The Horse's Head Is in the Demo-Liberal Bed Time to Start Digging In

- by Richard Moreno

With the highly touted historical mandate of a little more than a quarter of the eligible vote, the incumbent President has made no secret of his plans to start spending his newly acquired "political capital." In this context, the neoconservative disciples of Leo Strauss are being strategically placed in key positions within the current administration. Indeed, headlines are filled daily with fresh news of "resignations," from top CIA officials to State Department heads, alongside of their concomitant replacements by failed ultra-conservative ideologues.

For its part, the Democrat Party, hastily trying to keep pace, is on the verge of a veritable split. One faction, mostly concentrated in the upper echelons of the Democrat leadership, is determined to break with what it calls the "radical Michael Moore" wing, which it blames for losing the election. On the other side, a significant segment of Democrat Party activists, which are coming more from the grassroots base that corresponds with the rise of the MoveOn.org-type organizations, mostly from the lower levels, continue to grow disillusioned with the policies of "preemption" and Patriot Act legislation.

The self-styled "moderate" sect believes that it can beat the Republican Party at its own game; for example, Senator Hilary Clinton, whose political depravity was exposed by her personal endorsement of a blank check giving W. Bush military authority before the second invasion of Iraq, and Democrat political strategist James Carville, himself the husband of a high-ranking Republican operative, have gone so far as to sing the Holy Scriptures from their respective pulpits, in an obvious holier-than-thou maneuver to appeal to potential Southern and Midwestern voters. Repugnantly, this faction is being prodded and propped up by the likes of such right-wing ghouls as Sean Hannity. On the other hand, the opposition faction, for all that it is worth, appears to be coalescing around Howard Dean in his bid to head up the Democratic National Committee.

The development of these new trends has serious implications that cannot be ignored by those of us who have a bone to pick in this fight. The Left has to make a sober analysis vis-à-vis these new delineations. Fundamentally, our starting point should not be to condemn this new reality, but rather to understand it as the concrete expression of a bankrupt U.S. foreign and domestic policy; what's more, there must be a concerted effort on our part to drive a wedge between the Democrat leadership and its activist base. The demise of John Kerry's presidential candidacy has amongst other things opened up new prospects for us on the Left. Now is not the time to lick our wounds and "reconcile" for the greater good. To the contrary, now is the time to exploit the differences that objectively exist and start digging in for the winter.

Richard Moreno is a co-founder of the Global Resistance Network in the Los Angeles area and is a student at Mt. San Antonio College. He can be reached at polyapplications@aol.com.