2008 Woodie Awards
Finding the right candidate for 2008
Progressive candidates have mandate
Michael Corcoran
Issue date: 10/20/05 Section: Opinion
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In an opinion piece that ran in The Beacon's Oct. 6 issue, I recently made the argument that, for strategic reasons, the Democrats need to shift back toward the left if they hope to win elections. The question posed here, however, is quite different. Rather than focus on what is in the best interest for the Democratic Party in 2008, the focus is on what would be best for the nation. What kind of president do we need in 2008?
While the question is different, the answer remains the same. We need a left-leaning, progressive candidate who will strive to make real, substantive changes and challenge the status quo.
The first reason for this is also the most obvious. After two terms of a Bush White House, we need someone with a vastly different vision of where to take this country if we hope to begin to clean up the mess that Bush will have inevitably left us with.
For starters, we are stuck in an unjust quagmire of a war with Iraq-the Vietnam of our time-and have alienated most of the world with our foreign policies. What is most frightening about Iraq is that it reflects a neoconservative policy of pre-emptive interventionism, not a last-resort effort to ensure national security or a reaction to Sept. 11, 2001.
The Project of the New American Century (PNAC), a neo-con think-tank that shares Bush's vision for foreign policy, lists on its Web site its statements of principles. They read: "We need to increase defense spending significantly if we are to carry out our global responsibilities today and modernize our armed forces for the future."
It continues, "We need to accept responsibility for America's unique role in preserving and extending an international order friendly to our security, our prosperity and our principles." This was written in 1997 and signed by many of today's top government officials, including Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, former Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, Vice President Dick Cheney, his top aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, current United Nations Ambassador John Bolton and Florida Governor Jeb Bush. PNAC also drafted a letter in January of 1998 to President Clinton, urging him to show a "willingness to undertake military action." This shows quite clearly that many of the people who currently dictate foreign policy today have a deep ideological belief in military interventionism.
While the question is different, the answer remains the same. We need a left-leaning, progressive candidate who will strive to make real, substantive changes and challenge the status quo.
The first reason for this is also the most obvious. After two terms of a Bush White House, we need someone with a vastly different vision of where to take this country if we hope to begin to clean up the mess that Bush will have inevitably left us with.
For starters, we are stuck in an unjust quagmire of a war with Iraq-the Vietnam of our time-and have alienated most of the world with our foreign policies. What is most frightening about Iraq is that it reflects a neoconservative policy of pre-emptive interventionism, not a last-resort effort to ensure national security or a reaction to Sept. 11, 2001.
The Project of the New American Century (PNAC), a neo-con think-tank that shares Bush's vision for foreign policy, lists on its Web site its statements of principles. They read: "We need to increase defense spending significantly if we are to carry out our global responsibilities today and modernize our armed forces for the future."
It continues, "We need to accept responsibility for America's unique role in preserving and extending an international order friendly to our security, our prosperity and our principles." This was written in 1997 and signed by many of today's top government officials, including Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, former Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, Vice President Dick Cheney, his top aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, current United Nations Ambassador John Bolton and Florida Governor Jeb Bush. PNAC also drafted a letter in January of 1998 to President Clinton, urging him to show a "willingness to undertake military action." This shows quite clearly that many of the people who currently dictate foreign policy today have a deep ideological belief in military interventionism.