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Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the Jan. 4/11, 1996
issue of Workers World newspaper
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`Money can't buy you love," the Beatles crooned in their famous melody. But the recent electoral advances of godzillionaire publishing magnate Steve Forbes proves that whatever it is that money can't buy, it can purchase you a spot as a primary contender in the U.S. presidential sweepstakes, a.k.a. democracy.
Steve Forbes? A presidential contender? The subject of front-page analytical articles in the New York Times?
A Forbes surge--okay, maybe just a blip--in interest from the electorate and increased standing in the polls in Iowa and New Hampshire, important early primary states? What's going on here?
It can't be that Forbes' platform is that exciting to regular folks. His campaign is limited almost exclusively to one demand: a massive tax cut for the very, very rich that he dubs the "flat tax."
No, Forbes is not inherently popular. To say that his name lacks household recognition is a major understatement. But Forbes, in spite of these obstacles, exudes confidence. His faith is rooted in his deep understanding of the essence of "American democracy."
That's why he has spent $7 million of his own money advertising in Iowa and New Hampshire in just the last few months. Forbes wants to win the presidency the old fashioned way: He hopes to buy it.
And it's up for sale. But at a very hefty price. In 1992, the Democratic Party spent over $100 million. The Republicans spent close to $200 million, much of it for the presidential candidates. Ross Perot spent $24 million in one month on television advertising alone.
Not being billionaires like Perot and Forbes, however, neither Clinton nor Bush could buy the presidency outright. They were compelled to win the financial support of the billionaires who control the coffers--and thus the campaign contributions--of the biggest banks and corporations.
While the big-business-dominated media focus their election coverage on billionaires Forbes, Perot, or on politicians catering to billionaires--Dole, Clinton, Gramm, Buchanan, etc.--there will be one presidential election campaign that will really represent the interests of the working class.
Workers World Party is fielding Monica Moorehead for president and Gloria La Riva for vice-president in what will undoubtedly be the most exciting element of the 1996 presidential campaign.
In contrast to the candidates of both the Republican and Democratic Parties, the WWP campaign will, as Moorehead put it, "act as lightning rod for the anger and frustration of the working class and the youths who are having their lives devastated by a government that puts corporate profit ahead of people's needs."
Moorehead is an African American political leader who lived in Montgomery, Ala., as a child and resides in Jersey City, N.J., today.
Both Moorehead and La Riva, a well known Chicana activist and union militant in San Francisco, will soon begin visiting union picket lines, campuses and high schools, community groups, civil-rights gatherings, rallies in support of lesbian and gay rights, and participating in actions in support of abortion rights and affirmative action.
"The candidates of the Republican and Democratic Party are committed to cutting Medicare, Medicaid, welfare, education, child-care services, affirmative action and environmental regulations. They only differ on how deep these cuts should be," Moorehead said.
"The Workers World Party platform will demand no cuts in any of these vital programs," Moorehead continued. "The working class created all the wealth in society and now the bosses want us to pay the cost of the deficit of the capitalist government by sacrificing vitally needed programs.
"We want these programs expanded, not cut. And just as the French workers and youths painted on their banners in the recent strike against cutbacks, we will use our campaign to raise the slogan: Make the bosses pay!"
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