By Ted Sprague
October 6 2008

You might ask: why should we Canadians and Quebecois care about the presidential election in US? The most obvious answer is because the US is just south of the border, and it is the only superpower in the world. However, this election is now even more important than ever because of the world situation we are entering: a world on the brink of a crisis never seen before. We have wars breaking out everywhere, a global food crisis, major banks collapsing, etc. However, for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction (as Newton postulates), thus we are also seeing revolutions unfolding in Latin America, and series of general strikes even in the so-called socialist Scandinavian countries.

The result of the US election and its subsequent consequences are therefore of interest to every person on this planet. We have here two choices: John McCain, the obvious continuation of George Bush and his policies, and Barack Obama, the man who is supposed to save us. We have a choice here to change the world as Obama often touts that he is the “Change We Can Believe In”. But does Obama represent a real change? The truth is, in the last analysis, Obama is nothing different from McCain. Both of them represent Big Business.

Republicans or Democrats: this two-party system is designed to give the Americans an illusion of choice. They seem to go at each other ruthlessly, but in reality they are just two wings of the ruling class fighting over how best to exploit the working class. Over 200 years, they have been taking turn screwing us with different methods.

Obama stand for troop withdrawal from Iraq, but he is just representing that wing of the ruling class who thinks that prolonging this unpopular war is harmful for their interests. Obama thinks that US troops should be sent instead to Afghanistan and Pakistan (and Iran if necessary), and other places where US needs to “defend democracy.”

On the health care issue, Obama opposes a national single-payer system like the one in Canada that has worked very successfully. Instead, he advocates a ‘better reformed’ for-profit health care system which he claims will guarantee every American a health insurance. If you’ve watched Sicko, you’ll learn that having health insurance in the US doesn’t guarantee you the coverage you often need. As a matter a fact, the Democrats have been making this health care promise in every election and they never deliver it.

Obama and McCain are two sides of the same coin. This is a harsh reality that we will come to understand. “But we have to prevent McCain from becoming president, anything other than McCain is better,” say some people. This whole mentality of choosing the lesser evil has to be smashed. There are more than two choices. Don’t let other people dictate what choices we have! We have the choice to break away from this two party system, build our own mass party, and put forward a genuine workers’ candidate for workers’ interests.