Enthusiastic support for front-running Democratic presidential contenders Wesley Clark and Howard Dean from liberals and some progressives reveals the dismal state of oppositional politics in America.

Decades of unremitting right wing assaults on every sphere of American life have so jerked the political landscape to the right that instead of clamoring for sweeping or even revolutionary changes as in days long past, the main battle cry coming from "the left" is "Anybody But Bush."

Long before the first primary, genuinely progressive platforms of Democratic candidates such as Al Sharpton and Dennis Kucinich have been deemed unrealistic and unworthy of consideration not only by the media, as can be expected, but by liberal activists and advocacy groups who often concede privately that they prefer a Kucinich, Sharpton or Ralph Nader.

As the U.S. threatens to expand its empire, with news of American soldiers killed in our illegal occupation of Iraq a daily occurrence, -- a war many Americans are waking up to realize they were deceived into supporting under false pretenses -- as the economy continues to go down the toilet, and as the wealthiest of Americans are lavished with tax breaks while services benefiting the common good are eviscerated, it's no wonder that Bush's popularity ratings are at pre 9/11 levels. In this degraded climate, simply to say you're an anti-war, anti- Bush candidate is to draw cheers from a battered opposition. And while they may be an improvement over Bush, have our standards so declined that we get weak in the knees when business-as-usual candidates like Clark and Dean summersault over a low hurdle? continue thinking
"Anti-War" Ain't What it Used to Be

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