EDITORIAL
Biden and Palin
Published Sep 3, 2008 10:36 PM
The vice presidential candidates of the two major parties, Sen. Joseph Biden of
Delaware and Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska, confirm that nothing has changed about
either of these capitalist parties.
There has been great change, on the other hand, among the masses of people who
go to the polls. They are very much against the war in Iraq, after having been
bamboozled for a while by the lies of the Bush administration. They want the
government to do something about the economic crisis that is bearing down on
them like a freight train out of control. They are ready to try something new
to bring about change in this government. Many, many white people have put
behind them the extreme prejudice that would have ruled out an African American
presidential candidate in every election before this one.
Yes, there has been change already. But look at Biden and Palin, chosen by
their respective running mates, and you won’t find it. Let’s take
Palin first, since every liberal can give you a long list of reasons why
she’s not just right of center but comes from the ideological far right
on issues like women’s right to choose, climate change and the
environment, reining in (not) the oil companies, and science—like denying
evolution.
The only thing that seems to separate Palin from a whole host of Christian
fundamentalist political figures is that she’s a woman. But being a
woman, and acting on behalf of women, are two very different things. After
Margaret Thatcher, Madeleine Albright, Condoleezza Rice, and a bunch of other
consummate imperialist women, it should be clear that gender alone does not
define a political figure. Their class loyalties trumped any feelings for the
problems of working-class women, whose situation has been growing direr as
corporate rule grows stronger and meaner.
And then there’s Biden—an experienced servant of imperialist
interests who has headed the Senate Foreign Relations Committee just when U.S.
foreign relations are in a shambles. Why? Because most of the world rejects the
rapacious aggression carried out by the Pentagon on behalf of the money lords
of Wall Street. Biden knows how to talk softly while shepherding Congress into
funding the big sticks of war and intervention.
Biden is also known as the MasterCard senator because he worked with the big
banks to change the laws so workers can’t escape onerous debt any more by
declaring bankruptcy.
Both these figures, by the way, come from states with great wealth and very
small populations, where the super-rich (oil, lumber and mining corporations in
Alaska, DuPonts in Delaware) hold the privileges and power of medieval
lords.
Behind all the hoopla, smoke and mirrors of the choreographed conventions, the
capitalist political process continues to disenfranchise the working class,
especially its most oppressed sectors, while turning power over to craven
servants of big capital.
Articles copyright 1995-2012 Workers World.
Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article is permitted in any medium without royalty provided this notice is preserved.
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