[Iowa-dx] Fwd: Scott Tucker on Dan Savage's call for lynching of Pa. Green candidate Romanelli

[hhart@blue.weeg.uiowa.edu]

A more politically charged climate in PA - this concerns Carl =20
Romanelli, PA Green candidate for U.S. Senate, who got contributions =20
from some Republicans which helped him collect the ca. *70,000* =20
signatures he needed to get on the PA ballot.  He got thrown off, =20
anyway, and some are angry that he used contributions from =20
Republicans.  He says they were atcually acquaintances of his who =20
didn't like either of tje two major party candidates.


----- Forwarded message from scottmclarty@yahoo.com -----
     Date: Sun, 15 Oct 2006 12:39:16 -0700 (PDT)

SAVAGE CALLS FOR LYNCH MOBS AGAINST GREEN
CANDIDATE

By Scott Tucker, Editor of Open Letter Online
http://www.openletteronline.com

(No copyright, publish freely)

October 14, 2006


Readers of Open Letter Online,

     Dan Savage has called for lynch mob violence
against Carl Romanelli, a Green candidate in
Pennsylvania.  So now the clock is ticking: If
the Democratic Party does not disown and condemn
Dan Savage, we have further proof with every
passing minute and hour of the desperation of
their career politicians.

     Here is one quote from Dan Savage: "Carl
Romanelli should be dragged behind a pickup truck
until there's nothing left but the rope." The
full interview with responses is available at
this weblink:

http://lamp.dailypennsylvanian.com/blogs/index.php?section=3D2

     Dan Savage has just endorsed lynch mob
campaigns, and yet he dares to pretend he is
defending democracy? Savage plays upon hipster
reflexes, but his thinking is as muddled as his
calls to violence against any candidate who dares
to challenge the bipartisan lockdown on
elections. If the Democratic Party had behaved
like an opposition party, why did leading
Congressional Democrats-- including Hillary
Clinton-- vote for the bills to budget and wage
the war in Iraq? To this day neither Bill nor
Hillary have dared to condemn the war and to work
toward ending this latest imperial adventure.
They merely hope to be better managers of a
kinder, gentler imperialism.

      The Clintons are pillars of the Democratic
Leadership Council, the dominant faction of the
Democratic Party and a crudely corporate
operation. The Clintons helped sabotage serious
health care reform in this country, and when Bill
was president he not only waged a "bipartisan"
war on welfare, but also tore down the last
remnants of New Deal democracy. The word
"progressive" really is up for grabs if Dan
Savage demands loyalty to the Democratic Party.
Democrats in Congress enabled the Republican
torture program, so torture is no longer the
realm of a bloody soundproof Republican basement.
No, torture is part of bipartisan business as
usual. Just last week, the Senate voted 80 to 19
to build a "security wall" against immigrant
workers along the Mexican border. Repeat: 80 to
19. That's nineteen "profiles in courage." That's
an opposition party?

      On every important issue, Romanelli is the
better candidate in Pennsylvania. If politics is
the art of compromise, we would do better to vote
our conscience and compromise with the Greens
than with the big business parties of war and
empire. The Green Party does not promise heaven
on earth, but they happen to be our best hope for
peace and democracy.  The Democratic Party, on
the contrary, has been an essential enabler of
Republican barbarism.  The open and explicit
strategy of the Democratic Leadership Council--
founded by "centrists" such as the Clintons, Gore
and Lieberman-- has been to use "progressives" as
campaign drones, but to maintain corporate rule.
If we have advanced so far along the road toward
fascism in this country, the Congressional
Democrats are heavily responsible for opening a
royal road for the far right.

      Savage's calls for violence against
Romanelli are simply calls for thugs to shut down
independent campaigns. As the fascists took power
in Italy, the thugs of Mussolini made sure to
target opposition members of parliament such as
the Socialist deputy Matteoti-- who was duly
assassinated. Anyone cheering on Savage is indeed
cheering on this kind of fascist savagery.

     One one issue Savage and I agree: Romanelli's
position on the human rights of gay people--
include marriage and civil unions-- should not be
the only issue voters consider, regardless of our
sexual orientations.  But in fact Romanelli has a
better public record on this and and on every
other critical public issue being considered by
voters.  As for leading Congressional Democrats
such as Bill and Hillary Clinton, they have
labored mightily to dismiss the rights of gay,
lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people as a
"wedge issue."  Either an injury to one is an
injury to all, or this republic has truly
descended into the lowest circles of hell,
inhabited by pollsters and career politicians.

     Casey and the Clintons insist marriage is an
exclusive country club for heterosexuals, or
rather "for one man and one woman."  Only very
recently has Hillary deigned to mention civil
unions as a separate enclave for queers.  Let's
be clear here: when the Socialist Prime Minister
of Spain addressed the issue of civil unions, he
gave no comfort to fascists and religious
fanatics.  That is the difference between civil
unions as a truly civil standard for debate in a
social democracy, and civil unions as an exit and
escape from public debate and democracy in the
United States. Precisely because Spanish citizens
fought and voted for social democracy, they were
able to elect a Socialist as head of state.  If
we settle for the "opposition party" of Casey and
the Clintons, we have settled for bipartisan
corporate rule and the next round of imperial
slaughter.

     The brute fact is that we, the people, have
to fight for fair elections in the United States.
  The brute fact is that the Democratic Party is
trying to obstruct fair elections whenever Green
voters and candidates advance in local and state
elections.  And now a political brute, Dan
Savage, has called for brute tactics against a
Green candidate for public office in
Pennsylvania.

     Savage has the First Amendment right to call
for fascist violence against candidates in open
elections.  Ultimately, this has little to do
with sexual orientation-- just as Savage
suggests.

      I lived in Pennsylvania for over thirty
years, and I am not surprised that some
"progressives" in that state have sunk to the
regressive level of voting by rote for Casey. But
the real hope for democracy lies fair and square
in voter rebellion against both parties of war
and big business. Vote for Romanelli but don't
expect democracy to be a Christmas gift only on
election days. Winning peace and democracy means
much more than spinning the wheels of career
politicians. In his vain and deliberate
ignorance, Savage should go far as a partisan
hack and as a salesman of the gospel of political
violence.

     Savage is a sensationalist in the mold of
Camille Paglia.  He will take this as a
compliment, since they cultivate the same
audience of hipster yahoos.  Paglia took to the
public stage as the Rush Limbaugh of
"post-feminism," while Savage has now emerged as
something much more vicious and serious: he has
declared himself an open enemy of open elections.
  He preaches the gospel that your votes counts
only if you vote for the candidate of his choice.
  And he recommends lynch mob tactics against a
Green candidate with the courage and
determination to wage a fair fight against the
parties of war and empire.

      The Green Party is the real party of peace,
ecological sanity, and economic democracy in the
United States.   And the Green Party deserves our
votes and support.

Peace and solidarity,
Thomas Scott Tucker, Editor of Open Letter Online
http://www.openletteronline.com  (Note: This open
letter will not be found on the website
presently, as it is being redesigned for the new
year).