California debate travesty shows need for socialist alternative

[Euphen]

California debate travesty shows need for socialist alternative
By John Christopher Burton
27 September 2003

The September 24 debate between the five so-called “major” candidates vying to replace Governor Gray Davis was a travesty. The ninety minutes of sound bites and mutual mud-slinging was an insult to the people of California and the nation, whose living standards are being devastated by the policies of war and social reaction pursued by Democrats and Republicans alike in Washington and Sacramento.

None of the candidates seriously addressed the real concerns of Californians—rising unemployment, growing poverty and homelessness, tuition increases for college students, decaying schools, lack of health care, and the worsening quagmire in Iraq that is consuming hundreds of American lives, thousands of Iraqi lives, and tens of billions of dollars.

The atmosphere of cynicism and unseriousness was so pervasive—with candidates calling one another by their first names and trading jokes and insults—that the moderator at one point reminded them they were not appearing on the Comedy Central network. The event did not even merit the term “debate,” since the candidates had been supplied the questions in advance.

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The miserable level of the event, dominated as it was by mudslinging and demagogy, underscored a critical fact: it is no longer possible for the American political and media establishment to seriously discuss any important social questions. This is because any serious discussion of either foreign or domestic policy rapidly brings into question the most basic issues—first and foremost, the staggering concentration of wealth and growth of social inequality in America. This issue cannot be seriously discussed because it goes to the very foundations of the capitalist system: the subordination of all human and social needs to the accumulation of personal wealth and corporate profit.

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http://wsws.org/articles/2003/sep2003/cali-s27.shtml

[Shanty Oilish]

1. Newpaper notice

WHEREAS my state, California, having left my bed and board without any just cause, I hearby forbid any person or persons harbouring or trusting her on my account as I will not be responsible for any debts contracted by her.

Uncle Sam