Re: AN OPEN LETTER TO RALPH NADER

["George K Cunningham" <gkc@louisville.edu>]

Roxie,

I think you and Noam are completely wrong and I urge you to get behind Dave Stratman's movement of mass refusal.  Just don't vote.  That is by far the best solution.  Like the new Urban Outfitter t-shirt says, "voting is for old people."  Not voting will make you feel young again.

George K. Cunningham
University of Louisville

>>> CMWUNCHEEL@aol.com 3/29/2004 11:59:54 AM >>>
Dave -
    Do you (and Quan and Eric) honestly believe that there'll also be no 
difference whatsoever in the types of Supreme Court and lower fed. ct. appts. that 
Kerry or Bush will make?? Come ON. Illusion of democracy or not, it does 
matter very much which one of these guys wins b/c of the very real influence - 
which will reach into the next couple or few generations - of the Justices (and 
other fed. judges) on everyday lives and on society as a whole in this country. 
(That's also the most impt. reason, IMHO, Ralph needs to butt out. But you're 
kidding yourself if you think he will. My erstwhile hero of all time has 
become nothing more than an attention-seeking egomaniac). If you want to let Bush 
pack the Supreme Ct., then by all means stay home on election day and 
encourage as many others as you can to do so.
Roxie
P.S. Denial ain't just a river in Egypt.

In a message dated 3/27/04 1:53:18 PM, Newdem@aol.com writes:

<< I think that this letter will be of interest to those in the antiwar, 

anti-education reform, labor, or revolutionary movements.


Dave Stratman

Editor, New Democracy

newdemocracyworld.org

5 Burr Street

Boston, MA 02130

617-524-4073

******************

AN OPEN LETTER TO RALPH NADER

March 27, 2004


Dear Ralph:


Before you declared your candidacy, many people, including The Nation 

magazine and other former supporters, called on you not to run for President 
in 2004, 

fearing that your candidacy would lead to George Bush's re-election.


I am writing now to call on you to withdraw from the race, but for reasons 

having nothing to do with George Bush or John Kerry.


You said on "Meet the Press," when you announced your candidacy, that 

"there's a democracy gap" in our country, and I agree.


You said, "There's just too much power and wealth in too few hands, 

increasingly giant corporation hands, that have no allegiance to our country 
or our 

communities other than to control them or to abandon them. They have taken 
over 

Washington." 


I agree.


You said, "Washington is now a corporate-occupied territory."


I agree.


You said "corporations are saying no to the necessities of the American 

people. They're saying no to health insurance for everyone, no to tax reform, 
no to 

health and safety standards, no to stopping corporate welfare into hundreds 

of billions, no to straightening out the defense budget..."


I agree.


You said you believe that Al Gore would have invaded Iraq. You said, "He 

would have. I think he was a hawk. He may have done it in a different way." 
You 

said, "[Gore] and Clinton got through Congress a regime-change resolution as 
a 

pillar of our foreign policy."


I agree.


You said, "The corporate government remains in Washington, whether it's 

Democrats or Republicans. The military industrial complex, as Eisenhower 
pointed 

out, is getting bigger and devouring half of the federal budget's 
discretionary 

expenditure.... Washington is corporate-occupied territory, and the two 

parties are ferociously competing to see who's going to go to the White House 
and 

take orders from their corporate pay masters. So...they may be different in 

their rhetoric. But in the actual performance these corporate interests and 
their 

political allies are taking America down. They're taking our country apart: 

massive poverty, massive child poverty, massive consumer debt, environmental 

devastation....So, basically, it's a question between both parties flunking: 
one 

with a D-, the Republicans; one with a D+, the Democrats." 


Again I agree*though I think this understates the destructive role both 

parties play in American life.


The question is, given the situation you describe*a government dominated by 

money and in the hands of corporate power; a duopoly of power between 
Democrats 

and Republicans, who answer to the same corporate paymasters, both of whom 

are tearing our country apart and taking it down; a mammoth, out-of-control 

military-industrial complex with a vested interest in maintaining the 
situation 

dominating the government*how can we change it?


