Nation must look beyond consumerism

In Indiana, one has a "free vote," and it is apparent Republican candidate George W. Bush will win Indiana's electoral votes. In that sense any vote for Democratic candidate Al Gore is a wasted vote.\nA vote for David McReynolds, the Socialist Party candidate, would be a vote that counts, a vote that will make our leaders sit up and take notice. \nIt is good that a range of views are offered to the electorate. There is little to distinguish between Bush and Gore -- little real debate of substance on our domestic and foreign policy. The arena of debate must be broadened, the range of issues discussed extended. That is the job of the Socialist Party.\nHaving seen our government engage in wars without congressional approval, in open violation of the U.N. charter, whether in Panama under George Bush or in Kosovo under President Bill Clinton, we believe this nation must not go to war without the full consent of Congress after debate. The theory of executive wars must end.\nWatching our military with its almost hallucinatory budget, we urge the Pentagon budget be cut immediately by 50 percent, with radical further cuts each year. We face no military threat from our immediate neighbors, Mexico and Canada, and are protected by vast oceans from invasion. The American military now extends into every area of our lives, and we pledge to resist the militarization of this nation, this obscene continuation of a Garrison State so sharply denounced by late president Dwight D. Eisenhower when he left office and warned of the military-industrial complex. Given the ads taken out in the New York Times by concerned business leaders worried about the misuse of our tax funds for unneeded military spending, our position only seems radical because neither major party is prepared to speak about it.\nThe war on drugs has resulted in an explosion of our prison population leading to the greatest number of prisoners of any nation in the world -- something which none of us should take pride in. \nThe war on drugs is a costly, inhumane failure that has caused vast human suffering and resulted in exporting American problems to Latin America. Most drugs should either, as with marijuana, be decriminalized, or, as with heroin, be available to addicts from a medical doctor.\nThere is a gross injustice when corporate leaders make wages totaling millions of dollars while working American families often must work two jobs to keep food on the table.\nWe have seen a spread of violent extremism and racism as well as a disturbing level of violence on the campus. The Socialist Party will continue to defend the full range of civil liberties and the Bill of Rights, as we have done over the decades. \nThe Socialist Party will speak out against racism in any form, as we move toward a new century in which, before the year 2050, nonwhites will constitute a majority of people. We will speak out against police brutality and demand independent citizen review boards. \nWhile we have listed some of the immediate demands -- some of the urgent issues we hope to address -- let no one think the Socialist Party has abandoned the goal of social ownership of the commanding heights of industry, combined with democratic control, and decentralization and community involvement. The corporation is an artificial creation with no inherent rights. \nThere is much good in America, much we are proud of -- including the long struggle for labor rights, civil rights, women's rights, gay and lesbian rights, etc. These proudest moments in our history have helped to define us as a democracy. They have occurred when the citizens opposed their own government when it was wrong, whether in the South by African Americans fighting segregation, or across the nation in the mass peace movement that helped end the Vietnam War. We honor that history of struggle, which has made our democracy fuller and freer. We will continue to take part in that struggle, viewing our society as one in which there is a conflict between workers and owners. We speak for working people.\nThere are many problems still facing us, as our society seems overwhelmed by raw materialism, too often devoid of any values beyond consumerism. \nThe words of that great Hoosier, Eugene Victor Debs, are as revolutionary today as they were when spoken to a court in Ohio during World War I; they ring with Biblical force calling us to tasks not yet done: "While there is a working class I am in it, while there is a criminal element I am of it, while there is a soul in prison I am not free."\nFor more information, e-mail SocPartyIN@aol.com or visit www.bloomington.in.us/~debs2000/.