In the US and around the world, there is deep concern about George W. Bush’s policies. People understand that Bush is exploiting the tragedy of September 11th to promote policies that are more life threatening than the actions of all the international terrorist groups put together. Indeed, since the unfolding of the war on terrorism, the world has become a more dangerous place; if Bush is reelected, the danger will be much greater.

How we vote on November 2, 2004 will have an enormous impact on global economic and social justice and peace. US citizens, therefore, carry an extra heavy responsibility to the world community.
To defeat Bush will take a real fight. Many signs show he can be defeated. Bush wants to run as the 9/11, patriotic, anti-terrorist president who saved the world from harm. He hopes to win by playing on the fear and mass trauma induced by the terrorist attacks. He will use the terrorist threat, the war in Iraq and the call to support the troops to hide reactionary domestic and imperialist international policies. The president is getting little political mileage from his economic policies and therefore pins hopes on war and anti-Arab racist hysteria to divide and confuse voters.

The Bush people along with most of the media would have us believe the president is so popular, he can’t be defeated. This popularity, we are told, is based on support for the occupation of Iraq and execution of the so-called war on terrorism. Recent polls (Sept/Oct 03), however, show that Bush’s popularity is dropping, even regarding the war. At this writing, Bush’s margin over a yet-to-be-named Democrat is now just six points (47 percent to 41 percent) among adults and just four points among registered voters (46 percent to 42 percent). This, before the Democratic nominee has even been chosen. In other words, any Democrat will do well against Bush.

The Democrats, while remaining behind on foreign policy, have recently gone from a 17 to a five-point deficit. While the emocrats are still behind on the war in Iraq, the margin has gone from 24 to 15 points in six months. Bush’s current poll numbers are approaching what they were before September 11, 2001. Things could change but the trend is running against him. The same polls show Democrats have increased their margins over Republicans on a number of key domestic issues: the economy by 17 points; the budget deficit by 13 points; employment by 19 points; education by 12 points; and prescription drugs for seniors by 22 points. Clearly peace will be an important issue in the elections and the peace movement is already having an impact. While coordinated worldwide actions last winter and spring were not able to stop the war, they did influence events. For example, peace actions delayed the outbreak of hostilities and helped force the administration to go to the UN, activities that gave many in Congress backbone. The peace movement also affected the way in which the military campaign was waged. For example, embedded reporters were allowed to join troops on the battlefield because of questions raised about the way the war would be conducted. This alone may have saved thousands of lives. Most importantly, these actions led millions to question the basic reasons for the attack and charge the administration with lying about the dangers, particularly the presence of weapons of mass destruction. Now it has been revealed the administration did lie. Thus, the peace movement helped set the stage for the current growing opposition to the administration’s policies. Not only was it morally right, these were the actions of true patriots. It is becoming clear that instead of being a plus for Bush, the war is having a negative impact on his reelection possibilities.

Many activists know in order to end Bush’s perpetual war policy and win the peace he must be defeated. Sections of the peace movement have adopted the slogan, “anybody but Bush.” Some are calling for his impeachment for lying. While this demand cannot be realized with Congress’ present make up, it reflects growing anti-Bush sentiment. More and more major peace organizations are participating in the anti-Bush movement which also a step forward from 2000.

The peace movement’s effectiveness can be seen in the fact that of the 9 Democrats running for president, only Senator Lieberman defends the Bush policy. Seven are outright opposed to the war, including the current front-runner Howard Dean, who has made peace his main campaign issue. This is a step forward from what Democratic contenders did in 2000.

The labor movement is also making a bigger push this time around. In both the California recall fight and the Texas Republican’s racist redistricting effort it played a major role. In New York, labor led the fight against Mayor Bloomberg’s effort to allow wealthy right-wingers to run undetected on a non-partisan ballot. In general, the labor movement is starting earlier and pushing harder than it did in 2000.

The current state of the economy is key to defeating Bush as well. Despite signs of recovery a serious economic downturn now grips the nation. Three million jobs have been lost since Bush has been in the White House. Poverty, hunger and homelessness are growing. The cost of the war and the tax cut for the rich has created record deficits. Bush’s answer: people must sacrifice in order to defeat terrorism. That line is not working anymore, and the ultra-right is getting desperate.

Opposition is also growing to the repressive Patriot Act. So much so Attorney General Ashcroft had to be sent around the country to defend it. Everywhere he went, his weak defense was met with large anti-Bush demonstrations.

In general, the mood among African American and Latino voters is strongly anti-Bush. Bush’s relationship with the NAACP has gotten so bad he was afraid to show up at their 2003 annual convention. Nor is the president popular with advocates of health care or women’s equality.

Environmentalists and youth and students do not support him. If these sentiments hold, and this diverse but large group of voters finds their way to the polls on November 2, 2004, Bush will be defeated.

At the June 2003 meeting of the National Committee of the Communist Party, Joelle Fishman, the political action director, put the challenge well when she said, “It will take an extraordinary united all-peoples front with a movement on the ground to defeat the Bush right-wing agenda in 2004.” This front can be achieved by building an informal electoral coalition that combines the vote of labor, women, African Americans, Latinos, youths, along with the peace, environmental, senior, and the farm vote, in short, all who are pledged to work to save democracy and defeat the ultra-right.

From the beginning, anti-Bush, anti-war sentiments have been present among the families of those who died in the World Trade Center. There is also new opposition among the families of the troops in Iraq and even in the military itself. The call to bring the troops home is becoming increasingly popular. A scandal is growing on what was not done by authorities, including top officials in the Bush administration, to prevent the tragedy two years ago. The recent Senate committee on 9/11 reported gross incompetence on the part of the administration and its intelligence apparatus. Evidence indicates there were many signals and warnings about a potential terrorist attack, including the specific threat of flying a commercial airplane into buildings. Individual FBI agents warned persons were taking flying lessons who did not want to learn how to take off and land but only to learn to maneuver the aircraft once in flight. There were reports of large sums of money being sent to the hijackers. Officials higher up ignored these reports. The Saudi connection to the hijackers is not being investigated. The authorities lacked the conscious will to protect the people, and no one is being held responsible. Congress must be pressured to leave no stone unturned. This is part of the anti-Bush struggle as well.

Many on the left underestimated the right danger in 2000. They thought there was no difference between the Democrats and Republicans and thought they had room to cast a protest vote for president without changing the outcome of the election. The fact that the Democratic candidates were not strong encouraged this thinking. Many voted for Ralph Nader.

After the theft of the presidency and three years of the hard realties of the Bush policies, growing numbers are now prepared to adopt a defeat-the-right, anti-Bush strategy. The fact that most of the Democratic presidential contenders have adopted a more militant anti-right wing program has had a big influence on those who voted for Nader. Some have come up with tactics that would vary depending on how tight the race would be in each state.

That approach may work, but it must not be an obstacle to building a broad electoral coalition. It must also not ignore the need to defeat the Republican majority in the Congress. Most importantly for Communists and other progressives, whatever has to be done to mobilize voters to do the right thing in the coming election has to be done. Failure to act is not an option.

This period is similar to the time when Hoover was president. During that era he pursued the most reactionary policies domestically and internationally. George W. Bush’s policies have been compared to Hoover’s many times. Significantly, Hoover, a cold-blooded reactionary, was ultimately defeated by the progressive Democrat Franklin Delano Roosevelt who, pushed by the working class and left, pursued the New Deal.

The times are filled with grave danger and the struggle today is great but with victory will come the promise of a better day to struggle for even greater victories. It will take a real fight, but Bush can and must be defeated!