[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."]

[Andrea Dorey]

One thing we need to remember is: making the party more important  
than the democracy has been the mistake of the two Majors.  I hope we  
Greens won't go there.
Andrea

On Feb 28, 2007, at 3:50 PM, JamBoi wrote:

> I agree with her that Nader's importance goes completely unrecognized
> (except by Naderites and Greens whom she seems to forget entirely).
> Doesn't change the fact that Nader will likely run as an independent
> and will not run as a Green in 2008.  More power to him, but I'm very
> pleased that the Green Party is  past the Nader Era.  Now we are onto
> people who will actually build up the Green Party and make us a viable
> force.
>
> Green solidarity!
>
> Drew
>
> --- Wes Rolley <wrolley at charter.net> wrote:
>
>> 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
>>
>>> Date: Wed, 28 Feb 2007 12:19:55 -0500
>> To: esalzman at aba.org
>> From: Lorna Salzman <lsalzman at rcn.com>
>> 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."
>>
>> 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
>>
>>
>>
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: <mailto:mattfuniciello at earthlink.net>Matt Funiciello
>> Sent: Monday, February 26, 2007 12:48 PM
>> Subject: 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."
>>
>> Chris Hedges Says He'll Work For Nader in 2008!
>>
>> When the book, "War Is A Force That Gives Us
>> Meaning" came out, intellectuals and peace
>> activists alike flocked to it. It
>> was intelligent, well-reasoned and written by a
>> true craftsman with some truly horrific war
>> stories to tell and a keen eye to analyze the
>> costs for all concerned. Hedges says that he will
>> work for Ralph Nader in 2008 if he runs again (he
>> will). In Hedge's article, he talks about the
>> corporate rape of our government and how Nader is
>> one of the only national figures to recognize
>> this and to speak openly about the corrupt
>> corporate ownership of our nation. He notes that
>> someone with Ralph's incredible resume must have
>> only entered the public arena to fight the
>> "rapists" after their purchase of the Republican
>> Lite Party back in the 1980's and this presumes
>> that those who further the "ego trip" theory are
>> just buying into propaganda for those too limited
>> intellectually to think for themselves.
>>
>> Thank you Chris Hedges for being brave enough to
>> tell the truth! I sincerely hope that the
>> "propaganda-eaters" don't malign and abuse you
>> for telling the truth, though I suspect they
>> will. They don't appreciate the truth at all and
>> they don't like to talk about it either.
>>
>> On a similar topic, I spent half a day on
>> "Democratic Underground" about a month ago and
>> was kicked off (with absolutely no explanation).
>> For those unfamiliar, DU is a website with many
>> forums to discuss "progressive" issues, like who
>> you like better, Gore or Hillary. They also enjoy
>> talking about which pro-war Democratic candidate
>> they should vote for to end the war. Not exactly
>> a hotbed of rational thought .... but they're
>> Democrats. What do you expect?
>>
>> The "progressives" I was chatting with were
>> discussing the new Nader film, "An Unreasonable
>> Man". They were literally calling Ralph an
>> "idiot", "a fucking asshole" and a "scumbag". I
>> can only assume that this Democrat venom is
>> residual from the 2000 presidential run although
>> none of these idiots could explain their way out
>> of a paper bag nor do they feel that they owe me,
>> their enemy, any explanation. In their
>> minds, Nader was that guy who was "not a factor"
>> when they mailed out all the debate invitations
>> but who became the "ONLY factor"
>> when Al Gore ran such a weak-assed campaign that
>> he lost his own home state and Clinton's, too!
>> All I did on the forum with a particularly stupid
>> chatter was call Hillary a "fascist". I backed
>> that up by asking how someone can support the
>> Imperialist/Big Oil/Ruling Class agenda and vote
>> for illegal occupation and genocide and
>> also refuse to debate your legitimate opponents,
>> Tasini and Hawkins? I may have also pointed out
>> to a few Nader-haters that there were many other
>> third party candidates on the ballot in Florida
>> in that infamous election and that EVERY SINGLE
>> ONE OF THEM had enough votes to "spoil it" for
>> Gore. Using the Dems own questionable math
>> skills, shouldn't they be propagandizing against
>> all of those candidates! Why have they persisted
>> in vilifying only ONE guy, especially when that
>> one guy has done more for them than any elected
>> official has ever done?
