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Waiting for Hillary to change
Letter to the Editor by: Will Fudeman
10/04/2006
Ithaca Times |
http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=17281244&BRD=1395&PAG=461&dept_id=216618&rfi=6
On my way to the single payer healthcare rally on the Ithaca Commons last Tuesday, I picked up a Howie Hawkins for US Senate yard sign upstairs at Autumn Leaves. There are more yard signs there, for those of you who want to display them during the weeks before the November election.
One doesn't have to be a prophet or seer to safely predict that Hawkins, the Green candidate, will not be our next Senator. Neither will John Spencer, the Republican. The incumbent Senator, Hillary Clinton, will win re-election, barring an unbelievable miracle.
As a member of Progressive Democrats of America, I campaigned for Jonathan Tasini to be the Democratic candidate for Senate, because I have confidence in his values and character. Many Democrats have a troubled memory of a third party candidate for President in 2000, who may have contributed to the election of George W. Bush. The Senate race in 2006 is a very different situation.
When we in Ithaca/Tompkins cast a vote for Hawkins for Senate, we will send Sen. Clinton this message: We reject her enabling the right wing Republican militarists who make America and the world less safe, and we reject her actions, which maintain the financial power of her wealthy contributors in the pharmaceutical and health insurance industries.
I join with Ithaca PDA members in supporting Democrats running for Congress, including Michael Arcuri in the 24th district and Eric Massa in the 29th. But for U.S. Senate, I encourage Democrats to vote their conscience in the Senate race.
The Clinton strategy of colluding with the Republicans by supporting the deadly and wasteful Iraq war, while waging a campaign focusing on 'star' qualities and celebrity is a travesty. If Sen. Clinton develops the courage to join the best leaders of the Democrats in the Senate - Russ Feingold, Barbara Boxer, Ted Kennedy, and more recently, John Kerry - in opposing the right wing agenda of the Bush/Cheney years, I could reconsider my position. I'd love to see Hillary make that choice. And, I am not holding my breath.
- Will Fudeman
Ithaca |
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 *Website by David Doonan, Labor Donated to Hawkins for Senate Campaign* |
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