[Mb-civic] Noam Chomsky on Differences between Bush & Kerry

[ean at sbcglobal.net]

Published in the September/October 2004 issue of The International Socialist 
Review  
War Crimes and Imperial Fantasies  
Excerpt of an interview of Noam Chomsky by David Barsamian  
  
David Barsamian: Every four years Americans, those who vote, are faced 
with what is often called the lesser of two evils as their presidential options. 
Dave Dellinger, who passed away in May, used to call it "the evil of two 
lessers." You say that there is "a fraction" of difference between George 
Bush and John Kerry. And this raised some eyebrows. I heard, "It sounds like 
Chomsky is coming out for Kerry." Could you expand on your position. 

Noam Chomsky: There are differences. They have different constituencies. 
There are different groups of people around them. On international affairs I 
wouldn’t expect any major policy changes. It would probably be more like 
back to the Clinton years, when you have sort of the same policies, but more 
modulated, not so brazen and aggressive, less violent. And I would expect a 
kind of return to that. 

On domestic issues there could be a fairly significant difference–it’s not 
huge–but different in its outcomes. The group around Bush are real fanatics. 
They’re quite open. They’re not hiding it; you can’t accuse them of that. They 
want to destroy the whole array of progressive achievements of the past 
century. They’ve already more or less gotten rid of progressive income tax. 
They’re trying to destroy the limited medical care system. The new 
pharmaceutical bill is a step towards that. They’re going after Social Security. 
They probably will go after schools. They do not want a small government, 
any more than Reagan did. They want a huge government, and massively 
intrusive. They hate free markets. But they want it to work for the rich. The 
Kerry people will do something not fantastically different, but less so. They 
have a different constituency to appeal to, and they are much more likely to 
protect some limited form of benefits for the general population. 

There are other differences. The popular constituency of the Bush people, a 
large part of it, is the extremist fundamentalist religious sector in the country, 
which is huge. There is nothing like it in any other industrial country. And they 
have to keep throwing them red meat to keep them in line. While they’re 
shafting them in their economic and social policies, you’ve got to make them 
think you’re doing something for them. And throwing red meat to that 
constituency is very dangerous for the world, because it means violence and 
aggression, but also for the country, because it means harming civil liberties 
in a serious way. The Kerry people don’t have that constituency. They would 
like to have it, but they’re never going to appeal to it much. They have to 
appeal somehow to working people, women, minorities, and others, and that 
makes a difference. 

These may not look like huge differences, but they translate into quite big 
effects for the lives of people. Anyone who says "I don’t care if Bush gets 
elected" is basically telling poor and working people in the country, "I don’t 
care if your lives are destroyed. I don’t care whether you are going to have a 
little money to help your disabled mother. I just don’t care, because from my 
elevated point of view I don’t see much difference between them." That’s a 
way of saying, "Pay no attention to me, because I don’t care about you." 
Apart from its being wrong, it’s a recipe for disaster if you’re hoping to ever 
develop a popular movement and a political alternative. 

Noam Chomsky, internationally renowned MIT professor, practically invented 
modern linguistics. In addition to his pioneering work in that field he has been 
a leading voice for peace and social justice. He is in such demand as a public 
speaker that he is booked years in advance. And wherever he appears, he 
draws huge audiences. The New Statesman calls him, "The conscience of 
the American people." He is the author of scores of books, his latest is the 
bestseller Hegemony or Survival. He has done a series of books with David 
Barsamian. The most recent one is Propaganda & the Public Mind. David 
Barsamian is the director and producer of the award-winning Alternative 
Radio in Boulder, Colorado. He interviewed Noam Chomsky at the 
Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge on June 11, 2004. 

###
 

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