Dime's Worth of Difference: Beyond the Lesser of Two Evils

Like the Tories and the Labour Party in England or the Meretz and Likud parties in Israel, the Democrats and the Republicans represent two sides of the same coin. It's an old cliche, I know, but ever so true. For anyone needing to be convinced of this arguement, just pick up this small and informative book. From gay rights to the environment, from free trade to the military industrial complex, both parties pursue identical agendas. The only difference is that the Republican party is at least upfront about its pro-corporate, homophobic, racist objectives, whereas the Democratic party tries to decieve its constituents with lip service about human rights and other lofty goals. For example, while the Democratic party is often marketed as the party for peace and economic justice, what did eight years of the Clinton regime give the world? They gave us the WTO, Plan Colombia, war in the Balkans, economic sanctions against Iraq, etc., etc., etc. Instead of wasting our time, money and energy on the Democratic party, Cockburn and the other brilliant authors in this excellent anthology wisely argue that progressive activists should concentrate on building grassroots, egalitarian, participatory movements from below. Though written as a response to the 2004 presidential elections, this is still a vital and relevant book.

Dime's Worth of Difference: Beyond the Lesser of Two Evils, edited Jeffrey St. Clair and Alexander Cockburn of CounterPunch, makes the case against the Anybody-But-Bush mania that dominated the 2004 election. It deserves a place alongside Hal Draper's article "Who's Going to Be the Lesser Evil in 1968?" written almost 40 years ago, but a classic socialist statement about the politics of lesser evilism. To consider alternative progressive directions its useful to read Independent Politics: The Green Party Strategy Debate, edited by Howie Hawkins, a collection of articles discussing the issue of how an independent alternative to the Democrats and Republicans needs to be built.

If you have a friend who thinks there's a vast gulf between Democrats and Republicans, you need to hand him or her a copy of this book. I received this as part of the Friends of AK Press deal (something everyone should take part in), and I couldn't be happier. It confirmed everything I always thought about the two parties. That being: Beyond basic stances that don't really amount to much at all, there is little difference between Democrats and Republicans. Both parties are money-hungry, status quo protectors who are as hypocritical as they are spoiled. The proof isn't in the pudding. It's on the page. Essay after essay of proof, actually. So give your friend this book and then check back with him or her in a week or so. If they don't get it after reading it, they never will.

Jeff Taylor points out the mediocre record in the senate of Paul Wellstone, the senate's supposed leading raging liberal, and notes the rather surreal reaction of a Human Rights Campaign official after Wellstone voted for the Defense of Marriage Act in 1996. Michael Donnely has a chapter on Democratic Senator Ron Wyden, the timber industry's biggest recipient of campaign cash besides President Bush, who helped push through destruction of thousands of acres of Old Growth forests (which are most resistant to forest fires) in Oregon with Clinton's so called Healthy Forest initiative. Josh Frank discusses Montana's Democratic Senator Max Baucus. Jeffery St. Clair writes about the Democrats energy policy. Clinton opened the National Petroleum Reserve up in Alaska, an area much more significant than ANWAR. In 1996, he ordered that oil exploited on Alaska's North Slope could be exported. This reduction of supply for the U.S. helped drive up energy prices in the Midwest. Oil drilling was begun with Clinton's support all around the coast of Alaska. Under Secretary of Interior for Energy David Hayes bragged to Congress, about the vast increases Clinton supported in drilling for oil and gas on public lands. St. Clair notes that Bush's recently departed deputy Interior secretary Stephen Griles got into some trouble after he broke out in rage at an EPA report which stated that exploitation of Coal Methane deposits at the Powder River Basin in Wyoming and Colorado, would greatly harm drinking water supplies.. The companies pushing for this project all formerly employed Griles as a lobbyist. St. Clair notes that Ralph Cavanaugh of the National Resources Defense Council testified on behalf of Enron's effort to gain control of the public utility in Oregon, Portland GE. . Contrary to Cavanaugh's predictions, rates rose very high, the Enron execs bilked the ratepayers of tens of millions. Cavanaugh similarly lobbied for deregulation of utilities in California. In this new situation power grades deteriorated and of course, companies led by Enron, decided to turn off their readily available supply of electricity in order to gauge Californians. Ralph Cavanaugh was given an award by Teresa Heinz Kerry's foundation, on which Ken Lay sat, for his work in "free market environmentalism." Cheney used the resulting high energy prices to push for opening ANWAR to give his oil cronies even more short term profit but that would only have the effect of reducing gas prices by a few cents for a short period. Cockburn and St. Clair note that at the height of the so-called Clinton boom, real wages were still ten percent below the level of the Nixon-Ford years. In 1996 the Congressional Budget office reported that there were three to five people needing work for each available job. Currently, in Bush's America, the ratio is about ten to one. In a University of Chicago study in 1998, at a McDonalds in Harlem, there was found an average of fourteen people applying for eac