A presidential mess

It's officially bad and a mess. Yesterday the Democrats nominated Hillary Clinton to be their presidential candidate. And the media is making a big deal about it because she is the first official female candidate of a major party for the position.

Nice to see the corporate media ignoring history and all the women who have run for president before on significantly more progressive platforms than what the Democrats are offering.

Let's face a very simple fact: This was in an article in the Nation magazine and is available on their web site and soon in the GALE on-line magazine databases. Called “Clintonism failed” in the on-line version, it was about the creation of the Democratic Leadership Council and the “third way” politics that President Clinton would use in his two terms to get elected and undermine the working class by getting the big dollar corporate donors to give to the Democrats rather than the Republicans. It worked for President Clinton. Not the working class that saw the ramming of NAFTA down their throats, the increased incarceration of African Americans and other minorities on “three strikes” convictions, and a host of other disasters like the cutting of services to the working poor.

In that article 2016 nominee Clinton declared that she was an “Eisenhower Republican.” Not a far fall from the “Goldwater Girl” that she was in the 1960's. Z Magazine has an excellent article this month on the history of Hillary Clinton and the grand disaster that she is for America.

As Secretary of State she did a terrible job with her ongoing support for the debacle in Iraq, the in an d out again in Afghanistan, the mess that is Libya, the Honduran coup that threw out Manuel Zelaya (illegally), the start of the US intervention in Syria (and support of al Qaeda, ISIS, and other terrorist groups

And the Democratic Party talks a good talk. When it comes time for the rubber to meet the road, they will sell out the working class and other groups faster than the Road Runner outraces Wiley E Coyote, Genius. We might see a few victories, like LGBTQ marriage in NY, but immigrants are still waitng for Obama to stop deporting them.

It's time for the working lass to wake up. Sanders delegates are creating a little bit of havoc in Philly and the Green Party – a group that has a more progressive social agenda but looks to make capitalism environmentally friendly – is active in Philly. But we need more than a candidate that talks nice and puts a green(er) face on corporate profits.

Socialist Action is running Jeff Mackler for President. He is a successful trial lawyer, works on the Free Mumia committee and is active in many other social justice movements (Free Leonard Peltier, Lynne Stewart, and many others.) He is the National Chairman of Socialist Action. He fought a court case in California to have their election campaigns made more democratic. (Right now the top two primary candidates have a run off in November. This means that the Democrats and Republicans can swamp the race and deny other candidates the opportunity democracy demands. Sadly, democracy and the voters lost.) He is also active in many other social justice movements – from Black Lives Matter to immigrant rights to LGBTQ rights.

Jeff is a prolific writer for the Socialist Action newspaper and has written several pamphlets as well. (A good read because of good analysis. Must be that lawyer thing working it.)

The working class can tether itself to the two faces of capitalism- the die hard Trump face or the Eisenhower Republican face – or it can go the Green route. And if you are fine with that, go for it.

But if you want to effect system change – a change from an oppressive capitalist system that pits worker against worker to a system that has workers working together top create a more just and equitable system, a system that stands in opposition to discrimination in any form against any person, a system that stops destroying this planet for the next dollar – then vote for Jeff Mackler for President and Karen Schraufnagel for Vice President this November.

Remember: It's your vote, your voice, so use it.

You have nothing to lose but your chains.

So let's get some Socialist Action going.