Let me begin by saying that I have always had the deepest respect for Ralph Nader. His significance as a crusader for the American consumer is a matter of historical fact. BUT, you must be old enough to actually remember why and how he became so important. Any investigation into the history of American car companies, drug companies, insurance companies, and the quality of American produced consumer goods in the early 1960s will readily document the many ways in which Ralph Nader has proven his noble intentions and benefit.
However, he would easily make the world’s worst poker player because of his habit of showing his hand, thereby allowing everyone else in the game to change strategies, hedge their bets, and cut their losses. Sadly, this remains the case today! He has (once again) declared himself to be a candidate for president, setting the stage for the right wing to split the democratic populace and end up further empowering the very people and groups doing the most damage to this society.
Ever since his emergence on the American scene I have wondered why he has never run for congress, which he surely could have done successfully. Congress is where the laws are made, not the White House where they are merely “enforced” -- effectively or not! Now, with his announcement that he is once again making an attempt to change America by appealing to the common sense of the lower socio-economic half of the population, he is making the same mistakes as before.
To get right to the point, Nader recognizes all too well that the military-industrial complex and their megolithic lobbying “machine” is a gargantuan impediment to ever alleviating class injustices as they currently exist. But he is putting his hopes for success in that very same dispirited, under educated, poorly motivated, and culturally deprived underclass. This is the same subgroup that watches professional wrestling on saturday mornings, believes that “reality television” is reality, dotes on Brittany Spears, and remains largely uneducated. These are the very same people who rarely vote or write their legislators. In the last two presidential elections this segment of the population stayed away in droves out of ignorance and despair.
Sadly, I do not expect this to end well unless the democratic candidate has the insight to meet immediately with Mr. Nader, assure him that his concerns will be included in a new democratic administration, and openly offers him a cabinet level position or other position of significant influence and power. Of course, it may all be for naught anyway since we “seem” to be living in the age of easily manipulated digital voting machines with no paper trails.
It certainly does make Aldous Huxley, Marshall MacLuhan, and George Orwell appear to be prophets of the highest order -- but then again, most of America doesn’t even have a clue who those guys were!
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