This is my prediction:  If the Democrats win in 2004, the 2008 election will usher in an even more reactionary Republican regime than we now have.  In an era of permanent war, the Democrats may not recover for generations.  But if the Republicans win in 2004, the Democrats will win in 2008 with a liberal sweep to the left, leaving the GOP policies in ruins.

The logic is simple.  Whoever wins in 2004 will inherit the Iraq quagmire and go down the tubes.  One way or another, the untenable U.S. policy in Iraq will crash and burn, leaving the party in charge to take the blame and suffer the consequences.

If the Democrats win this year, they will either have to escalate the war or lose Iraq.  Either scenario will be a political disaster for them, resulting in a triumphant, right-wing resurgence in 2008, just as Nixon replaced the Democrats during the Vietnam War.

But if the GOP wins this year, their neo-con policies in Iraq will go down in flames on their watch.  They will be humiliated by an unwinnable war -- a bankrupting, bloody quagmire.  The American people will then repudiate the GOP's arrogant, pre-emptive, unilateral policies and swing the political pendulum to anti-war Democrats in 2008.

This is why I am voting for Ralph Nader in November.  The Democrats accuse third party supporters of being naive, idealistic dreamers, if not fools.  On the contrary, I believe the Democrats are the unrealistic ones.  

Richard Ochs,
Baltimore