The Election

At the incredible Feminism and War conference, I think it was Margo Okazawa-Rey who pointed out that Reagan in '86, the identical point in Bush's presidency, worked with Democratic control of both houses and still got everything he wanted. I do think it's important for as many republicans to get swept out of power as possible, but I'm nervous about the amnesia: Democrats have to be forced to deliver on stopping the war. Any nonsense about sitting tight until '08 has to be dismissed out of hand, especially in light of this crazy blather about attacking Iran.
In other news, Newsweek has a recent article about Bush's standings. 51 percent of Americans support impeachment. Mind you that Bush's 2004 election sparked the call that he had won a "mandate" on 51 percent. Obviously, we suppport impeachment. Why? Cheney will be no better and the Democratic frontrunners all seem pretty gross (Yes, even Obama. We read Paul Street around here.). What good is impeachment if it'll only replace scum with additional scum - if he's even replaced which is no small matter *cough* Clinton *cough*?
While Impeachment is bad because it reinforces the idea that the system can be self-correcting, it has some pluses as well. First, internally, it distracts the rulers. When their daily briefings have to get cut short because of meetings with lawyers, they're bound to be distracted. While this won't effect some things (roads will still be paved and the fbi will still harass people), it may curtail broad new changes. So while this may be only a dime's worth of difference to most Americans, that dime may mean a lot if you're a nice south American country with strong oil reserves and a penchant for not licking the ruler's feet.
Second, it forces the Corporate media into damage control over the possibilities of systemic flaws. This may not happen if Bush is accused of lying, such as what happened to Clinton (who should've been impeached for many other things, especially his Iraq policy), but if Bush was to be impeached about the 2000 or 2004 election (which introduces the meme that elections may not change things), the war (all sorts of possibilities here), or the internal wiretapping (cointelpro memes?), All sorts of important ideas are introduced into the national conversation. This can plant beneficial seeds for the left to nurture.

Lastly, our own lean is that, while the election is important, we need to foster AWOL soldiers from Iraq and Afghanistan and build a significantly stronger counter recruitment movement in the country. The system requires war: if we can bring the war machine to its knees through our actions (instead of "representatives" moderating and filtering our demands into soggy pleas), we can force a new relationship of power. It isn't the revolution, but unlike the election, it may on the path to the fundamental change we need to see as a world.