DJing Socialist Calls for Write-In Wrevolution

from The Bronx County Examiner

http://www.examiner.com/bronx-county-independent-in-new-york/dj-ing-socialist-calls-for-write-revolution

Want to join a write-in revolution? If you reside in Connecticut, Tuesday will be your big chance. A feisty third party candidate named Todd Vachon is squeezed in between a well-heeled Democrat and a professional wrestling magnate Republican . He’s a DJ, a former union carpenter and a graduate assistant at the University of Connecticut. But, most importantly, he is a socialist running a write in campaign for the Socialist Party USA. He’s calling it a “revolution.” I’d call it an excellent chance to stick it to the fat-cat politicians in Connecticut.

This Senate seat belonged to Christopher Dodd for years. After screwing the American public by helping to push through a pro-business healthcare reform, instead of a single-payer plan, Dodd is preparing to ride off into the private sector.

A feud then broke out among the major parties as Democrat Richard Blumenthal, the state’s long-time Attorney General, attempted to move up the political food chain. The Queen of Professional Wrestling Linda McMahon also saw this as good opportunity to cash in on her steroid enhanced reputation. Simultaneously, the self-described “Lieberman-ite” John Mertens also wiggled onto the ballot.

However, the three mainstreamers could not anticipate the appearance of DJ Mista Mayday. That’s the stage name of Vachon who is presenting a candidacy that offers everything the mainstreamers seek to avoid.

He begins with unemployment. Job creation is not a “trickle-down” problem or an issue for the private sector to sort out. Instead, Vachon presents a plan for a federally funded jobs program that would employ the unemployed and is connected to plans for worked-owned and operated cooperative enterprises.

On healthcare, Vachon similarly pulls no punches by giving outright support to a single-payer system. Heck, he even offered the website to the main single-payer group, Healthcare-NOW on his state questionnaire. This is quite a bit different from Blumenthal who wishes to tinker with Obama’s reform, McMahon, who sees placing limits on patient’s ability to sue as “healthcare reform,” and Mertens who proposed a frankly bizarre “Bismarck” system of healthcare.

And, on the issue of war and occupation in Iraq and Afghanistan, his message is unwavering. Get out. Not with a vague roadmap for the future or by removing ten soldiers a month or with the “fight terrorists to ends of the earth” pledges of the mainstream candidates. For Vachon, it is “get out now.” The Socialist candidate also calls for drastic cuts in the military budget and new policy on war – “My war policy is simple: no war.”

According to the latest Rasmussen Poll, Blumenthal will cruise to a double-digit win. This, despite the more than $46 million in personal money McMahon has spent. Mertens is entirely off the map. However, writing in Todd Vachon for Senate could give radicals, independents and progressives a new motivation to head to the election booth.

Join the write-in revolution on Tuesday and shake up the candidates of the political establishment. Let them know that a DJ’ing socialist has done more to capture your attention than the big spenders have. Write-in Todd Vachon.

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Billy Wharton is the editor of the Socialist WebZine. His articles have been published by the Washington Post, Counterpunch and In These Times. He can be reached at whartonbilly@gmail.com

Top 10 Reasons Obama is NOT a Socialist

(and what an actual socialist would do)

10. Bailouts. As Senator and Presidential candidate, Obama voted for the Bush bailouts of the banking industry. This measure took workers' hard earned tax dollars and gave them to the filthy rich corporate executives who screwed up the economy in the first place. This is the opposite of what a socialist would do.

9. Healthcare. Instead of pushing for a non-profit, single-payer, national health insurance plan, he called up the insurance industry and asked them to write a bill. It of course required that everyone purchase their flawed product; guaranteed customers, exactly what every capitalist wants. This is the opposite of what a socialist would do.

8. Oil Spill. Instead of taking charge in the gulf and creating an international team of experts to address the disaster, he let the corporation who created it handle the mess; they of course lied and saved a lot of face in the end. Furthermore, he has done nothing to address the potential for this to happen again.

7. Foreclosures. After being bailed out by taxpayers, the banks continued to foreclose on taxpayers homes. While the president did everything to protect the financial capitalist's interest, he did nothing to help the working class who has been losing their homes at breakneck speed. Again, the opposite of what a socialist would do.

6.Worker's Right to Organize. Like all Democrats he made big promises to union members, and then, when he was elected he dropped the Employee Free Choice Act quicker than a hot potato.

5. War. Instead of ending the wars which are despised by the majority of Americans, the president escalated conflict in Afghanistan and set up Iraq as a quasi-colonial state to be occupied indefinitely. A socialist would bring all the troops home tomorrow, period.

