SECTION
FIFTEEN
EMAIL
PAGE EIGHT
sm
COLUMN
SEVENTY, APRIL 1, 2002
(Copyright © 2002 The Blacklisted Journalist)
FROM PORTSIDE
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(the left side in nautical parlance) is a
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* * *
DID NADER REALLY HAVE IT RIGHT?
Subject:
Kuttner & Nader
Date: Mon, 11 Feb 2002 10:56:56 -0500
From: portsideMod@netscape.net
Reply-To: portside@yahoogroups.com
To: portside@yahoogroups.com
Re:
Nader Had it Right All Along
Bob
Kuttner's confession of his miscalculation by voting for Gore in the 2000
presidential campaign reveals the agony of the honest, non-demagogic wing of
what remains of the liberal intellectuals. But it may be symptomatic of the
plight of many on the left as well. Despite our collective acknowledgements
about corporate capitalist domination of both political parties progressives
persist in adopting the lesser evil fallacy, and disdain the arduous task of
building a genuine independent progressive electoral vehicle in this country.
Instead, even as no Democratic senator came forward to support the House Black
Caucus's call for an investigation into the Florida results in the 2000
election, the failure of any except Barbara Lee to refuse Bush is blank check in
Afghanistan, and other calumnies, too many are still hoping for redemption
within the Democratic party.
After
the November election Todd Gitlin and Sean Wilentz issued an open letter to
those such as Ellen Willis and myself who publicly supported Nader. We were
accused of having contributed to Bush's election. Their letter was flattering
but profoundly mistaken. As Nader claimed, the election was Gore's to lose. We
were part of a fairly substantial group of radicals who had determined that if
ever the Democratic Party embodied a genuine left-center coalition (an estimate
shared, until recently, by Communists and Democratic Socialists) that time was
long past. We believe that the complicity of the Democrats in the promulgation
of the program of Empire, its steady retreat to the Right, in the double meaning
of the phrase on a myriad of social and economic issues, correspond neither to
the interests of working people--trade unionists, blacks, Latinos and other
oppressed groups, and women--nor to their own beliefs. We saw the Nader
candidacy as a bold step towards a new politics.
Nader
ran on the Green Party Line because the party's platform is the only
consistently anti-corporate, ecological and social justice political statement
among ballot parties. Its activists are often on the front lines in the
anti-corporate global movement currently picking up new energy.
I
have registered Green, become active in the Green Party and may run for governor
of New York State this year. In this state the Green Party has ballot status,
meaning that it does not have to petition for every candidate as long as it
maintains 50,000 votes for its gubernatorial candidate. This it achieved in 1998
with Al Lewis, a television personality, at the head of the ticket. Green
candidates at the local level in New York and other cities and states are
receiving between 10-20% of the vote and have elected some officials. While
there is a long way to go the Green Party is rapidly becoming a viable force in
many communities.
If
Kuttner is right the alternative for left and liberal activists and
intellectuals in Massachusetts, Connecticut and other northeastern states, as
well as the West coast and southwest where Green parties are showing strength,
is to openly choose Green politics. Otherwise we will continue to be bound by
the chains of illusion.
stanley Aronowitz ##
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