[lbo-talk] Nader and His Detractors

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

Ravi wrote:
>>It should be easier for a Green Party candidate (or a candidate of 
>>another political party on the left) to be elected for US 
>>Representative, US Senator, or Governor than for President.  As I 
>>mentioned, this year, 57 Green Party candidates are running for 
>>seats in the US House of Representatives, and 7, the US Senate. 
>>Combined impacts -- in terms of fundraising, new party activists, 
>>new registered Green voters, new state parties, new party ballots, 
>>media coverage, etc. -- of all of them, however, are smaller than 
>>Nader/LaDuke 2000 or a Green Party presidential ticket in the 
>>future headed by an intellectual in Nader's league of name 
>>recognition, political connections, and fundraising capacity (and 
>>few US leftists are -- perhaps no US leftist today is -- in Nader's 
>>league in these three respects).  That's the truth based upon 
>>empirical facts.
>
>perhaps but (a) nader's name recognition can still be used to 
>promote the greens and (b) name recognition for the party and its 
>candidates may still be the better goal to work towards, than in 
>pushing for an impossible nader presidency.

Nader promoted the Green Party during and after his 2000 presidential run:

<blockquote>Ralph helped:

* local Greens start 450 new local Green chapters,
* achieve ballot lines for several states,
* support state and local candidates;
* make the party grow from an association of states to a national party;
* recruit and share lists of tens of thousands of volunteers; and
* start 900 chapters on college campuses, all resulting in the 
largest vote for a progressive candidacy in 75 years.

Since 2000, Ralph:

* wrote Crashing the Party, touting the Green Party and its platform;
* attended 45 fundraisers in some 31 states, at his own expense, 
raising more money than anyone for the Green Party at the national 
party, state and local levels;
* sent representatives to the Global Greens Conference in Canberra in 
2001; the Hiawassee, GA meeting in 2000; the Santa Barbara, CA 
meeting in 2001; and the D.C. meeting in 2003; Ralph attended the 
Philadelphia, PA conference in 2002.
* has met with dozens of Green leaders around the Globe as they visit D.C.;
* went to Europe in 2002 for the 3rd annual Congress of European 
Greens in Germany, and visited the French and Swedish Greens before 
their elections.

<http://www.votenader.org/why_ralph/news.php?cid=3></blockquote>

That's more than what any other intellectual in Nader's league has 
done for the Green Party.

I wish that some of the critics of Nader -- a few of whom are as well 
known as Nader, for instance, Michael Moore, Noam Chomsky, Howard 
Zinn, etc. -- also did as much for the Green Party as Nader had.


>>I doubt that John Kerry will be better for the environment than 
>>George W. Bush.  Each president since Richard Nixon was on the 
>>whole worse for the environment than the one before.  Bill Clinton 
>>was worse than Ron Reagan and George H. W. Bush:
>
>ok, so as you suggest, bush term 2 should be worse than bush term 1, 
>yes? then, the question is, would kerry term 1 be worse than a bush 
>term 2? i still believe not (btw, thanks for the excerpts of the 
>clinton record).

Which is worse -- Kerry's first term or Bush's second term?  Hard to 
say, because that depends on a lot of things.  Will there be any 
terrorist attack on the mainland USA?  How soon will activists 
recover from social movement demobilization caused by the 2004 
election?  Etc.
-- 
Yoshie

* Critical Montages: <http://montages.blogspot.com/>
* Greens for Nader: <http://greensfornader.net/>
* Bring Them Home Now! <http://www.bringthemhomenow.org/>
* OSU-GESO: <http://www.osu-geso.org/>
* Calendars of Events in Columbus: 
<http://sif.org.ohio-state.edu/calendar.html>, 
<http://www.freepress.org/calendar.php>, & <http://www.cpanews.org/>
* Student International Forum: <http://sif.org.ohio-state.edu/>
* Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osudivest.org/>
* Al-Awda-Ohio: <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Al-Awda-Ohio>
* Solidarity: <http://www.solidarity-us.org/>