The 2012 elections are critical to defeating the 1%

With the 2012 elections less than a year away, the entire right wing is amassing great sums of money in order to win. They want to take over the White House and the both houses of Congress.

This election has the highest priority for the 1% and their main political surrogates: the ultra right.

With control of all three branches of government they will be in position to push their policies of austerity for working people and expansion of the power and privileges of the richest 1%.

If they are successful, racism, sexism and homophobia will be much more rampant and working people will suffer even more.

One can be sure that the policies the GOP is pushing in Wisconsin, Ohio and other states will continued with a vengeance across the country. As a result more sections of people who consider themselves middle class will be pushed into deep poverty. All of these measures will have the sharpest impact on people of color.

November 6, 2012, promises to be one of the great turning points politically for the country. If next fall’s turning point is to be in a positive direction the election has to be the highest priority for all progressive forces.

I think defeating the extreme right is a no brainer for left and progressive people. One wishes there were more left and party candidates running, but we are not at that point yet. What are folks supposed to do?

Can democratic minded people, progressives, and the revolutionary minded folk be neutral or indifferent or just protest from the sidelines? That would be a big mistake.

The approach taken by labor, civil rights, immigrant rights, youth, student, women’s, environmental and peace forces shows the way out. They are putting their maximum efforts in building movements around the issues that the 99% are most concerned with.

In this way they are pushing the election debate to the left and bringing pressure to bear on and confronting the extreme right.

The Occupy Wall St. movement is part of this phase of the struggle.

The American Jobs Act is an example of the administration responding to left pressure when pushed. There are many more of such examples.

All of this mass protest coming from the left has also put the muzzle on the tea party, at least for now.

The vast majority of these democratic forces understand that the right danger is the main danger.

They are preparing to be fully involved in the elections and will work to elect Obama and a Democratic majority in Congress. Their tactics show a high level of political independence both inside and outside of the two major parties.

It’s clear to me that you cannot defeat the 1% without defeating the Republicans at the polls next November and beyond.

Republican policies are not identical to Obama’s. Obama clearly believes in capitalism, but it is not the extreme right wing form of capitalism that most Republicans believe in.

The right wing’s hatred of Obama is fueled by high-octane racism. They will never forgive the president for passing the health care bill and the economic stimulus and for advocating public works jobs.

Nor will they forgive the Oval Office for wanting to place new taxes on the rich. Even though they agreed with his policy in Libya they will never forgive him for actually withdrawing troops from Iraq and for pushing negotiation over military confrontation. All these measures fly in the face of the basic ideological beliefs of the right.

But perhaps above all they will never forgive this black president for winning in the first place. Their fear and hatred of Obama is so deep that they are willing risk the consequences of bringing the country to ruin in order to defeat the White House.

Obama’s election helped awaken a new belief that racial change — which is a basic part of democratic change — is possible in this country and worldwide.

In 2008, 70 million people voted for Obama. Many of these voters where attracted to him because he spoke of American democracy in egalitarian, pro-working class terms. If these mass ideological trends prevail the right’s political goose is cooked.

Right-winger, Pat Buchannan’s new book warns of the pending collapses of the GOP in about 30 years when whites become a racial minority. But there will also be a tipping point coming for working-class voters as their class-consciousness continues to rise.

The interest of the vast numbers of working-class families, racial minorities, women and youth — all those concerned about the social well being of the American people — is at stake in the 2012 election. This struggle is and always has been bigger than Obama. It involves the fundamental question of real, people’s national interest.

Obama in the White House gives the people the possibility of changing the political landscape, of moving politics in this country in a profoundly more progressive direction. Whether it happens or not doesn’t depend on Obama standing up alone. It depends even more fundamentally on the people’s movement continuing to stand up in the pre and post election period.

I understand and identify with disappointment and disagreements with Obama.

The president has been under extreme right-wing pressure since the day he took office. Under the circumstances he has done some courageous things.

I say this not because I agree whole-heartedly with the president. I do not. My starting point is a strong belief in the ultimate ability of the majority of American people to see through the crap and find the best option presented to them.

And I think we must fight for the most favorable conditions possible for that to happen.

I repeat, if you want to bring about a major defeat for the 1%, help defeat the GOP in November 2012.