<!doctype html public "-//W3C//DTD W3 HTML//EN"> <html><head><style type="text/css"></style><title>Re: Corporate Porn to Kids</title></head><body> <div>With respect to the posting appended below:</div> <div><br></div> <div>As someone who has actually worked to build the Green Party, I have had quite enough of the attacks against Nader's alleged failure to participate in the party since the 2000 election.</div> <div><br></div> <div>This is particularly the case when the criticism comes from those who have, by their own admission, not only done nothing to participate in party building at a local level, but whose continual petty slurs against the Greens have made the task of organizing the party significantly more difficult.  (Something I can attest to based on my own experience.)</div> <div><br></div> <div>Notice that the poster makes no mention or even demonstrates any interest in discussing strategies whereby the Greens (or some other organized social-democratic party) can move beyond "the real thing" as opposed to a toy.  </div> <div><br></div> <div>This posting is yet again typical of numerous LBO postings in that it is itself a symptom of the pathology which it claims to diagnose. </div> <div><br></div> <div>John</div> <div><br></div> <div><br></div> <div><font face="Charcoal" color="#000000">I did pull the lever for Nader in 2000, but as a participant of the<br> Nader-trader program.  MD was a Gore-safe state, so I voted Nader in<br> exchange for someone in WI (if memory serves) voting Gore.<br> <br> While I appreciate Nader's work as a consumer advocate I was less than<br> impressed by his political activism.  I listen to his monologue at JHU<br> couple of years ago, which struck me as an incoherent rant against<br> pop-cultural icons (Coca Cola, McDonalds, etc.) that are ordinarily the<br> subject of derision of the social class that can afford sending their<br> kids to Hopkins, rather than a serious political program.  I was quite<br> disappointed by his subsequent unwillingness or inability to build a<br> grass-roots political movement for an alternative party (Greens?) along<br> the lines of PIRG (which shows that he capable of serious grassroots<br> organizing if he wants to).  In short, Nader seems in the business of<br> selling Nader rather than promoting public good of any sort nowadays.<br> <br> Another thing: my approach to political participation is instrumental<br> rather than religious/ideological.  Unlike many folks on the Left<br> (including this list) who see political participation as an expression<br> of their faith, I see it as a mere means to an end, a tool if you will.<br> It is hard to compromise on one's expression of faith, but as far as<br> tools are concerned - you use whatever is available.  A monkey wrench<br> will do, if you do not have better and more specialized tools handy. <br> <br> For that reason, I have no problem voting Democrats, because they are<br> the best political tool available in the US.  I would like to have<br> better political tools, such as a bona-fide social democratic, labor or<br> green party - but that tool is simply not available here.  What we have<br> is mere concepts or models of such tools, not the tools themselves -<br> like a toy truck vs. the real thing.  But until various toy political<br> parties in this country become the real thing, Democrats is the best,<br> albeit a bit blunt, tool to do the job.</font><br> <font face="Charcoal" color="#000000"></font></div> <div><font face="Charcoal" color="#000000">Wojtek<font size="+2"><br> <br> </font></font></div> <x-sigsep><pre>-- </pre></x-sigsep> </body> </html>