We Have Not Begun To Fight
Contrary to early reports on CNN, the Associated Press, and others, the youth vote DID show up and went overwhelmingly to Kerry! According to THE CIRCLE www.civicyouth.org young voters showed up in mass! 4.6 million more 18-29 year olds voted than in 2000! Not only did we show up, but we have reports from all over the country of throngs of punk rockers showing up at the polls together! (Unfortunately, fear stricken homophobes also turned out in record numbers!) For our part we were involved in numerous ways. Pat drove people to the polls all day long. I spent the evening at the University of Pittsburgh, where thousands of college students stood in line fighting for their right to vote even after the polls closed! Such examples of youth commitment were inspirational and to those of you who did your part I salute you for your service!
That said, I wasn’t prepared to write this piece. I couldn’t imagine that enough Americans would have the ignorance to vote for endless warfare, a Supreme Court stacked with neo-con fascists, and a war on the poor, gays, and labor. We didn’t believe that Kerry was the answer but we hoped that he might stop a little of the hemorrhaging Bush opened until we could insert enough progressives into elected office to make a difference in our government. I seriously don’t think that those who voted for Bush realize what they have unleashed. As our civil liberties and the internet are clamped down on, oil interests are thrust ahead of all others, more and more Americans are shipped off to unjust wars, and social programs that people took for granted are discontinued I think the reality of voting for George Bush will start to sink in for them.
I feel ill. I don’t know what else we could have done? Anti-Flag, in partnership with PunkVoter.com and many others worked every avenue available to us over the past 4 years to spread the message that Bush is an enemy of the people and best friend to the mega rich and greedy. Obviously progressive ideas need to reach a broader audience. The question is how?
Yes, we are incredibly disappointed about the result of this election but we know that change does not come overnight. We MUST remain steadfast in our opposition to the lunatic crazies on the right! We MUST continue to fight! In truth, my band mates and I are not fighting for ourselves. We have a roof over our heads, we will not allow ourselves to be shipped off to Iraq, and we are not desperate for health care or food. But we know others who face dire straights in regard to such issues. There are people in my inner-city neighborhood that are so poor that these issues literally mean life and death on a daily basis! And yet because of Republican planted distraction issues like abortion and gay marriage, many poor people voted for Bush and against their own self-interest. What do I mean by distraction issues? Reflect on the following….
Does two gay people getting married affect you, your family, or the nation? NO! Does a woman making the choice to have an abortion affect you or hurt the nation? NO! Is abortion going to go away even if it is made illegal? NO! Does a HUGE tax cut for the rich and nearly no tax cut for you hurt you and the nation? YES! Does fighting a war in Iraq (a country that was no threat to the US) that has inflamed the Muslim world against the US like never before, that will bring the vengeance of its victims to US soil one day no matter how many billions are spent on homeland security; a war that has drained our tax coiffeurs, enriched war supply contractors (Halliburton, Carlisle Group) and cost countless lives hurt you and the nation? YES!
Through constant bombardment from the media, the right use hate, religious manipulation, emotion, fear and lies to coerce people to vote based on issues that don’t affect them! We MUST address this issue in a major way in the years to come! I don’t care what others on the left are plotting or arguing over, we need to hammer on the fact that class warfare is being waged in this country like never before, BECAUSE IT IS! We need to hammer on the fact that greed obsessed-mega rich people and their pawns in government are swindling poor people to vote against their own interests!
If you earn fewer than two-hundred thousand dollars a year and you voted for Bush you are ignorant and have been suckered. If you earn fewer than twenty-thousand dollars a year and you voted for Bush you are ignorant and have been suckered beyond belief! If you voted against Bush I salute you as a visionary. If you make over two-hundred thousand dollars a year and voted against Bush I salute you as a visionary and humanitarian.
The rightwing refer to the moral agenda as the issues of abortion, gay marriage, etc… We MUST redefine that argument within the framework of economic justice because the fact that so many in the US do not have health care, a savings, peace of mind; the fact that the top 1% in this nation own more wealth then the rest of us, THAT is the greatest moral crisis effecting this nation! Unlike personal issues such as abortion or a person’s sexuality, the war on the poor affects all of us because we ARE the poor and the down trodden and there are exponentially more of us then them! It is time for us to put our differences aside and act as one body determined to attain economic and moral justice!
We welcome help from those with wealth who choose to stand with us, who understand that it is their moral responsibility to help and pick up those less fortunate then them. But those who stand against us MUST feel our outrage and anger not only at the ballot box, but everywhere- specifically where it hurts them the most- in their pocket book! Economic boycotts MUST become the center of our strategy!
It is also obvious that in the coming years we’ve got to hammer on media reform. At the forefront of this must be the reform of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) who has given OUR airwaves away to the mega-rich who use those airwaves to brainwash the masses to vote based on issues that in reality do not affect their economic status, personal choice, or freedoms! We must also fight to protect the Supreme Court from being stacked with right wing neo-con activist judges! (This battle that is coming very soon, so get ready!)
