[Sosfbay-discuss] [Fwd: Re: Chris Hedges on 2008: "This may be the twilight of American democracy. And it is better to stand up and fight, even in vain, than not to fight at all."]

[Wes Rolley]

I am forwarding Lorna Salzman's comments regarding the Chris Hedges 
piece on Nader that has been referenced several times recently. Whether 
you agree with Lorna on everything, and I certainly do not, her comments 
here are worth reading and her passion is undeniable.
__ Lorn'a note follows __

Not one person has yet, to any degree, rebutted the importance of Ralph 
Nader's accomplishments or commitment. NOT ONE. What they have done is 
reveal their own failures and, worse, their continuing refusal to 
address the issues that Nader has raised in the course of his forty-year 
career. In this respect they are representatives of the Democratic 
Party, the Democrats writ small. Their only defense has been to indulge 
in personal attacks, with preference given to the accusation that Nader 
has a big "ego". What does this mean? Absolutely nothing. It is the last 
refuge of scoundrels and civil society criminals.

Because the neglect of these issues, bounded by the perimeter of 
corporate control, is what distinguishes the Democratic Party and its 
apologists. No amount of distracting insults and accusations can deny 
this. The Democrats, in which we include the self-important but 
diminutive pundits like Gitlin, Moore and Alterman, continue to 
deliberately avoid discussing Nader's accusations and issues. Not one of 
them has come up with a single example of the Democratic Party's vaunted 
progressivism and achievements. For those with short memories, Hedges 
reiterates the record of Bill Clinton below, and it would easily fit 
onto any traditional Republican list. Compared to Nixon, Clinton was a 
neo-con.

We need to remind ourselves of the huge gap between those of us who 
distrust and disagree with the abominable electoral system and the 
character of American culture and politics, and those who have meekly 
accepted it as the "best of all possible worlds". No one has stepped 
into this gap unless you include the brainless witless extreme left, 
whose praxis and objectives eerily mirror those of the capitalist system 
they profess to hate. A progressive revolutionary vision has been 
articulated (and then only partially and ineffectively) by some 
environmental leaders, decentralists, bioregionalists, and occasionally 
some honest libertarians (though not by minority groups like blacks and 
Hispanics). But the construction of a cohesive principled movement 
combining the best of these has not been attempted, at least not yet. 
These movements talk past one another, out of competition and compulsive 
ideologies that they as yet refuse to abandon.

The fact is that most American movements, outside those listed above, 
have bought the American dream of excessive consumerism, materialism, 
growth, development, all of which are not only ecologically disastrous 
but which fit neatly into the plan of corporations. Black Americans, for 
the most part, just want a piece of the wealth; they don't want to break 
the golden egg laid by the capitalist goose. Their major accomplishment 
has been to persuade non-blacks and paleoliberals that the biggest 
problems facing America are racism and poverty.

Now, it would seem dumb and cruel to deny this, wouldnt it? But isnt it 
dumber to ignore the fact that it has been PRECISELY the American dream 
of growth, consumption and accumulation of wealth that has DEPRIVED so 
many Americans of their health, jobs, wealth and dignity? Isn't it 
obvious that the refusal of liberals, centrists and Democrats to 
confront the inequity, injustice, unsustainability and 
anti-environmental character of American society has contributed to 
poverty and racial/economic injustice?

How can real progressives ever hope to explain this to 
liberals...explain that the system they trust and love, which is 
amenable to incremental but marginal reforms, IS the problem? And that 
only a full frontal attack on the system, including its electoral 
configuration, will address the problem? This is at the heart of the 
problem with the Democratic Party: that the social and economic 
injustices they traditionally abhorred grow directly out of the SUCCESS 
of the POLIITICAL and ECONOMIC system they support, not out of its FAILURE.

Of all the failed movements, the green movement/party is the most 
prominent and the most tragic, victim as it is of not just the usual 
leftist infighting but of the post-modern fads like Identity Politics 
and Political Correctness. What the enemies of Ralph Nader (and the 
present Green Party leadership) try to forget is the fact that in 2000, 
Ralph Nader collected nearly THREE MILLION VOTES on the Green Party 
line. Given that the national P enrollment was, at the most exaggerated 
count, three hundred thousand members, this means that over 2 1/2 
million Americans voted for Nader!!! And they were non-greens; they were 
Democrats, Republicans, independents, conservatives, and libertarians. 
They were that potential green constituency that lay out there, ripe for 
the picking, which the Green Party then, in alarm and panic, realized 
could be the future decision-making body in the party. Horror of 
horrors! The Greens in Dem clothing, the centrists, the paleoliberals, 
the self-serving phony populists like Michael Moore, the infiltrators 
like Medea Benjamin, all stood to be ousted from their positions of 
power by....choke.....AMERICANS! What could be scarier?

I don't blame the paleoliberals for hating Nader because I understand 
their fears. They have been revealed by Nader as chicken=hearted 
phonies, utter failures, and hypocrites. They have revealed themselves 
as the embodiment of failed liberalism, the faintly progressive wash 
painted over the cynical Democrats, and promoted by clever propaganda 
that distracted people from the fundamental problems by focusing on 
their symptoms instead of their causes.
And when someone prominent and respected gets the public's ear and 
exposes their failures, why of course they get mad. But that still 
doesn't make them right.

Lorna Salzman


-- 

I have been impressed with the urgency of doing.
Knowing is not enough; we must apply.
Being willing is not enough; 
We must do. –Leonardo DaVinci
Wesley C. Rolley
17211 Quail Court
Morgan Hill, CA 95037
(408)778-3024 - http://cagreening.blogspot.com

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Subject: Re: Chris Hedges on 2008:  "This may be the twilight of American	democracy.  And it is better to stand up and fight, even in vain, than	not to fight at all."
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