Can a Democratic president make a difference?

Could a Democratic president eliminate the electoral college?

Or institute proportional elections?

Or mandate only publicly funded elections?

Or stop the privatization of the voting industry? (BBV)

Or make corporations become socially responsible?

Or even force corporations to pay taxes?

Or stop us from being a police state with the most prisoners in the world?

Or oppose the military-industrial complex without getting assassinated?

(I changed my voter registration from Green to Democrat just to help get rid of Bush, but I don't have high hopes for real change.)

Which means neither the President or the Congressional leadership should be tools of the DLC, because they would never allow any of the above to happen.

It's the difference between kinda-sorta bearable and complete nightmare.

You want real change, NO, Kerry won't give it to you. BUT What you will get is 4 years of breathing room to work hard on the local level to make the most important changes.

Voting issues: Kerry won't change the system. It works too well for the two major parties. However, it is VERY possible to change the system underneath his feet, without his help. Proportional representation and eliminating the Electoral college will not happen without altering the constitution: that's nearly impossible unless the Republicans get screwed out of the 2004 election by the Electoral College. Then both sides might get pissed off enough for it to happen.

In state and local government, you can push for alternate methods of COUNTING the votes: a change of regulation, rather than changing the fundamental framework. This is easier to do, and has been accomplished in several areas (including Maine), with varying degrees of success. Push for local publicly funded elections in your town, county and state. Push for alternate vote counting methods, like IRV, Condorcet or Borden count voting ( http://www.electionmethods.org for more information on these methods). Enough cities and towns start doing this, the counties will join in. Enough counties do it, the states will do it.

It's hard work, but it's at least possible. With those two blocks in place, there is enough leverage to really make some change in Congressand the rest will follow.

Corporations, I think Kerry will do much better than Bush. While we may not see NAFTA et al. repealled, I expect increases in corporate taxes from Kerry, and more work pressing for fairer trade policies. Again; breathing room and forestalling economic collapse until we can change the counting methods, and work towards more progressives in government.

Stop us from being a police state? I hope so. I'd like to see the Patriot Act and it's subsequent quiet additions repealed, but that'll take a Democratic House and Senate as well.

Oppose the Military Industrial Complex? I hope so. Heck, here's my suggestion; give GE the exact same budget, but tell them to start making windmills and solar panels instead of military hardware. That's something I'm willing to give up my tax dollars for.

In all, I don't expect Kerry to be much more than a respite from Bush. Who knows, FDR was a middle-of-the-road wealthy career politician too when he was elected, and turned into the Great Liberal Icon. Bush called himself a compassionate conservative, and turned into Mussolini (He's not competent enough to be compared with Hitler ;) ).

Kerry may well surprise us for the better, but I'm not holding my breath. Bush has woken me up, and I can't roll over and fall asleep again, hoping that one vote every 4 years will make my voice heard. Let's get active for '04, but stay active until the problems are fixed!