Bush's Useful Idiot

[nightperson]

Eric Alterman devotes an entire new article to wondering why Ralph remains on the radar, pleading If anyone has any ideas, let's hear them, please, and fast. and noting It's true that Nader once represented an important progressive voice in American politics; then again, so did Norman Podhoretz, David Horowitz and Christopher Hitchens...

Four years ago, writing in these pages about Nader's "nascent leftist movement," I pointed out that it enjoyed "virtually no support among African-Americans, Latinos or Asian-Americans. It has no support among organized feminist groups, organized gay rights groups or mainstream environmental groups. To top it all off, it has no support in the national union movement. So Nader and company are building a nonblack, non-Latino, non-Asian, nonfeminist, nonenvironmentalist, nongay, non-working people's left: Now that really would be quite an achievement." I could have added Jews, too.

Today Nader has managed to top even that accomplishment. This time he is actively hated by the leaders of the dispossessed to whom he professes his allegiance. On June 22, for instance, Nader met with members of the Congressional Black Caucus in a session that ended with shouting, cursing and several members walking out in a state of fury. When it was over, Texas Representative Sheila Jackson Lee told CNN, "This is the most historic election of our lifetime, and it is a life-or-death matter for the vulnerable people we represent. For that reason, we can't sacrifice their vulnerability for the efforts being made by Mr. Nader."

Pragmatic concerns carried no weight in what was essentially a Leninist campaign in 2000, based as it was on Nader's belief that things needed to get much worse before they could begin to get better. When Nader claimed a Bush victory would help energize groups like the Sierra Club, its leader, Carl Pope, loudly told him, No thanks...

Despite all of this, as I write, Nader is actually polling higher than the 2.74 percent of Americans who provided the votes for his 2000 kamikaze mission--high enough to tip key swing states toward the single worst President in American history. What in God's name will convince Nader's remaining supporters to abandon his lemminglike march? It's hard to imagine what kind of logic will resonate with people who define themselves as leftists and yet remain unmoved by the sight of George Bush and Dick Cheney lying us into war, John Ashcroft attempting to criminalize dissent and Donald Rumsfeld rationalizing rape and torture.

How much of the "Nader support" in polls is just repubs feigning interest :shrug: ?

[Rick Myers]

1. Christopher Hitchens???

Did I miss a decade or something? :shrug:

on edit: the rest of the article is great, but I question the mention of that alcoholic goof!

[billbuckhead]

3. Altermans criticism could well be also applied to mainstream Christians

Where are all these moral people that have been preaching to us for years when we are engaged in a freedom or death struggle? The tortured children of Iraq are waiting for them to speak.

[Rick Myers]

4. Agreed!!!

Boy, I wanna buy you a drink tonight, my friend!!!

Got some 2001 Merlot here...

Hope all is well!!!

Rick

[QC]

6. Believe it or not, there was a time

when Hitchens was a leftist. But that's long past.

[Maat]

2. Thanks for the link! I forwarded the article to a few relatives.

[bemildred]

5. Nader remains on the radar because TPTB want him on the radar.

As well ask why Kucinich, say, is not on the radar. It's
called controlling the terms of the political debate in order
to control the outcome.

[Catfight]

7. That's like saying the Holocaust needed to get much worse before

in order to make a significant difference. What backward logic. It seems to me that the only thing Nadar wants is legalized pot. We have an extremely corrupt government, but by destroying our country by allowing it to just get worse isn't being part of the solution, it's being part of the problem, therefore, Mr. Nadar is a Bushie in a green elephant hat.