There are times when politics becomes more than a spectator sport. It becomes a driving force in the fate of the world.

Most Canadians, like people everywhere, including about half of all Americans, were deeply disappointed by the results of the 2004 American presidential and Congressional elections. But now we must play the hand that’s been dealt us. 

Already we can thank George W. Bush for revitalizing a slumbering giant: a global peace and justice movement that (ironically, in light of Bush’s religious rhetoric) pits its own faith-based (faith in humanity and in a God who blesses the peacemakers) commitment to international cooperation and community against Bush’s ye-of-little-faith doctrine of hate thine enemy, preventive aggression (slap the other guy’s cheek first) and American exceptionalism (the rich and powerful shall inherit the Earth). 

Four more years of Bush, if it’s anything like the first, should challenge those who yearn for global peace and justice to organize and mobilize more effectively than ever. The Internet and other new media afford the movement an unprecedented opportunity to become the official opposition to the world’s power elites.

"How do you want the world to be?" asks the International Simultaneous Policy Organisation, echoing innumerable progressive NGOs. In the coming four more years, think about that question as if your life depended on it, because in many ways it does. Connect with people who share your values and visions. Corporations and institutions that put profit and power above all else have a head start. But we the people have the numbers and the moral authority. We also have the votes — even if, as Dave Steele suggests elsewhere in this issue, we sometimes vote against our own best interests.