No Apologies.

• Author: Rothschild, Matthew

Since George W. Bush has now grabbed the Presidency, I've been getting an earful from friends and subscribers who blame me for foisting Bush, and all the evils attendant to him, upon the nation.

When I wrote a commentary for our web page that was critical of Bush's cabinet picks, I received the following e-mail, which is representative of the lot: "I share your dismay over the cabinet of the incoming Bush Administration, but I admit it confuses me. The Progressive was clearly pro-Nader throughout the 2000 campaign, and Al Gore lost the election. You got what you wanted; the least you can do is to be grateful for it."

I must have misplaced my engraved invitation to the Bush inaugural. Maybe I slipped it under the bust of Ronald Reagan that adorns my desk.

OK, I'll be serious.

While The Progressive did not endorse a candidate, we did run some articles sympathetic to the Nader campaign. And I was not shy about my own personal preference.

So, what responsibility do we bear for the Bush Presidency? And what right do we have to criticize it now?

Even at my most vainglorious moments, I've never thought this magazine had the power to decide a Presidential election. Nor is that our objective. We do our work not to get this or that person elected but to keep in circulation a set of ideas and principles we believe are vital for bringing about a just and peaceful world.

Our responsibility is to tell the truth as we see it, nothing more. And we do not apologize for doing that.

If, on the strength of our writing, some readers of The Progressive voted for Ralph Nader instead of Al Gore, well, Gore has no one to blame but himself. He abandoned much of the progressive cause. No one should have been surprised, then, when some progressives abandoned him.

But enough already. We've been up that hill. And on the downside, we meet Bush, with John Ashcroft in...