Runaway train

I'm sure the world was stupefied by the choice the American people made on November 2. I was stupefied, too.

After all that Bush has done wrong--the lies about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, the blunders of the occupation, the loss of jobs at home, the decline in wages, the trashing of the environment--it was hard for me to believe that a majority of Americans would give him another term.

For months, I'd been predicting, in these pages, that John Kerry would win the election, barring something drastic, like another terrorist attack or the nabbing of Osama bin Laden. But no attack came, and bin Laden is still on the loose.

Other events seemed to be coursing against Bush.

He lost badly in the three debates. Any impartial Rip Van Winkle who woke up to watch them would have said Kerry was the President and Bush the unqualified wannabe.

There was the flu shot fiasco.

There was the killing of almost fifty Iraqi soldiers, execution style, after they left their training area without a military escort--which even Dr. Iyad Allawi blamed on Bush.

There was the story of the unguarded arms depot, followed by the charge, unprecedented in modern politics, that the foot soldiers themselves were to blame for any looting of the 380 tons of explosives at Al Qaqaa. Rudy Giuliani actually went on the Today show four days before the election to exonerate the commander in chief and implicate the soldiers. Had such a calumny come from Howard Dean, say, rather than from Giuliani, it would have ignited a firestorm.

But Giuliani--and, by extension, Bush--barely got singed.

That was the riddle of the whole campaign. Nothing seemed to harm Bush--at least not enough.

And so here we are, with four more years of Bush to contend with.

"Now comes the revolution," said the rightwinger Richard Viguerie. "If you don't implement a conservative agenda now, when do you?"

Bush appears to be wasting little time in the implementation.

After denying throughout the campaign that he was going to privatize Social Security, he immediately announced that Social Security reform was tops on his agenda, much to the delight of the investment firms.

Bush also vowed to make permanent his tax cuts, including the abolition of the estate tax, which will reward the very wealthiest of Americans.

And on foreign policy, he sounded more imperious than ever.

This is a runaway train. And it's up to progressives to slap on the brakes.

We spend a good deal of this issue trying to explain why Bush won. We consider what it means for the future of progressive politics in America--and for the well-being of the planet.

In our Comment, we rehash some of the gories of the campaign and then examine what lies ahead. Medea Benjamin, co-founder of Global Exchange and Code Pink, gives her clearheaded assessment. In this month's interview conducted by Elizabeth DiNovella, Benjamin speaks forthrightly about what she considers to be the prematurity of third party Presidential politics.

Political Editor Ruth Conniff, in her column, finds reason for hope in the success of two Wisconsin politicians who did not trim their sails.

Will Durst cracks jokes even while gritting his teeth.

And Molly Ivins, in her usual style, reminds us all to keep our sense of humor--and to fight on.

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