Predictably, Green Party activist Ralph Nader has a new book out, just in time for the upcoming election cycle. Maybe he’ll even run for president again. What he does in the intervening years to build the party or generate effective leadership is unclear.
In recent years Nader has been more of a spoiler than a candidate who was able to change the political landscape. It isn’t that he has nothing to add or that his ideas are insubstantial but he suffers, like most third-party candidates, over how to attract enough support and financing to win on election day. The problem with the two-party lock on elections is that it didn’t just suddenly materialize out of thin air. It is the result of long-standing, endemic practices that endure because of how elections are financed. Choose your poison in terms of which big-time contributors underwrite your party of choice.
And it is small comfort when candidates are themselves, millionaires - - Carly Fiorina is able to self-fund her campaign in California thanks to her Hewlett-Packard golden parachute worth millions. The absence of direct corporate subsidies is no guarantee that a candidate will serve the broader public interest. In fact just the opposite may be true because often the rich forget how they came to be that way. It was often said of George Bush that he started on third base but acted as if he had hit a home run when he rose to power. In the fictional Little Orphan Annie Daddy Warbucks was said not to care about the people he stepped on as he climbed the ladder to wealth and power because, once on top, he didn’t expect to ever run into them again.
Like it or not both major parties are affected by a privileged sector that exerts far too much power in shaping the destiny of ordinary Americans. Developing a third-party, however, faces a minefield of obstacles, not the least of which is finding an electable candidate. Add to that stumbling block the need to raise substantial funds in order to compete with established party machinery - - a reality made all the more striking by the Supreme Court’s Citizens’ United decision. Finally, standing up to special interests that have deeply rooted footholds requires an almost superhuman skill-set. Besides special interests aren’t always devious undeserving entities. They are a mixture of local constituencies and economic pressures that all play a part in the political process.
If getting elected is one big hurdle, governing is the vastly more difficult task in blazing a new political trail. As has been obvious over the past year and a half, there are disparate components even in a ruling majority, and if the opposition is determined enough it can, in any case, defeat whatever an administration brings to the table. For a new party, setting an agenda that is broad-based enough to gather in far-flung elements of the electorate represents a challenge that goes beyond just railing against the status quo. That is one of the problems with today’s Tea Party activists for example. There is neither a clear leader nor an agenda of any specificity other than Obama-anger and meandering rants about taking back the country. Left unaddressed is any concrete plan about how to deal with national problems if the country fell within their purview.
But it is wrong to say, despite the inherent failings of the two-party system that there are no differences between the parties. Republican appointees have taken the Supreme Court hard right with decisions that threaten the electoral process, equating first-amendment rights with money as if speech were a fungible commodity. And if one listens carefully to conservative hopefuls in Congress about how they would change the course of the country’s fortunes it would be clear how radical their plans for reshaping America are - - modify or get rid of Social Security, repeal health-care legislation, keep regulations to a minimum, eliminate the estate tax, keep all the Bush tax cuts and talk big about curbing the deficit but decline to find ways to fund our military operations. And oh yes, if they have time, find a way to impeach President Obama.
We’ve kind of been that route before haven’t we, and it doesn’t seem like a way forward. Third parties may come into their own at some point. But in the meantime, there are still choices to be made, some are better than others. Kweisi Mfume, former congressman and president of the NAACP, made the observation recently that the world is filled with “a few geniuses and a liberal sprinkling of fools.” Voters have an obligation to reject the fools without sinking the entire democratic process.
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Are You WWII French or Italian?
If I thought your way, I would have to emulate your hero Barry Obama and head off to the battle with my weaponless arms held high over my head.
If George Washington had felt like you, he would have surrendered after being driven out of New York. If Lincoln had felt like you, he would have stopped his war after Gen McDowell bungled First Manassas. If Teddy Roosevelt had felt like you, Bataan and Corregidor would never have happened. If Franklin Roosevelt had felt like you, your right arm would stiffen into salute everytime you saw a picture of Ronald Reagan or one of the Bushes.
We know the odds are long, and that winning is not something to be expected soon. But to paraphrase that vile and blood-drenched warmonger Winston Churchill, we vow to "fight on to rescue the polluted seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength on the media air, we shall defend our potentially Green-energy-powered land, whatever the cost may be; we shall fight on to clean the oil-covered beaches, we shall fight the radical conservatives on their shifting legal grounds, we shall fight in the opinionated fields and in the impoverished streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender."
I chose. Will you?
Sorry, Ann...
I must say that you, Ann, are part of the group of pundits who (apparently) have aligned with the center-right DLC. The "sprinkling of fools" is actually about 95% of Congress. I am sick to death of my progressive ideals being considered "out of the main stream". I will vote Green or Socialist from now on. NEVER again will I vote for "the fools" who occupy (as in an occupying Army) Congress. They do not speak for me!
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I can see you are a member of the hold your nose and vote faction.you say the republicans want to end social security and I agree.I am on social security and I fear for my life.However Barrack Obama has appointed a commission to see how we can cut costs and he loaded the commission with people who have a proven track record of wanting to get rid of social security.This commission won't report until after the midterm elections,I wonder why.As far as military operations Obama wants to keep 2 illegal wars going and i read in the post he wants to expand the sale of military arms,not much different then the Republicans.As far as keeping business regulations to a minimum that seems to be what the democrats now want also,obama has staffed our regulatory departments with business friendly overseerers.there is a much smaller difference between the 2 corporate parties then you indicate.I for one hope we get a green party candidate because the democratic party has become the mirror of the Republican.I know a third party candidate can't be elected but somehow we must send a message to the democrats that we won't tolerate obamas swing to the right.