Ralph Nader - "Stay Silent and Stay Powerless Against Trump's Tyranny"

[Cirsium]

123. What he said

Here are some of the things he said.

The election is between the fascism of Trump and the autocracy of Harris.

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They’re preparing to use this tiny Green Party as a scapegoat if they fail to defeat the worst Republican Party in history. Trump’s GOP is cruel, mean, power-hungry, imperial, demonstrably anti-worker, anti-children – blocked the child tax extension, for example – anti-women – Trump’s a major misogynist – bigoted against immigrants, and willing to somersault the entire government into a prostrating position before Wall Street. If you can’t landslide a party like that the way FDR and Truman would have, you have to look for scapegoats.

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Twenty-five million workers make between $7.25 and $15 an hour. You raise it to 15 bucks an hour, which is low by European standards, and you answer the question of low-wage workers: ‘Why should I vote?’ Go vote for a raise – you’ve long earned it. Then they can make it authentic… by actually holding up the bill as they campaign around the country that would be passed in Congress if they win.

On the Republicans "populist" appeal:

It’s what I call the false populism of generic corporatists. They’ll talk about immigrants taking jobs, and they’ll talk about Democrats being out of touch with blue-collar workers. But when push comes to shove, they’re hardcore corporatists.

The overall issue here is the supremacy of corporate power over everything." FDR said 'the liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic state itself.' That, in its essence, is fascism – ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. Trump has provided tons of evidence that he wants to be a dictator.

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Trump ushered in the era of political nicknames. Most of the press dutifully reported them, including his capital letters. The people nicknamed were not allowed a reply. Social media is now picking up on Trump’s nicknaming—they are calling Biden ‘Genocide Joe’ and Kamala ‘Holocaust Harris.’ Unless Harris breaks with Biden on his unconditional and illegal support (6 federal statutes) of Netanyahu’s genocides and mass slaughter daily in Palestine and Lebanon, she may lose the election just as Hubert Humphrey did in 1968 in a razor thin contest with Richard Nixon because he wouldn’t break with President Lyndon Johnson on the Vietnam War. Can’t say she wasn’t forewarned.

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Trump should have been landslided by a Democratic party, say the vintage of Franklin Roosevelt or Harry Truman. This Democratic party is compromised in many ways in the direction of obedience to corporate priorities.

First of all, the party contracts out most of its campaign to corporate-conflicted political consulting firms and media firms. Most people think these consultants sort of stand on the byline and just wait for a call to get a request for advice.

No, no. They pretty much run the campaign. They raise the money with strings attached. They develop the strategies, the tactics, the language. They develop what the taboos are, what shouldn’t be talked about. That accounts, by the way, for the weaker portrayal of Gov. Walz in a debate with Vance. The Democratic National Committee had him tied up in knots about what he couldn’t say.

He wasn’t himself as he was governor in Minnesota. So, number one, when you contract out your campaign as candidates to corporatists, what do you think’s going to happen?

Well, the first thing that’s going to happen is you’re not going to have front and center a minimum wage increase at least to $15 an hour. That’s 25 million workers who would have gotten a raise.

That’s a lot of votes. You could have had a slogan “Go vote for a raise. It’s long been denied you, and you’ve earned it.” Instead, it’s a throwaway line.

She took several weeks even to use the number $15 an hour. It’s now $7.25 an hour federal. I know Connecticut and some of the states have higher minimum wages, but over half the states still stick with seven and a quarter.

The second thing, a party in thraldom to corporate campaign consultants does is it doesn’t increase the benefits. And Social Security, which have been frozen for over 50 years. Who’s a champion? Congressman John Larson, he’s been pushing Nancy Pelosi and the corporate Democrat in western Massachusetts, Richard Neal, who is a chair of the House Ways and Means Committee.

Month after month, he couldn’t get the bill to have a vote on the floor. When Nancy Pelosi was the speaker, this bill, by the way, was supported by 200 Democrats in the House. Kamala Harris and her handlers wouldn’t even talk about it. They talk about protecting Social Security as it is. No kidding. But not increasing benefits for the first time in over 50 years.

But it’s just an example. Cracking down on corporate crime, that comes in over 80 percent. Cracking down on corporate crooks, over 80 percent. That’s a lot of conservative voters, she never even talked about it. She sent her brother-in-law up to Wall Street, in her middle of her campaign to get advice on what she should say about tax policy. That’s not exactly a way to get votes, is it?

Increasing taxes on the wealthy. She mentioned that once in a while, but nobody listening to her really thought she was authentic. Again, it’s a throwaway progressive line that corporate Democrats send in the direction of what they think are some progressive voters.

But where does that come in? Eighty-five percent of the American people want higher taxes on the grossly under- taxed super-wealthy like Elon Musk and the big corporations.

So what is it? What did it come down to on Nov. 5? 230,000 votes switched in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin would have defeated Trump.

Seven million Democrats who voted in 2020 for Biden stayed home and expect to win the election against their Führer, Donald Trump, the chronic liar, the chronic criminal violator, the chronic narcissist, the chronic braggadocio, the chronic ignoramus.

That’s what the voters who turned out with a very narrow majority, very narrow majority elected an American Führer.

So here we go, Jan. 20. What are we going to do as progressives? What are we going to do when the Democrats blew the Senate and the House as well? We’re going to focus on the Democratic party.