So we know what the issues are, the question becomes, how do we tackle these issues? The four of us feel that we need to take a step back for a short time and reflect as we organize and prepare for the up coming battle! As time passes we’re sure that our focus will broaden and narrow to a certain degree but when the dust settles our path and strategy will be obvious and we will be ready to tackle it. We hope you will join us!
Peace-Love-Unity-STRENGTH,
Justin Sane and Anti-Flag XOXO
That said, I wasn’t prepared to write this piece. I couldn’t imagine that enough Americans would have the ignorance to vote for endless warfare, a Supreme Court stacked with neo-con fascists, and a war on the poor, gays, and labor. We didn’t believe that Kerry was the answer but we hoped that he might stop a little of the hemorrhaging Bush opened until we could insert enough progressives into elected office to make a difference in our government. I seriously don’t think that those who voted for Bush realize what they have unleashed. As our civil liberties and the internet are clamped down on, oil interests are thrust ahead of all others, more and more Americans are shipped off to unjust wars, and social programs that people took for granted are discontinued I think the reality of voting for George Bush will start to sink in for them.
I feel ill. I don’t know what else we could have done? Anti-Flag, in partnership with PunkVoter.com and many others worked every avenue available to us over the past 4 years to spread the message that Bush is an enemy of the people and best friend to the mega rich and greedy. Obviously progressive ideas need to reach a broader audience. The question is how?
Yes, we are incredibly disappointed about the result of this election but we know that change does not come overnight. We MUST remain steadfast in our opposition to the lunatic crazies on the right! We MUST continue to fight! In truth, my band mates and I are not fighting for ourselves. We have a roof over our heads, we will not allow ourselves to be shipped off to Iraq, and we are not desperate for health care or food. But we know others who face dire straights in regard to such issues. There are people in my inner-city neighborhood that are so poor that these issues literally mean life and death on a daily basis! And yet because of Republican planted distraction issues like abortion and gay marriage, many poor people voted for Bush and against their own self-interest. What do I mean by distraction issues? Reflect on the following….
Does two gay people getting married affect you, your family, or the nation? NO! Does a woman making the choice to have an abortion affect you or hurt the nation? NO! Is abortion going to go away even if it is made illegal? NO! Does a HUGE tax cut for the rich and nearly no tax cut for you hurt you and the nation? YES! Does fighting a war in Iraq (a country that was no threat to the US) that has inflamed the Muslim world against the US like never before, that will bring the vengeance of its victims to US soil one day no matter how many billions are spent on homeland security; a war that has drained our tax coiffeurs, enriched war supply contractors (Halliburton, Carlisle Group) and cost countless lives hurt you and the nation? YES!
Through constant bombardment from the media, the right use hate, religious manipulation, emotion, fear and lies to coerce people to vote based on issues that don’t affect them! We MUST address this issue in a major way in the years to come! I don’t care what others on the left are plotting or arguing over, we need to hammer on the fact that class warfare is being waged in this country like never before, BECAUSE IT IS! We need to hammer on the fact that greed obsessed-mega rich people and their pawns in government are swindling poor people to vote against their own interests!
If you earn fewer than two-hundred thousand dollars a year and you voted for Bush you are ignorant and have been suckered. If you earn fewer than twenty-thousand dollars a year and you voted for Bush you are ignorant and have been suckered beyond belief! If you voted against Bush I salute you as a visionary. If you make over two-hundred thousand dollars a year and voted against Bush I salute you as a visionary and humanitarian.
The rightwing refer to the moral agenda as the issues of abortion, gay marriage, etc… We MUST redefine that argument within the framework of economic justice because the fact that so many in the US do not have health care, a savings, peace of mind; the fact that the top 1% in this nation own more wealth then the rest of us, THAT is the greatest moral crisis effecting this nation! Unlike personal issues such as abortion or a person’s sexuality, the war on the poor affects all of us because we ARE the poor and the down trodden and there are exponentially more of us then them! It is time for us to put our differences aside and act as one body determined to attain economic and moral justice!
We welcome help from those with wealth who choose to stand with us, who understand that it is their moral responsibility to help and pick up those less fortunate then them. But those who stand against us MUST feel our outrage and anger not only at the ballot box, but everywhere- specifically where it hurts them the most- in their pocket book! Economic boycotts MUST become the center of our strategy!
It is also obvious that in the coming years we’ve got to hammer on media reform. At the forefront of this must be the reform of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) who has given OUR airwaves away to the mega-rich who use those airwaves to brainwash the masses to vote based on issues that in reality do not affect their economic status, personal choice, or freedoms! We must also fight to protect the Supreme Court from being stacked with right wing neo-con activist judges! (This battle that is coming very soon, so get ready!)
So we know what the issues are, the question becomes, how do we tackle these issues? The four of us feel that we need to take a step back for a short time and reflect as we organize and prepare for the up coming battle! As time passes we’re sure that our focus will broaden and narrow to a certain degree but when the dust settles our path and strategy will be obvious and we will be ready to tackle it. We hope you will join us!
Peace-Love-Unity-STRENGTH,
Justin Sane and Anti-Flag XOXO