4. Education. Obama took the awful No Child Left Behind Act and replaced it with the even worse Race to the Top program, which should really be called race to the bottom because its result has been the most rapid privatization of public education in history.

3. Campaign Funding. He raised more private and corporate money in 2008 than had ever been raised and spent on a campaign. Socialists are opposed to private campaign funding, it is not democratic. We want real democracy, not some corporate representative form of government that is bought by the highest bidder every four years.

2. Military Spending. Obama outdid Bush, and any other president for that matter, when he signed the $800 billion annual military budget last year (the highest in the history of mankind). This huge check does not even cover the wars in the Middle East or the VA services for the tens of thousands of wounded soldiers returning from them. Socialists would slash military spending and focus on our real problems at home as opposed to those fear-driven, unproven ones abroad.

1. He is a Millionaire. Plain and simple. The interests of a millionaire are NOT the same as those of the average working class American.

Please consider a real option for real change and real hope this election year.

www.votevachon.com

Vote Socialist on Tuesday!

by Andrea Pason and Billy Wharton – co-chairs Socialist Party USA

http://www.socialistparty-usa.org/votesocialist2010.html

America’s re-introduction to socialist politics continues this Tuesday as voters head to the ballot booths. In many parts of the country, Socialist and other Independent candidates will offer viable alternatives to the budget cutting politics of Democrats and Republicans. Instead of endorsing budget cuts and war or casting a vote for one corporate funded candidate or another, voters can vote for a democratic socialist alternative that places human needs at the top of the political agenda. The center of this struggle is the state of Ohio, where veteran labor activist Dan LaBotz is running an innovative grassroots campaign for US Senate as a Socialist Party USA candidate. At first, LaBotz’s campaign seemed novel in that it was pitched as a united left endeavor. All stripes of radicals were welcome to contribute to the effort to put socialism on the ballot. Indeed, Socialist Party USA, International Socialist Organization and Solidarity members have been joined by remnants of the Labor Party, radical trade unionists and even some disaffected Democrats to push the campaign forward. Opportunities to present a fresh vision of democratic socialism were expanded by this momentum and the fact that the Democratic Party candidate exited the race early on. LaBotz’s “Buckeye Socialism” was soon being spread throughout the state at Youth Progressive Conferences, at LGBT organizing meetings, at worker’s meetings and even at a local mosque during a forum organized by the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

On Tuesday, thousands of people will vote for Dan LaBotz on the Socialist Party USA line to be their US Senator. Thousands more are still undecided. They should consider LaBotz’s anti-war message, his commitment to worker’s rights and his ironclad pledge to put the unemployed back to work. Consider also that something much larger than an election in Ohio is going on. We believe that socialism is an idea whose time has come. We have a plan for bringing democracy to the economy through worker’s control and ownership of their workplaces. This will put people back to work in mass numbers. We have a different vision of the US in the world, as a peacemaker not a war maker. We will bring the troops home, close military bases in other countries and cut the military budget by 50%. Finally, socialists have a strong commitment to civil rights – we believe that people should both have rights and be able to use them. We will dismantle the growing security state, break up the media monopoly where six corporations own 90% of the media and guarantee rights for all people. Dan LaBotz is not our only candidate.

In Michigan, socialists are running as Green Party candidates for the Boards of Regents and Supervisors for the University of Michigan and Wayne State University. In Vermont, socialists will appear on both the Socialist Party USA and Liberty Union lines. In Connecticut, socialist DJ, Todd Vachon is calling for voters to join a “write-in revolution” by writing in his name for US Senate. And, in New York State, Socialist Party USA member Howie Hawkins is waging a determined campaign for Governor on the Green Party line against a right wing Democrat who is preparing massive budget cuts. All of these candidates support the basic ideas of democratic socialism – things like democratic workplaces, free access to healthcare, and free education. Each also has the ability to offer socialist solutions for local problems. On this Election Day, we ask you to consider joining the thousands of other people in this country who will be voting Socialist.

Equally important, we ask that voting not be your only political act. The Socialist Party USA’s goal is to create a radically democratic society in which participation and solidarity become bedrock principles. Getting involved in political activities beyond the ballot box is critical to such a transformation. We invite you to contact us to begin the process of freeing our society from the seemingly never-ending cycle of war and economic crisis under capitalism.

Vote Socialist on Tuesday!
Join the struggle for Democratic Socialism!
www.sp-usa.org