----- Original Message ----- From: Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> To: lbo-talk <lbo-talk at lists.panix.com> Sent: Thursday, November 02, 2000 12:38 PM Subject: anti-Ralph petition
> CONCERNED SCHOLARS, WRITERS AND ACTIVISTS 2000
>
> We, the undersigned, are appalled at the continuing national
> campaign by Ralph Nader and the Green Party.
>
> It is now plain that Mr. Nader will do anything and say anything in
> order to gain the 5 percent of the vote he seeks. Instead of a
> liberal or progressive force, his campaign now seriously threatens to
> elect the deceptive George W. Bush to the presidency. Despite Mr.
> Nader's past great achievements, and despite the good faith of his
> rank-and-file supporters, his has become a wrecking-ball campaign --
> one that betrays the very liberal and progressive values it claims to
> uphold.
>
> Recently, Mr. Nader has said that:
>
> If given a choice between Bush and Gore, he would vote for Bush. Mr.
> Nader would happily throw the country to the Right, placing the
> Supreme Court and the entire executive regulatory system in the hands
> of the most retrograde elements in our political life.
>
> Environmental reactionaries serve a positive function. Mr. Nader has
> argued that past appointments like Reagan's Secretary of the Interior
> James Watt usefully serve as "provocateurs" for change. He has also
> denounced the Sierra Club and other long-standing allies for their
> "servile mentality" in not supporting him.
>
> The repeal of Roe vs. Wade would be of little consequence. Never a
> champion of women's rights, Mr. Nader claims that abortion rights
> might just as well be left up to the states.
>
> All U.S. aid to Israel should be cut. No matter what one thinks of
> the current situation in the Middle East, such rhetoric is not only
> irresponsible, it is inflammatory.
>
> But these are only the latest Orwellian utterances from Mr. Nader and
> his supporters. From the start, he said his effort would help the
> Democrats gain votes in the House of Representatives -- while at the
> same time he has vilified the Democrats as no different than the
> Republicans. He has claimed to uphold the rights of organized labor,
> without once explaining his own firm anti-labor stance within his own
> organizations. The list goes on, from refusing to release his income
> tax returns like all other candidates -- this from the supposed
> paragon of honesty and openness -- to the disingenuous claims by his
> supporters in various states about a "risk-free" Nader vote in places
> where Gore or Bush are strong -- even as Mr. Nader himself
> aggressively looks for votes in liberal cities and on college
> campuses in vital toss-up states.
>
> Should Governor Bush be elected President, and the Republicans hold
> the Congress, conservative Republicans will have captured control of
> all three branches of the Federal Government for the first time since
> 1930. Mr. Nader, who is also supporting divisive Green congressional
> candidates in some tight races, plainly does not care about this --
> or worse, seeks it, under the naive impression that it will heighten
> social contradictions and lead to what he has called "a progressive
> convulsion." This is sectarianism of a familiar sort in the century
> just past -- a sectarianism that had reaped nothing but catastrophe
> for liberal and progressive politics.
>
> We implore all liberal and progressive voters to reject the Nader
> campaign on Nov. 7 and to vote for the Democratic ticket.
>
> Signatories (list in formation)
>
> Benjamin Barber, Rutgers University
> Paul Berman, writer and critic
> Marco Calavita, film critic
> Ellen Chesler, writer and critic
> Mitchell Cohen, City University of New York, Dissent
> Bogdan Denitch, City University of New York
> Ronald Dworkin, New York University
> Dagoberto Gilb, writer
> Todd Gitlin, New York University
> Francisco Goldman, writer
> Mary Gordon, novelist and critic
> Hendrik Hertzberg, the New Yorker
> John B. Judis, the New Republic
> David Kusnet, writer and critic
> Jeremy Larner, writer and critic
> Wendy Lesser, the Threepenny Review
> Harold Meyerson, Los Angeles Weekly
> Toni Morrison, Nobel laureate, novelist and critic
> Jo-Ann Mort, Open Society Fund
> Brian Morton, novelist and critic
> David Osborne, writer
> George Packer, novelist and critic
> Jayne Anne Phillips, novelist
> Gloria Steinem, writer and activist
> James Shapiro, Columbia University
> Ruy Teixeira, Century Foundation
> Siva Vaidhyanathan, New York University
> Judith B. Walzer, formerly New School University
> Michael Walzer, Institute for Advanced Study, Dissent
> Jim Weinstein, In These Times
> Sean Wilentz, Princeton University
>