I agree that it is important to raise these issues and bring them to public 

attention as widely as possible, and I applaud your effort to do that.


But you are as aware as I am that you stand zero chance of winning the 

election.


Even more to the point, you must be aware that no significant change in 

American society has ever come about through the electoral process. Change 
has only 

come about through determined direct action by millions of people. It was 

mass action that organized the first industrial unions in America through 

sit-down strikes and the forcible takeover of factories and mines. It was 
only 

courageous mass action by millions of black people and their white supporters 
which 

resulted in the achievement of civil rights for blacks. It was only the mass 

action of millions of Americans in the streets and the frequent refusal and 

rebellions by American soldiers in Vietnam and the heroic struggle by 
millions of 

Vietnamese that brought that war to an end.


The very reasons you offered that impelled you to run*a society and a 

government dominated by big money and powerful corporations*make change 
through the 

electoral process more implausible now than ever.

  

The electoral process has traditionally been used by the corporate paymasters 

who rule our country and who own both parties to provide the illusion of 

democracy, divide the populace over secondary issues, and persuade people to 
place 

their hope in the corporate party of their choosing. The electoral process is 

used, in other words, to prevent people taking matters into their own hands, 

organizing their own countervailing power, and challenging corporate 

domination.


The massive movement against war in Iraq before the war began shows that 

there is a huge swath of people in our country who oppose the disastrous path 
on 

which corporate government is taking us. There is a fault line running 
through 

American society which divides the war-makers from the people. The electoral 

process is meant to disguise that fault line, hide its significance from 

people, and once again force them to choose between two corporate parties.


I am writing to ask you not just to resign your candidacy, but to do 

something far more activist and effective.


New Democracy, the organization of which I am part, has called on American 

voters to engage in MassRefusal/2004 (massrefusal.org) We are calling on 
people 

to refuse to vote in this presidential election, this sham vote over which 

representative of the corporate parties will rule us. We are calling on 
voters to 

announce to their friends and to the world that they refuse to take part in 

fake democracy and that instead they are determined to fight for real 

democracy, that they are determined to take our country into their own hands.


I am asking you to join us in MassRefusal/2004. I am asking that you announce 

to the world that you are resigning your candidacy because what's needed now 

is not another candidate but a mass movement to challenge corporate power. I 

am asking that you throw in your lot with us. I do not ask that you 
discontinue 

speaking out wherever you can on these issues. Far from it. I ask that you 

redouble your efforts to expose corporate domination of American life 
wherever 

and however you can.   


We envision MassRefusal/2004 as only one of many steps in strengthening the 

existing movement to change the direction of our society. It is a step that 

millions of people can take together that makes a strong political statement 
at 

little individual risk. We expect to follow it with other refusals: refusal 
to 

allow the military to recruit our children; refusal to enlist in the 
military; 

refusal to fight endless wars; refusal to work for Empire. We hope that many 

who engage in MassRefusal/2004 will come together to plan what to do next to 

build the movement.


The situation in our country which you have so penetratingly described is 

extremely serious; on this, I know that we agree. President Bush has promised 
a 

future of endless war; candidate Kerry has said nothing to indicate that he 
has 

any other course in mind. And how could he, really? As you have made clear, 

the course of US government policy is not really in the hands of elected 

officials but in the hands of their corporate paymasters.


The future is indeed frightening, but it is also full of hope. The 

magnificent resistance of millions of Americans to the lies and war 
propaganda of the 

Republican/Democrat/corporate machine shows that we have a firm foundation of 

shared anti-corporate values on which to build for a second American 
revolution. 


I hope you will join us now. 


For New Democracy,


Dave Stratman

Editor, New Democracy

newdemocracyworld.org

5 Burr Street

Boston, MA 02130

617-524-4073



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Date: Sat, 27 Mar 2004 13:44:12 EST
Subject: [arn-l] AN OPEN LETTER TO RALPH NADER
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