Why do people think they can reform politicians who are clearly acting for special interests and have always done so? Take the road less travelled that might actually yield results--support candidates who represent what you want instead of trying to twist the arms of lesser evil incumbents. Help make elected officials fear for their jobs if they do not vote in the public interest!

Take a long term perspective. Even if Emanuel votes how you want on the war, you will continue to have to fight him in the future. He could regress at any moment, and their are other issues besides the war.

Emanuel has a Green Party challenger in 2008, Alan Augustson. His website is:

www.augustson2008.us

If you don't like Alan's platform and credentials, support another 3rd party or independent candidate. Or put your own name on the ballot! It isn't difficult to do.

But stop try to coerce the same crap that is never going to be what you want it to be. That is madness.

Oops.

. . . theRE are other issues . . .

Applying pressure on politicians currently in office and supporting third-party candidates don't need to be mutually exclusive. In fact, a number of people in anti-war groups are doing both.

That's great that someone is challenging Emanuel from a more progressive platform, but that doesn't mean that we should let Emanuel off the hook. Hypothetically, even if his challenger wins next year, what about all the Congressional votes between now and then (like the upcoming funding vote)? Having a Green Party congressman in 2009 doesn't help much in regard to stopping war funding in 2007.

Planned Request Signals Confidence That Congress Won't Prevail on Pullout

By Thomas E. Ricks
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, August 29, 2007; Page A01

President Bush plans to ask Congress next month for up to $50 billion in additional funding for the war in Iraq, a White House official said yesterday, a move that appears to reflect increasing administration confidence that it can fend off congressional calls for a rapid drawdown of U.S. forces.

The request -- which would come on top of about $460 billion in the fiscal 2008 defense budget and $147 billion in a pending supplemental bill to fund the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq -- is expected to be announced after congressional hearings scheduled for mid-September featuring the two top U.S. officials in Iraq. Army Gen. David H. Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker will assess the state of the war and the effect of the new strategy the U.S. military has pursued this year.

For more, see:
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/28/AR2007082801984.html

The point of street heat is not to "reform" corporate politicians, but to put pressure on them to end funding for war, and in the long run to build a movement that can overturn the system or war--capitalism. Supporting Green candidates is not only a "road less traveled," but a deadend of reformism.

The Green candidate for governor the last time out was a lot closer to the mark when he was an activist for the Socialist Labor Party, something he tried to deny during the campaign.

Elections don't change anything. Mass movements do.

Having Emanual push to defund the war would be an overhaul of his past actions. That is reform.

That Green candidate for governor would be Rich Whitney, and he didn't deny anything. He openly admitted to being a former socialist, and he stated that he had left the SLP 12 years earlier.

I agree with the original commenter. You can work for years and years to build your "movement," or you can spend one year working to remove an undesirable incumbent by promoting a desirable alternative. You get instant, unambiguous feedback at the end of your effort--your candidate gets elected or not.

But struggling as a lifestyle with your "movement" probably won't achieve much. You might have some success, like the civil rights movement or the movement for an eight hour work day (which took decades), but probably you will not achieve critical mass. You can go around screaming the truth, but unfortunately that doesn't usually do much.

We could replace the entire U.S. House and a third of the U.S. Senate in one year using the electoral process, or we can delude ourselves that playing break-up music is going to cause a multi-billion dollar company like Boeing to move.

If you are seeing results from your efforts, by all means, press on. If not, try something new.