>>
>> I guess they don't like having a conversation or
>> they're just frightened that their "logic"
>> doesn't make any sense? Very strange behavior,
>> indeed. These "sheeple" who call themselves
>> progressives lack even a basic willingness to try
>> and defend their viewpoint and their blind
>> obedience to their party bosses. This fearful
>> behavior fortifies me in my certitude that Ralph
>> is right and that we need to support him in
>> whatever number of elections he may choose to run
>> in.
>>
>> Peace to all those with open minds who are brave
>> enough to stand up and fight!      ;-)
>>
>> Matt
>>
>> Matt Funiciello
>> <mailto:mattfuniciello at earthlink.net>mattfuniciello at earthlink.net
>> Two Political Parties = One Massive Corporation
>>
>>
>>
>> Pariah or Prophet?
>>
>>
> <http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/ 
> 20070226_an_unreasonably_principled_man/>http://www.truthdig.com/ 
> report/item/20070226_an_unreasonably_principled_man/
>>
>> Posted on Feb 26, 2007
>>
>> By Chris Hedges
>>
>> I can’t imagine why Ralph Nader would run again.
>> He has been branded as an egomaniac, blacklisted
>> by the media, plunged into debt by a Democratic
>> Party machine that challenged his ballot access
>> petitions and locked him out of the presidential
>> debates. Most of his friends and supporters have
>> abandoned him, and he is almost universally
>> reviled for throwing the 2000 election to George
>> W. Bush.
>>
>> I can’t imagine why he would want to go through
>> this one more time.  But when Nader hinted in San
>> Francisco that he might run if Sen. Hillary
>> Rodham Clinton became the Democratic Party
>> nominee, I knew I would be working for his
>> campaign if he indeed entered the race.  He
>> understands that American democracy has become a
>> consumer fraud and that if we do not do battle
>> with the corporations that, in the name of
>> globalization, are cannibalizing the country for
>> profit, our democratic state is doomed.
>>
>> I spent the last two years reporting and writing
>> “American Fascists: The Christian Right and the
>> War on America.” The rise of the Christian
>> right—the most dangerous mass movement in
>> American history—can be traced directly to the
>> corporate rape of America.  This movement, which
>> calls for the eradication of real and imagined
>> enemies, all branded as “satanic,” at home and
>> abroad, is an expression of rage.  This rage
>> rises out of the deep distortions and
>> dislocations that have beset tens of millions of
>> Americans shunted aside in the new global
>> marketplace.  The massive flight of manufacturing
>> and professional jobs overseas, the ruthless
>> slashing of state and federal assistance and the
>> rise of an unchecked American oligarchy have
>> plunged many Americans into deep economic and
>> personal despair.  They have turned, because of
>> this despair, to “Christian” demagogues who
>> promise magic, miracles, angels, the gospel of
>> prosperity and a fantastic Christian utopia.  And
>> the Republicans and the Democrats are equally
>> culpable for this assault.
>>
>> There are only two solutions left.  We must
>> organize to fight the corporate state, to
>> redirect our national wealth and resources to
>> fund a massive antipoverty campaign and curb the
>> cycle of perpetual war that enriches the
>> military-industrial complex and by extension the
>> two political parties that dominate Washington,
>> or we must accept an inevitable Christo-fascism
>> backed by these corporations.  Don’t expect glib
>> Democratic politicians such as John Edwards, Sen.
>> Clinton and Sen. Barack Obama to address these
>> issues.  They are, as Nader understands, hostage
>> to corporate money.
>>
>> Nader, perhaps better than anyone else, has
>> grasped the long, disastrous rise of the
>> corporate state.
>>
>> He and his small army of activists helped write
>> citizen legislation in the 1960s and 1970s that
>> gave us, among many bills, the Clean Air Act, the
>> Mine and Health Safety Act and the Freedom of
>> Information Act.  He worked with and was courted
>> by sympathetic Democrats.  Presidential candidate
>> George McGovern saw him as a potential running
>> mate, but Nader refused to be enticed directly
>> into the political arena.  He was a skilled
>> Washington insider, one of the greatest idealists
>> within the democratic system.
