Nothing could be further from the truth. In its recent unanimous vote for Washington’s gargantuan military appropriations, the Senate loudly endorsed the Bush administration’s course in the Iraq war. Nearly unanimous, the House of Representatives then voted against pulling U.S. forces out of Iraq in the near future.

The bipartisan commitment to using military muscle to safeguard the interests of U.S. finance capital in face of sharpening conflicts with other imperialist powers is firmer than ever. It is fueled both by the opening stages of a world depression and by the most far-reaching shift in Washington’s military policy and organization in decades. The Democratic leadership has no alternative to this ongoing transformation of the military—the hallmark of the Bush administration—or to this course on the Iraq war.

Both parties of America’s ruling families are also equally and jointly committed to an onslaught against the pay and conditions of workers and farmers at home, and attacks on basic rights that working people need to defend themselves from the bosses’ assaults. Congressional agreement on making permanent most aspects of the antidemocratic, anti-worker Patriot Act is ample evidence of the latter. As they did under Clinton, the U.S. rulers today are adding many new crimes to their list of punishable offenses to confront working people in the increasingly violent class battles they anticipate.

Lack of alternatives to this line of action doesn’t minimize polarization in the bourgeoisie. To the contrary. The frustration born from the vulnerability of the profit system combined with the inability to find a course to shield capitalism from sharper crises fuels the factionalism between the rulers’ two main parties.

An editorial in the November 20 Washington Post lamented that the Iraq war can’t be fought “amid a partisan free-for-all.” But it is, and it will be, unless Washington rapidly sets back its adversaries in the governments of Syria or Iran, which it is preparing to do to win the war.

The growing loss of self-confidence in the ruling class, reflected in last week’s congressional debates, is not good for working people in and of itself. One of the main contending classes is muddying the ground as it declines. Working people are picking up on their shoes the dirt spread about by the coarsening of politics—the shrill tone, the personal attacks, the sexual innuendo—before getting into the ring to fight the enemy class.

As militant workers oppose imperialist war abroad—calling for the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of U.S., UN, and other imperialist troops from Iraq and elsewhere—and antilabor attacks at home, it is imperative to be clear about this reality and take the high ground. The ground of labor solidarity across borders, as opposed to the dog-eat-dog, “get rich or die trying,” approach of the capitalists. The ground of civil discussion, as opposed to the mudslinging rhetoric and salacious envy of ruling-class politicians and pundits. The ground of political independence from the wealthy rulers and their parties, as opposed to class collaboration—subordinating the interests of labor to those of the exploiters.
 
 
Related articles:
Democrats, Republicans outdo each other in backing Iraq war
Factionalism rife among capitalist politicians
U.S. Congress ready to renew antidemocratic Patriot Act  
 
 
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