"So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past." -F. Scott Fitzgerald, "The Great Gatsby"

F. Scott Fitzgerald ended the Great American Novel with the Great American Metaphor. The timeless struggle for basic human rights by people like Martin Luther King Jr, borne back ceaselessly by people like George W Bush. Karl Marx was right: the history of humanity is the history of class struggle. Modern history is the story of working people struggling for basic rights and the story of capitalists struggling to deny them. (Both are easier said than done.)

Both Canada and the US are about to have federal elections which, I think, provide us with another opportunity to analyze the interesting differences between our Two Great Nations. I was watching the Democratic Party potential nominees debate on CNN a week ago. It was horrible. A truly disgusting thing to watch. When the two main candidates (John Kerry & John Edwards) were asked if they regretted giving George Bush a blank cheque to go to war, now that we all KNOW he was lying all along about Iraq having WMD.....they said "NO." No? This is strange, I thought. When the candidates were asked if (as President) they would support publicly funded health care (like Canada's)....they all both said "NO." No!?!?!?! What the hell? I couldn't believe it. When they were asked if they supported gay marriage....they said "NO" again. Interesting, I thought. The Democrats are supposed to be America's LEFT-WING party, right? It got me thinking; lets compare the US's "left wing" party to Canada's "right wing" party. The Conservatives. Canada's newest party: an unholy marriage between the neo-fascist Reform Party and the Old School Tories. When the three potential candidates for the Conservatives got together to hash it out not ONE of them was willing to admit that they are against Public Healthcare. This party is considered the "far-right" in Canada (for good reason, by the way) and not one of their potential leaders would dream of publicly admitting they opposed socialized health. It would destroy their base of support. Now lets look at the States. The party considered to be "on the Left" in the US is the Democrats, right? Neither Kerry nor Edwards were willing to admit that they support Public Heathcare....they were too scared it would split their base of support. The moral of the story? The Democrats are NO different from the Republicans, and Canadians should not take for granted the social reforms we have been able to win, or the importance of having a strong working-class party.

The Canadian Conservatives and the American Democrats actually differ on some issues, but they all have one very important thing in common. They care more about being elected than anything and everything else. These people have no morals and no convictions...at least none that they can't through out the window on a moments notice! For example, John Kerry (the man that will take on George W in November) supported and voted for gay rights for over 20 years, and now all of a sudden he wants to be President and guess what? Oh, he decided he dosn't support gay rights after all! Sorry. (And he doesn't support healthcare anymore either!) Belinda Stronach has been a capitalist and a free-market champion her whole life....one day she decides she wants to be Prime Minister, and all of a sudden (guess what?) she supports public healthcare!?! What the hell? Public funding for a social service from a Free-Market Zombie like Belinda?! I don't think so...its a cool trick if she can pull it off. The real question is how naive, gullible, or just downright stupid ARE Canadian voters?

In any case, John Kerry looks like a real threat to The President. George is too stupid to have noticed, but obviously His Controllers have picked up on it because all of a sudden George wants to "Amend the Constitution"! Can you imagine! What the hell for? To Free the Slaves? God, no. To give women the right to vote? Wrong again. This would be the first time the American Constitution was amended to TAKE AWAY peoples human rights!!! Only George W, eh? Its kind of funny, in a sick way. He's gotta know that he'll never get away with it. It's just so blatantly in violation of the Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms (wait, thats Canadian, isn't it?)....anyway, he's really just using Gay Marriage as a "Wedge Issue" to try and get anti-gay Democrats to vote Republican. And that's the real reason for John Kerry's new fascist position on the issue. Its a race between the two parties to prove which one's the most reactionary...and I'm afraid thats a race that George is going to win every time! On august 28, 1963 from the Lincoln Memorial,  Martin Luther King Jr said, "I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal." The Reverend would roll over in his grave if he knew that a neo-fascist little punk like George W was co-opting his name for "black history month" and with the same breath turning around and destroying the same human rights King fought for his whole life. Martin Luther King Jr's dream is DEAD as long as Bush is The President and John Kerry is his ONLY opposition.

Bush isn't the first bigot to try and amend the constitution to protect marriage. According to the Toronto Star, in 1912, Rep. Seaborn Roddenberry of Georgia proposed an amendment; "Intermarriage between Negroes or persons of color and Caucasians...should be forever prohibited." He took this action, he said, because some states were permitting marriages that were "abhorrent and repugnant," and he aimed to "exterminate now this debasing, ultra-demoralizing, un-American and inhuman leprosy." Like Bush, Roddenberry claimed the constitutional amendment was necessary because, "marriage cannot be severed from its cultural, religous and natural roots without weakening the good influence of society." Those scary words spoken in 1912 could have just as easily come out of Bush's mouth in 2004.

If you've seen "The Passion of the Christ" (directed by Mel Gibson) you know what happened to Jesus when he came around preaching HIS brand of anti-gay hate. He was publicly beaten. And George Bush deserves no less. If George Bush or John Kerry even received a small fraction of the kind of treatment Jesus got, they'd change their tune in a hurry! They whipped Jesus in the streets, but he was the Real Deal, he was PRINCIPLED. If George Bush and John Kerry were even threatened with that kind of treatment they'd flip-flop so fast that they'd marry each other!! We'd see them the next day on CNN, petitioning the state for the right to adopt. These men believe in nothing. They are Nihilists. In "The Big Lebowski," Jeff Bridges (The Dude), John Goodman and Steve Buscemi are attacked by a gang of greedy Nihilists. Steve Buscemi (Donny) asks John Goodman, "Are these men going to hurt us?" And John Goodman replys, "No, Donny, these men are cowards. They believe in nothing." The Democrats and the Conservaties are nothing more than gangs of greedy Nihilists. "Will we ever end homophobia, Max?" Of course, Donny, these men are cowards. We just need to keep The Dream alive, boats against the current.

Yours in Solidarity,
Max
(Keep "The Dream" Alive)