>>
>> But the corporations grew tired of Nader’s
>> activism.  They mounted a well-oiled campaign to
>> destroy him.  These early attempts were clumsy
>> and amateurish, such as General Motor’s use of
>> private detectives to try to dig up dirt on his
>> private life; they found none. The campaign was
>> exposed and led to a public apology by GM.  Nader
>> was awarded $425,000 in damages, which he used to
>> fund citizen action groups.
>>
>> Lewis Powell, who was the general counsel to the
>> U.S. Chamber of Commerce and would later be
>> appointed to the Supreme Court, wrote a memo in
>> August 1971 that expressed corporate concerns.
>> “The single most effective antagonist of American
>> business is Ralph Nader,” the memo read, “a
>> legend in his own time and an idol to millions of
>> Americans. ... There should be no hesitation to
>> attack [Nader and others].”
>>
>> Corporations poured hundreds of millions into the
>> assault.  They set up pseudo-think tanks, such as
>> the Heritage Foundation, which invented bogus
>> disciplines including cost-benefit and
>> risk-management analysis, all geared to change
>> the debate from health, labor and safety issues
>> to the rising cost of big government.  They ran
>> sophisticated ad campaigns to beguile voters.
>> These corporations wrenched apart, through lavish
>> campaign donations and intensive and shady
>> lobbying, the ties between Nader’s public
>> interest groups and his supporters in the
>> Democratic Party.  Washington, by the time they
>> were done, was besieged with 25,000 corporate
>> lobbyists and 9,000 corporate action committees.
>>
>> When Ronald Reagan, the corporate pitch man,
>> swept into office he set out to dismantle some 30
>> governmental regulations, most put into place by
>> Nader and his allies, all of which curbed the
>> abuse of corporations.  The Reagan White House
>> worked to gut 20 years of Nader legislation.
>> And, once a fixture on Capital Hill, Nader became
>> a pariah.
>>
>> Nader, however, did not give up.  He turned to
>> local community organizing, assisting grass-roots
>> campaigns around the country such the one to
>> remove benzene, known to cause cancer, from paint
>> in GM car plants.  But by the time Bill Clinton
>> and Al Gore took office the corporate state was
>> ascendant.  Nader and his citizen committees were
>> frozen out by Democrats as well as Republicans.
>> Clinton and Gore never met with him.
>>
>> “We tried every way to get the Democrats to pick
>> up on issues that really commanded the felt
>> concerns and daily life of millions of
>> Americans,” Nader says in the new documentary
>> about his life, “An Unreasonable Man,” “but these
>> were issues that corporations didn’t want
>> attention paid to, and so when people say why did
>> you do this in 2000, I say I’m a 20-year veteran
>> of pursuing the folly of the least worse between
>> the two parties.”
>>
>> The Clinton administration pushed through NAFTA,
>> gutted welfare, gave up on universal healthcare,
>> deregulated the communications industry and
>> abolished federal aid to families with dependent
>> children.  It further empowered the growing
>> corporate state and exacerbated the despair that
>> has fueled its allies in the Christian right.
>>
>> “For 20 years,” Nader says in the film, “we saw
>> the doors closing on us in Washington, on our
>> citizen groups and a lot of other citizen groups,
>> and what are we here for?  To improve the
>> country.  We couldn’t get congressional hearings,
>> even with the Democrats in charge.”
>>
>> There is a fascinating rage—and rage is the right
>> word—expressed by many on the left in this fine
>> film about Nader.  Todd Gitlin, Eric Alterman and
>> Michael Moore, along with a host of former
>> Nader’s Raiders, spit out venomous insults toward
>> Nader, a man they profess to have once admired,
>> the most common charge being that Nader is a
>> victim of his oversized ego.
>>
>> This anger is the anger of the betrayed.  But
>> they were not betrayed by Nader.  They betrayed
>> themselves.  They allowed themselves to buy into
>> the facile argument of “the least worse” and
>> ignore the deeper, subterranean assault on our
>> democracy that Nader has always addressed.
>>
>> It was an incompetent, corporatized Democratic
>> Party, along with the orchestrated fraud by the
>> Republican Party, that threw the 2000 election to
>> Bush, not Ralph Nader.  Nader received only 2.7
>> percent of the vote in 2000 and got less than
>> one-half of 1 percent in 2004.  All of the
>> third-party candidates who ran in 2000 in
>> Florida—there were about half a dozen of them—got
>> more votes than the 537-vote difference between
>> Bush and Gore.  Why not go after the other
>> third-party candidates?  And what about the 10
>> million Democrats who voted in 2000 for Bush?
