Bush vs. Kerry or How Fric met Frac One dimension about the upcoming election that we should keep in mind is that there has been a steady shift among the general public rightward politically for almost 40 years--at least since Reagan. First, all Democrats since Clinton and probably Carter have reflect a party moved to the right so that they were more to the right of what was once the liberal wing of the Republican Party(Rockefeller, Romney, etc). As a result, there is increasingly little difference between the cores of the two parties and we have the truly interesting picture of a "real" discussion of a Kerry-McCain ticket...a coalition sort of claiming a right-center much like the Christian Democrats of Europe. So now, we must decide between the far right, the evangelical extreme right, the boldly corporatist and proto-fascist right on one hand, and the center-right, pro-globalization, pro-business, liberalizing and reregulating, and domestically more in tuned with the general public right. Differences are in degree and immediate impact, not in social direction. The US society has made fundamental shifts away from the public sector view of supportive government intervention to address social problems. Public sentiment is certainly different than the New Deal era, and far from the War on Poverty era. In essence, as a society we have turned our backs on the bottom sixth of our population and as a result we tend not to see any value in public policy. After all, the primary beneficiary of public programs are those poorest among us, and most citizens of this country either don't care if those people are helped or don't immediately see a benefit to themselves in most public programs--and so don't support these programs or calls for these programs if it means higher taxes. The result has been a generation long shift toward anti-government action and smaller public sector employment (at all levels, though we are starting to see a shift back at the local level...however small), and exhibit a philosophical acceptance of most of what we would have called right-wing politics back in the 60's and 70's so that these are now center politics. It is important to 1) see the end of Bush's administration and 2) have no illusions about what Kerry would bring. As many have pointed out, the differences are small but at least significant domestically, and perhaps marginally internationally. Internationally we would pull back from the military adventurism now in place, we would be more inclined to trust an multi-national arrangement internationally though it would not bring an end to our current role in global affairs, and domestically we would have a society that would be allowed to continue its rightward shift more gradually on most things without forcing some difficult issues like abortion and changes in civil rights down the public's throat. The agenda for progressives is to redefine the center and use the changing social and political environment to mobilize and build a more progressive alternative vision and movement. The challenge is first and foremost a rhetorical one as most citizens of this country fail to see either that there are problems, or that the problems can be addressed by public policies. Until that happens, the top (and that is now extended to the 12% of households with over $100,000 in annual income) is increasingly better off, another 18% of households strive (they feel realistically) to be in that top and never really looking behind then, and about 60% of this society are doing well even if some feel the wolves at their heels (many at the bottom are confident they are moving up since they are young and just starting out while many will surely fall into that bottom yet can't believe it applies to them). Only the 10-15% of the very poorest have no hope or reason to hope as our national politics and policies have abandoned them. And sadly, they are not a constituency anyone running for any elected office is trying to attract. Don't expect a change with this election, but do look for a space to work for change--however small and in the end insignificant that space happens to be. Ending Bush II is the first step in building that space...