>Joel Kovel's piece was
>completely on target.
A piece whose conclusion is worth a return visit (and remember this was written, even though Cde Cox thinks this is irrelevant, by someone who challenged Nader from the left in the 2000 Calif Green primary):
>The problem is, however, that a very big difference between
>Democrats and Republicans has evolved over the past generation or
>so. It has taken root in the Bush administration, who have every
>intention of making it a permanent feature of the political
>landscape. Look at Bush, at Rove, and at Ashcroft, and you can see
>the newly malignant face of big business linked with a massive
>social base of Christian fundamentalism. Its inner logic points to
>the demolition of the Constitution and the replacement of the
>Republic--however compromised this may be - by a theocratic brand of
>fascism, in which the space for political change will shrink
>drastically, and the lives of those who do not fit--women,
>homosexuals, Muslims, anyone in the crosshairs of the police
>apparatus - will be greatly worsened. Nobody in their right mind can
>say that the wretched Democrats promise the same.
>
>Nader seems incapable of grasping this qualitative distinction, and
>his loyal band of Greens goes along, caught up, for the third time,
>no less, in hero worship, and oblivious to the fact that the
>essential principle of Green politics is grassroots democracy. The
>Greens have a perfectly respectable candidate in David Cobb, who
>rose through the ranks. But because Cobb has shown some sensitivity
>to the extreme danger posed by another Bush administration, the
>Naderites attack him as a virtual agent of the Democratic Party as
>they fantasize about the great social movement Ralph Nader is going
>to unleash in America.
>
>A lose-lose situation looms. To the extent that Nader succeeds, so
>does Bush. And in any case, the left will emerge weaker and more
>divided from this Quixotic escapade. Once again the left has become
>its own worst enemy.