I am the Co-Chair of Delaware County (PA) Wage Peace & Justice, a local peace organization, and I have been out on the streets protesting the war in Iraq for the last two years. I have organized and participated in dozens of vigils, pickets, blockades, walks, marches, peace camps, rallies, and civil disobedience actions. I have been a passionate advocate for confrontation, dissent, and resistance to Bush’s illogical, illegal, and immoral war. I am proud to have hoisted a sign on my shoulder, marched in the rain, sleet, and hot sun, and faced secret service police when I – along with a contingent of military veterans, military family members, and other peace activists - tried to deliver the names of the American and Iraqi war dead to Bush at the White House. I embraced the politics of protest.

But I haven’t been to a single protest this summer. Why? It’s because all of my time and energy has been devoted to organizing a voter registration drive in the city of Chester, PA. Chester, my hometown, is a little city sitting on the Delaware River in Southeastern Pennsylvania that was once the shipbuilding capital of the U.S. eastern seaboard. Now, with the relentless flight of industry, capital, and tax payers from the town, Chester is one of the most economically devastated communities in the United States. It’s just the kind of place that has been whacked by Bush’s transfer of public funds from social programs to the corporations, millionaires, and the military. Over 82% of Chester voters supported Gore in 2000. My guess if that an even higher percentage will vote for Kerry in 2004. That’s why I’m trying to register every last voter in Chester.

In case you think that I’ve been deluded into believing that John Kerry is an anti-war candidate and the Democratic Party is a shining sword for justice, think again. I voted for Ralph Nader in 2000 as a part of a grassroots voter rebellion to diversify American politics and loosen the stranglehold of the two party/one policy system in the United States. I am not apologizing. But I am voting for Kerry this time. And – more importantly – I am working every day to swell the voter ranks with low-income people, African Americans, Latino Americans, women, and young people who will make the difference in booting George W. Bush out of power. That’s the prize. I’m putting my heart and soul into ensuring a stinging, public rebuke of George W. Bush, and all that he represents, on November 2, 2004.

Participating in the non-partisan voter empowerment movement is a good way to feed two birds with one kernel. On one hand, you add likely Kerry voters to the rolls. In a race that all the experts predict will be decided by each Party’s ability to turn out base voters, that’s a real contribution. On the other hand, those new low-income, African American, Latino American, women, and youth voters will push the Democratic Party to the left in the future, just like the massive expansion of white Christian voters pushed the Republicans to the right in the 1980’s. In regards to voter empowerment, we can have our cake (Bush out of power) and eat it (challenging the Democrats from the left), too. There are literally hundreds of local, state, and national non-partisan voter projects. It’s easy to get on the Internet and to hook up with some operation that is greedy for volunteers.

I believe that the failure or success of the post-9/11 anti-war movement will be decided on Election Day 2004. This is a BIG picture movie for America. This is a generational and directional moment of truth for the people of this nation. The election is way beyond Bush versus Kerry and elephants versus donkeys. This is election is a referendum on fascism. The current administration has strayed outside the boundaries of neo-imperial capitalism and wandered into an ugly terrain of racial and religious persecution, concentration camps, unprovoked war and invasion, and super nationalism not seen in the Western world since …well, I’ll let the reader fill in that blank. But the stakes are frighteningly clear.

The day after John Kerry is elected President; I’m reaching for my sign and heading for the streets. We need an immediate end to the occupation of Iraq. We need to repeal the Patriot Act. We need massive cuts in the military budget and equally large investments in social programs. We need universal healthcare, housing, employment, and college education. We need structural reforms in U.S. democracy, criminal justice, and economics. Kerry and the Democrats will resist fundamental change but they will do so within the bounds of representative democracy and civil liberties.

Common sense allows one to distinguish between a rain storm and a hurricane. Sometimes it IS about a matter of degree.

That’s why I’ve stopped protesting and started registering voters.

Terry Rumsey is the Co-Chair of Delaware County (PA) Wage Peace & Justice. Mr. Rumsey has been an activist for peace and social justice for over thirty years. He served as Executive Director for the Jobs With Peace Campaign in Chester, PA from 1984 to 1992. He was also the founding Executive Director of Pennsylvania Abolitionists United Against the Death Penalty. Mr. Rumsey is currently working as a professional grants developer for social change organizations. He can be contacted at: greenseed2@aol.com

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