By Greg Bates
Second in a series.
What a zoo. Republicans who oppose Nader’s principles and platform have sued to get Nader on the ballot in the key swing state of Michigan. And Nader’s Republican support is a national phenomenon concentrated in swing states. Their goal is to split liberal voters from Kerry and, so the logic goes, swing the election to Bush. Meanwhile, progressives who agree with Nader’s principles and platform, and who think he would make a wonderful president, have denounced him for not rejecting his Republican support strongly enough.
I argue that the best stance is to welcome the Republican support with open arms.
But first, it’s worth detailing that the support of Republicans for Nader’s efforts extends well beyond gathering signatures on petitions. Well-known backers of George W. Bush such as billionaire Dick Egan, who has raised money for Bush, have given money to the Nader campaign. Citizens for a Sound Economy, co-chaired by Dick Armey, the former Republican Majority Leader in the House, and C. Boyden Gray, former White House counsel to George H.W. Bush, organized to get Nader on the ballot in Oregon, making phone calls to people to turn out for a meeting. The CSE agenda includes flat tax, making Bush’s tax cuts permanent, and favoring “free markets and limited government,” positions antithetical to Nader’s political efforts over the span of 40 years. As Factcheck.org relates,
“Another Oregon group, the Oregon Family Council, also said it made calls for Nader. Mike White, the group’s director, told the Associated Press:
White: We aren’t bashful about doing it. We are a conservative, pro-family organization, and Bush is our guy on virtually every issue.”
Wrath from the progressive side has been downright righteous. As Norman Solomon told The Socialist Worker in its July 23 issue, “In Oregon, right-wing groups—including a notorious antigay organization— have worked to get Nader on the ballot. The Oregonian (June 25) reported that the head of the Nader campaign in Oregon “said he saw nothing wrong with the Republican outreach efforts. ‘It’s a free country,’ he said. ‘People do things in their own interest.’” Building “a political alternative” while accepting tactical alliances with xenophobic and antigay forces? I’ll pass.”
Huh? Here Solomon argues against working with those whose values we detest. Yet he is a forceful advocate for voting for John Kerry, whose values Solomon detests. Solomon has been scrupulous in pointing out exactly why it is that in Kerry, “hope is not on the way.” The criticism of Kerry is well deserved: Kerry’s advisors include men like Rand Beers, who was profiled by Sean Donahue of the Massachusetts Anti-Corporate Clearinghouse. As Laura Flanders, author of Bush Women: Tales of a Cynical Species points out:
“[Beers is] the public face of Clinton’s deadly crop-fumigation program in Colombia. He once said under oath that Colombian terrorists had received training in Al Qaeda camps in Afghanistan. (A claim he later had to withdraw.) ‘If John Kerry lets Rand Beers continue to guide his foreign policy, a Kerry administration will be no better for rural Colombians than a Bush administration,’ wrote Donahue. Voters who want Sen. Kerry to offer a humane alternative to Bush should demand that the senator pledge now not to make Beers secretary of state.” Beers was aiding the Colombian government, which has the worst human rights record in the hemisphere. Given that, I’m not sure if one can make a convincing argument that the scumbags backing Nader are worse than the scumbags backing the man Solomon wants us to vote for. A pissing match that is best not engaged in.
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Among the left media, I've found _CounterPunch_, _Left Hook_, and _Press Action_ to be more pro-Nader/Camejo than pro-Cobb or pro-Kerry and _Dissident Voice_ to be evenhanded, giving equal voices to all currents (pro-Nader/Camejo, pro-Cobb/LaMarche, and pro-Kerry/Edwards). Other than those exceptions, you're quite right. -- Yoshie -- Michael Pugliese