Markin comment:
In 2007-2008 I, in vain,
attempted to put some energy into analyzing the blossoming American
presidential campaign since it was to be, as advertised at least, a watershed
election, for women, blacks, old white anglos, latinos, youth, etc. In the
event I had to abandon the efforts in about May of 2008 when it became obvious,
in my face obvious, that the election would be a watershed only for those who really
believed that it would be a watershed election. The four years of the Obama
presidency, the 2012 American presidential election campaign, and world
politics have only confirmed in my eyes that that abandonment was essentially
the right decision at the right time. In short, let the well- paid bourgeois
commentators go on and on with their twitter. I, we, had (have) better things
to do like fighting against the permanent wars, the permanent war economies,
the struggle for more and better jobs, and for a workers party that fights for
a workers government . More than enough to do, right? Still a look back at some
of the stuff I wrote then does not a bad feel to it. Read on.
************
Defend Abortion Rights-
Defend Kansas Doctor George Tiller (RIP)
No Dorothy You Are Not In
Kansas Anymore- Nor Do you Want to Be
In the whirlwind around the
ongoing intense presidential contest the issue of abortion, except the attempts
by fellow republicans to beat Republican Rudy Giuliani over the head with his
pro-choice position, has settled into the backburners as a dominant issue
compared to the economy, healthcare and Iraq.
The general election in November will be another story as will the next
presidency when another Supreme Court Justice will probably be selected. Not so
right now in the hinterlands and down at the base of society, or what passes
for it, in Kansas. I am reminded that in the last presidential cycle the
journalist Thomas Franks devoted a whole book on the subject of Kansas and
their long term historic turn around from their devotion to prairie populism
and socialism to hateful evangelically-drive bedrock Republicanism against all
reason.
So why am I beating up on the
land of Dorothy and Toto today. Well, the good citizens of Kansas and the
citizens of a few other western states in the 19th century, that is
during their more progressive days, enacted legislation that permitted citizens
who gather a certain number of signatures to convene citizen grand juries to
investigate wrongdoing that was ignored or neglected by the elected executive
authority. The purpose then was to curb the rampant corruption, associated
mainly with the expansion of the railroads, during the age of the ‘robber
barons’. A good idea then? Yes. A useful idea for today? Hell, yes. I can think of any number of
situations where we leftists would want to use this tool to investigate racial
and sexual incidents, unfair labor practices and other issues that get short
shrift from state and local prosecutors. So what is the problem?
The problem is that we
leftists are not the only ones who know how to delve into the old books to dust
off legislation in order to make use of it for our political perspective. Over
the past couple of years Kansas anti-abortion activists have used this tool to
convene citizen grand juries, most recently on January 8, 2008, to investigate
the doings of Doctor George Tiller one of the few late term abortion providers
in the country. That, my friends, is the raw and ugly heart of the matter. Is
this meant to harass, intimidate and possibly imprison Doctor Tiller and scare
away his patients? Hell, yes. Does that mean we want to do away with
citizen-petitioned grand juries? Hell, no. What we do, as we always do is,
fight to keep abortion legal by our own means. We also fight for the real issue
here which is a different type of society where there will be free abortion on
demand and nobody will think anything of it. Until then though- Defend abortion
rights! Defend abortion clinics! Defend Doctor Tiller! Send messages of
solidarity and support now!
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