from paycheck to paycheck) are going to be in serious trouble. I wonder if I’ll have a job in the next two years or not. I do feel some disappointment with the Democrats. It seems no one cares. There was one person who did care and who was able to organize people. He was a very dangerous person to the Republicans, but now he’s gone. I think when Paul Wellstone died, something died in all of us Democrats. I don’t blame Democrats. I blame the Americans who fell for Bush’s BS that our biggest problem is terrorism and voted Republican in this election. I feel no sympathy for anyone who voted Republican and will now lose their job. It’s the rest of us who didn’t vote that way that need to get together and do something, but what can we do?
I’d love to hear any answers to that.
LD
7 November 2002
Dear Editors,
We just saw the end of the Democrats. I actually listened to Old Senator Byrd when he tried to filibuster the Bush Imperial War bill. It was heartbreaking. The NPR analysis was to make fun of his “old fashioned” speech style.
He talked about beheading Charles II. My family participated in that revolution, and when it ended they fled to Dutch America, coming with nearly nothing, up the Hudson River, living amongst the natives, hiding from the King.
This is why Byrd’s family, exiles from the Scottish wars of Freedom, came here. He, like myself, knows that the America our ancestors fought to create is dead. He was very bitter in his speech and when he talked about Charles II, he started to laugh, a bitter, angry laugh; reminded me of my grandfather’s laugh...
My hair stood on end. I cried. I knew when the weasels running the Senate silenced that old lion, that would be the end of it all and so it was no surprise. Sad, but not unexpected!
We need a future. All American parties are RETRO. The Greens, too. They want the past and the past is not only dead, it is DEADLY.
We can’t go to the past, we have to go to the future and the future is internationalism. We can’t devour our planet forever! There are limits. But there is no limit to human desire or human abilities. We have to move outwards or WWIII will devour us all.
Thanks,
ES
7 November 2002
Hello:
I am writing to commend your article by the Editorial Board entitled “US midterm election: the meaning of the Democratic debacle.” It is as excellent and as well written as any article published on WSWS. Indeed the corporate media has trumpeted the Republican success as an example of popular support, but the article easily brushes that aside with superior analysis and an honesty not found at all in the mainstream media.
Cordially,
GR
Ottawa
7 November 2002