Election Day 2006: The crisis facing American working people

This election has once again demonstrated the inability of the two-party system to seriously address the most critical issues facing the American people: war, the threat to democratic rights, the growth of economic insecurity and social inequality. As a result, the largest percentage of the electorate will be those who do not bother to vote.

If, as pre-election polls suggest, the Democratic Party makes significant gains in the congressional vote and regains control of the House of Representatives, the Senate, or both, there should be no illusions that this will mean a change of course for the American ruling elite.

Tens of millions of Americans oppose the Bush administration because of the devastating toll in lives, both American and Iraqi, resulting from three-and-a-half years of war. The number one reason for a Democratic vote, according to pre-election surveys, is the desire to end the Iraq war and withdraw American troops.

But the party which will receive these antiwar votes is itself unshakably committed to “success” in Iraq, which means securing unchallenged US domination over the country’s oil resources and utilizing Iraq as a base for wider military action in the region.

The real attitude of the Democrats was expressed by Congressman Rahm Emanuel, chairman of the House Democratic Campaign Committee, who appeared Sunday on the NBC program “Meet the Press.” Senate Republican Campaign Committee chairwoman Elizabeth Dole told host Tim Russert that the Republican position on Iraq was to achieve “victory,” while “Democrats appear to be content with losing.” Emanuel erupted in protest, demanding a retraction. “I will not sit idly by with an accusation that Democrats are content with losing,” he said. “We want to win and we want a new direction to Iraq.”

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http://wsws.org/articles/2006/nov2006/elec-n07.shtml