VOTE Marsha Feinland, California Candidate for U.S. Senate

VOTE Marsha Feinland, California Candidate for U.S. Senate

By Steven Argue

Liberation News is giving critical support to Marsha Feinland's Peace and Freedom Party campaign for U.S. Senate.

Running for Senate for the Democrats is Barbara Boxer, a Democrat incumbent who votes for the funding of U.S. imperialist war appropriations by voting for the so-called “defense” budget. Likewise, she votes for repression at home by voting to fund Department of Homeland Security appropriations. And, making her backing of U.S. imperialism crystal clear, she votes for the massive U.S. military aid sent to Israel and has defended the murderous Israeli attacks carried out against the people of Lebanon, Gaza, and the West Bank, and defended the Israeli military’s murderous attack of an international aid flotilla. Members of that flotilla were murdered execution style by the Israeli military for simply trying to bring needed humanitarian supplies to the people of Gaza.

Fed-up by the pro-war pro-imperialist Democrats, some antiwar activists have considered turning to supporting the Libertarian movement and even looking to the Tea Party for allies. Yet the Tea Party is nothing more than the racist lunatic fringe of the Republican right with candidates like Ilario Pantano who, in Iraq, shot two unarmed Iraqis down in cold blood after taking them prisoner. Pantano is also a supporter of the racist and xenophobic movement against the right of Muslims to build a mosque in New York and he took time out of his campaign schedule to speak at a Tea Party organized rally in New York trying to prevent Muslims from exercising their First Amendment religious rights. Joining this war criminal on the stage was the Dutch anti-Muslim politician Geert Wilders who, among other things, calls for banning the Koran.

Yet this is the kind of movement that inspires California Libertarian Senate candidate Gail Lightfoot, with the Libertarian Party stating on their web site, “Lightfoot kicked off her campaign with a letter to LP activists around the state saying that 2010 could well be the Year of the Libertarians because of the 9-12 Project and the Tea Party movement.” The so-called “9-12” movement is led by, of all people, Glenn Beck, the guy who out of one side of his mouth claims that Obama’s use of the word “compassion” is an evil thing that associates him with Adolph Hitler and in the same ignorant rant can claim that Obama is a communist. For those of us who actually look at Obama’s policies, Obama is obviously neither a fascist nor a communist, but instead a mainstream capitalist politician. Glen Beck, on the other hand, is another question completely.

And while there may be a few antiwar Libertarians in that rightwing swamp, like Ron Paul, it also shouldn’t be lost on us that Libertarians have a program of getting rid of social spending, from public education to Medicare and Social Security. In stark contrast, socialists like Marsha Feinland are not only ant-war; they call for the preservation and extension 200 years of Social progress in America with things like Social Security, public education, and Medicare and call for much bigger improvements like single payer health care.

Also to Boxer’s right, and trailing by eight points in the polls, is Republican Carly Fiorina who is anti-abortion and criticizes Barbara Boxer’s stated support for public funding of abortion in cases of rape, incest, or to save the life of the mother.

Socialists, on the other hand, support public funding of all health care, including free abortion on-demand. Boxer, however, opposes single payer health care and any other socialist system of health care. In Canada, Europe, and Cuba socialized health care has been proven to increase life expectancy, decrease infant mortality, and cut the costs of health care in half by eliminating the capitalist profits of the insurance industry.

In opposition to the health insurance industry bailout (Obama care), Representative Sanders (nominally a socialist, in reality a pathetic liberal), submitted legislation in the Senate for single payer health care, but felt the pressure of the capitalist establishment and withdrew it in favor of Obama’s plan that, among other things, continues the inefficient and expensive capitalist controlled health insurance industry, does not cover every American, and keeps insurance companies in the position of deciding to kill people by denying needed care in order to make a profit. Boxer never even went as far as Sanders on this fundamental question of providing health care to the American people and simply backed Obama’s plan. In contrast, socialist candidate Marsha Feinland does support single payer health care.

On the environment Boxer, who defended Obama’s lies about “clean coal” technology saying they were needed to win in coal producing states also supports cap-and-trade. In contrast, Marsha Feinland rightly states “We need to place strict limits on all pollution now, to safeguard health and prevent climate disaster. The Senate Democrats promote a "cap and trade policy" which lets corporations buy and sell the right to pollute. Our right to breathe and the future of our planet require real regulation.”

We do need regulation. But beyond regulation, it is hopeless to expect environmentally sound solutions from a system built on profit. Only the revolutionary overturn of the capitalist profit system and the establishment of a workers’ democracy and a socialist economy, with production based on human needs instead of profit, can save the planet from its present trajectory towards massive destruction and human extinction. Likewise, socialism can easily provide everyone with a job, housing, education, and health care.

Marsha Feinland, while putting forward what seems to be a watered down version of socialism and lacking the clear revolutionary socialist program needed, still puts forward a nominally socialist program that is clearly a working class alternative to the wretched capitalist politicians on the ballot. Vote Marsha Feinland for U.S. Senatte.

Additional Candidates Given Critical Support by Liberation News:

U.S. House, 8th District: Gloria La Riva (Party for Socialism and Liberation, running on Peace and Freedom Party ticket)

U.S. House, 6th District: Eugene E. Ruyle (Peace and Freedom Party)

California Governor: Carlos Alvarez (Party for Socialism and Liberation, running on Peace and Freedom Party ticket)

Lieutenant Governor: C.T. Weber (Peace and Freedom Party)

Secretary of State: Marylou Cabral (Party for Socialism and Liberation, running on Peace and Freedom Party ticket)

Controller: Karen Martinez (Peace and Freedom Party)

Treasurer: Debra Reiger (Peace and Freedom Party)

State Attorney General: Bob Evans (Peace and Freedom Party)

Insurance Commissioner: Dina Padilla (Peace and Freedom Party)

Also see:
Liberation News California, Santa Cruz, and San Francisco Voter Recommendations
http://people.tribe.net/554e976f-611d-48a4-b50f-d1eedfa1629d/blog/a4a722c6-778d-41e9-b94e-166c3fb6b757

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