January 09, 2006: For a new party
I agree with those who believe that defense of democratic secularism against "Islamist" forms of authoritarianism is indeed a defining struggle between cultures. The problem is that neither of America's two dominant parties is capable of leading us to victory.
The Republican elite is married to a strategy of empire-building which has failed disastrously since World War Two. In the name of "anticommunism", Republican foreign policy empowered the most viciously antidemocratic forces around the world, including the fundamentalist Islamic movements which are now our enemies. At the same time, Republican evangelicals undercut the global battle for democratic secularism by blurring the distinction between church and state in America. Republican foreign policy including the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq plays to the enemy's strengths while minimizing our own.
The Democratic leadership is pusilanimous. While offering rhetorical resistance to aspects of the Republican domestic agenda, Democrats have never articulated a principled foreign strategy independent of the dominant Republican vision. Since 1980, the Democratic party has failed to present a serious or sustained challenge to the hubristic Republican ascendancy. There is no Democratic Party foreign policy strategy.
Neither party represents the interests of working people or the poor. Although they disagree over strategy, both parties fundamentally represent employers. The Republican elite is dominated by big business, Wall Street, and the super-rich. In its lengthy drift to the right, the Democratic Party no longer makes even the rhetorical claim to represent working people, instead explicitly orienting toward "the middle class". There is no major public voice today advocating the interests of working people or the poor.
Americans need a new party which will better represent their interests at home, while making possible a victorious strategy in the so-called War on Terror.
