Moving Swiftly On

Justin Podur has an important post on his recently resurrected blog 'The Killing Train' which I think should be read by anyone interested in understanding what's going on with the election in the US. Rather than focusing on what the candidates say they will do he considers where they draw support from:

I realize there's been a ton written about this but I realized then that the difference between John Kerry and George W. Bush is not so much what they say or what they promise to do or what they will do once in office. The difference is that John Kerry is a slimy politician flailing around looking for a winning formula and George Bush is at the head of a massive, incredibly well organized, incredibly well disciplined, incredibly well resourced, truly revolutionary movement. And movements, radicals ought to understand, are serious business.

Other have drawn similar conclusions, among them Noam Chomsky (whom Podur cites) and Rahul Mahajan, but it is an insight that I believe is all too little understood. It's importance lies not only in terms of our understanding of how the Right operate, but in informing how we respond to them. Simply voting for Kerry is not good enough. If Bush is tossed out in November, the movement from which he draws support will continue to exist, continue to mobilise and continue to influence American policy. If progressives are serious about confronting those whom they claim to oppose than they to are going to have to develop a comparable, sustainable, grassroots movement. Unfortunately at the moment this appears to be something they are not only incapable, but even unwilling to do.