>> What about Gore, whose campaign was so timid and
>> empty—he never mentioned global warming—that he
>> could not carry his home state of Tennessee?  And
>> what about the 2004 cartoon-like candidate, John
>> Kerry, who got up like a Boy Scout and told us he
>> was reporting for duty and would bring us
>> “victory” in Iraq?
>>
>> Nader argues that there are few—he never said
>> no—differences between the Democrats and the
>> Republicans.  And during the first four years of
>> the Bush administration the Democrats proved him
>> right.  They authorized the war in Iraq.  They
>> stood by as Bush stacked the judiciary with
>> “Christian” ideologues.  They let Bush, in
>> violation of the Constitution, pump hundreds of
>> millions of taxpayer dollars into faith-based
>> organizations that discriminate based on belief
>> and sexual orientation and openly proselytize.
>> They stood by as American children got fleeced by
>> No Child Left Behind.  Democrats did not protest
>> when federal agencies began to propagate
>> “Christian” pseudo-science about creationism,
>> reproductive rights and homosexuality.  And the
>> Democrats let Bush further dismantle regulatory
>> agencies, strip American citizens of
>> constitutional rights under the Patriot Act and
>> other draconian legislation, and thrust
>> impoverished Americans aside through the
>> corporate-sponsored bankruptcy bill.  It is a
>> stunning record.
>>
>> Bush is the worst president in American history.
>> If Gore, or Kerry, had the spine to take him on,
>> to challenge corporate welfare, corporate crime,
>> the hundreds of billions of dollars in corporate
>> bailouts and issues such as labor law reform, if
>> either had actually stood up to these corporate
>> behemoths on behalf of the working and middle
>> class, rather than mutter thought-terminating
>> clichés about American greatness, he could have
>> won with a landslide.  But Gore and Kerry did not
>> dare to piss off their corporate paymasters.
>>
>> There are a few former associates in the film who
>> argue that Nader is tarnishing his legacy, and by
>> extension their own legacy.  But Nader’s legacy
>> is undiminished.  He fights his wars against
>> corporate greed with a remarkable consistency.
>> He knows our democratic state is being hijacked
>> by the same corporate interests that sold us
>> unsafe automobiles and dangerous and shoddy
>> products.  This is a battle not for some
>> unachievable ideal but to save our democracy.
>>
>> “I don’t care about my personal legacy,” Nader
>> says in the film.  “I care about how much justice
>> is advanced in America and in our world day after
>> day.  I’m willing to sacrifice whatever
>> ‘reputation’ in the cause of that effort.  What
>> is my legacy?  Are they going to turn around and
>> rip out seat belts out of cars, air bags out of
>> cars?”
>>
>> These corporations, and their enraged and
>> manipulated followers in the Christian right,
>> tens of millions of them, if left unchecked will
>> propel us into despotism.  The corporate state
>> has rigged our system, hollowed out our political
>> process and steadily stripped citizens of
>> constitutional rights, federal and state
>> protection and assistance.  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.
>>
>> Chris Hedges’ latest book is “American Fascists:
>> The Christian Right and the War on America.”
>> --
>> NOW PLAYING AT YOUR LOCAL MARXIST CINEMA: "DR.
>> STRANGELEFT, OR, HOW I  STOPPED WORRYING AND
>> LEARNED TO LOVE THE BOMBERS".
>>
>>
>> "Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully
>> as when they do it from religious conviction" (B.
>> Pascal)
>>
>> "We are already fighting World War III and I am
>> sorry to say we are winning. It is the war
>> against the earth".....Raymond Dasmann
>>> _______________________________________________
>> sosfbay-discuss mailing list
>> sosfbay-discuss at cagreens.org
>> http://lists.cagreens.org/mailman/listinfo/sosfbay-discuss
>>
>
>
> ___________________
>
> JamBoi
> Jammy The Sacred Cow Slayer
>
> "Live humbly, laugh often and love unconditionally" (anon)
> http://dailyJam.blogspot.com
>
>
>
> ______________________________________________________________________ 
> ______________
> Finding fabulous fares is fun.
> Let Yahoo! FareChase search your favorite travel sites to find  
> flight and hotel bargains.
> http://farechase.yahoo.com/promo-generic-14795097
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>