[GPSCC-chat] Notes from Nader's Talk in Palo Alto the 11th

[Brian Good]

Note:  parenthetical
sentences are when I have inserted material from another part of the
talk 
in an effort to improve flow.



It's easier than we think
to turn the country around.  People are demoralized, cynical, 
helpless--but there is a national consensus on simple things  that
could be done.  (There 
are so many problems we don't deserve, and
solutions are available.)



Hundreds of thousands died
needlessly, in cars that could kill you in a 15 mph crash, 
before the
need for auto safety was recognized.  Auto seat belts, padded dashboards, and 
head restraints
had been designed long before.  He went up against GM armed with the 
facts, he did not exaggerated corporate power, and he never
considered that he might not 
win.  Corporations want to control their business environment:  government, consumers, 
labor, academia. 
Strategic donations to Caltech and MIT prevented them from
investigating 
auto safety--he saw that when he wrote "Unsafe at
Any Speed."  




45,000 Americans die every
year because they didn't get health treatment in time.  We 
suffer
under a  "draconian conglomeration of ignorance, arrogance,
stupidity, and cruelty."  




A mere 1% of Americans has the power to mount a congressional watchdog campaign 
to steer Congress into
directions the majority of Americans support, such as establishing 
health care and raising minimum wage, law and order against corporate
crime, and removing 
the perverse incentives and complexity of current
tax policy.  Before we tax labor let's tax 
things we don't like: 
speculation, pollution, corporate crime, addictive products.



Americans dislike wars
against countries that are no threat.  70% want out of Afghanistan. 
Half the country opposed the Iraq war despite the propaganda machine,
and the majority 
considers the military budget inflated and full of
waste and fraud.  When one Trident missile 
warhead can destroy 200
cities,  why are we building more submarines?  Aircraft carriers cost
$15 billion apiece.  We have 13.  Our nearest rival, Italy, has 2.  
Remember Eisenhower's 
"Cross of Iron" speech.    Congress
should have skin in the war game: draft congressional family members
first.  




We need civic training in
the schools.  Physical education is being dropped even while kids 
get
fatter and more diabetic, watching violent TV while munching junk
food.  See the book 
"Stop Teaching our Children to Kill". 




Civil liberties abuses
continue indefinite detention, warrantless searches.



To deflate knee-jerk
anti-regulatory dogma, just ask the ideologue if automobile safety 
should be left to market reaction.  The  Justice Department
prosecutes few environmental 
crimes and employs only 78 environmental
lawyers.  Three years after the financial crisis no perpetrator has
been jailed.  A bank robber turned down a wad of cash and took only 
$100, turned himself in the next day, and got 15 years.  Corporations
don't face three strikes provisions or probation.  Hundreds of 
Savings and Loan executives were jailed in the 80s. Enron executives
were jailed.  




Government procurement can
stimulate innovation.  The GSA buys 40,000 cars a year.  Nader asked
them to specify airbags.  GM and Chrysler refused to bid.  Ford bid
on 5000 units.  




Half of us don't vote.  
Legislators flatter, fool, and flummox us.  And they don't use the
word 
"posterity" any more.  To be effective citizen
advocates we need training:  learn the rules, 
learn to lobby, to hold
press conferences, do FOIA requests, and fight burnout.  (Never
before has Nader seen more pessimism, demoralization, more stupid
elected officials who 
have sold their power. 25% of Congress would
support Nader's agenda today.)  




If you can guarantee an
audience of 300 you can summon representatives to a panel on any 
issue you like--such as limiting corporate power.  In Boehner's home
district there was no 
Democratic opposition candidate.  A district
has 650,000 people.  A congressional watchdog 
group needs 1000 people
volunteering 200 hours each a year.  1% of the American people 
can
turn Congress around, making our nation is a humanitarian superpower
instead of the military empire.  (If enough people will it, it will
happen.  The level of dedication demanded is comparable to the effort
in participating in a serious bird watchers club.)  




Every progressive movement
has been funded by rich people.  "Power concedes nothing without
a demand", said  Frederick Douglas We have two parties dialing
for the same 
commercial dollars.  (Maybe some billionaire will turn
it into a three-way race. )  Book:   "Only 
the Superrich can
Save Us."  Soros could have quadrupled the number of military
who 
personnel who argued against the Iraq war had he donated $200
million.  The Re-open 
Our Courts  movement opposes tort reform and
hopes to make legal justice available to 
poor people.  Buffett is
worth 55 billion.  For a billion we could reform the tax system.



Four Excuses for
Abandoning Civic Duty:



1.  I don't have time
2.  If I do have time, I
don't know what to do or how, and don't know the rules
3.  If I have time and
know the rules, I'm afraid I'll get in trouble at work
4.  If I have time and
know the rules, and not afraid I'll get in trouble at work, then 
I'll
claim there's no point because nothing will happen



That's the ultimate
surrender.   




The values of fair play
and the golden rules are cross-cultural, global unifiers.  




The duopoly has excluded
third parties from debate.  The differences between the two 
major
parties on foreign policy, corporate policy, and civil liberties are
minimal. 
(Democrats filed dozens of lawsuits to keep Nader off the
ballot.)



Democrats are not allowed
to discuss the $10/hour minimum wage. It would jumpstart the economy.
 Obama has given 18 tax breaks to small business.  2/3 of all
low-wage workers work for  50 corporations.



Dealing with partisanship:
 go straight to the people, barnstorm with a 10 part agenda, 
and
partisanship melts away.



Obama on single-payer: 
"It's not practical"  means he was not willing to oppose
the 
insurers.  The Canadian healthcare system costs $4500 per capita
per year, and its legal text is 13 pages.  Obamacare costs $8500 per
year per person and its text is 
1500 pages.  




Obama is
conflict-averse--afraid to take on the corporations.  We can change
the 
situation through civic engagement.   The initiative process
began in Idaho when 
railroad barons had bought the legislature. We
need campaign finance reform.  Proposition 37 (GMO labeling) and
Proposition 30  (tax plan)  deserve yes votes.



(Over the years more than
100 special-purpose groups have spun off from Nader's organization.) 





(It's dismaying how much
brain power in Silicon Valley goes into trivial gadgets.)



Questions:



About what in his career
has he changed his mind?  The draft.  The founding fathers 
opposed
the concept of a professional army.  We have surrendered to the 
militarization of foreign policy.



What questions would he
ask the debating candidates?   How to shift power from 
the few to
many?



His father once said "the
only way to lose your job in government is to do your job."



Nader.org 

Essentialinformation.org






 		 	   		   		 	   		  
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