Nader: Democrats Are Full of It [View All]

[paineinthearse]

Received by email...don't shoot me, I'm just the messenger!

Harry G. Frankfurt was a Daily Show guest a couple weeks back. I believe the interview is on its Comedy Central website.

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Dear Friend,

Have the Democrats learned anything from 2004?

Howard Dean, the chairman of the Democratic National Committee, now wishes President Bush “success” for his war in Iraq.

"Now that we're there, we're there and we can't get out," Dean told an audience of nearly 1,000 at the Minneapolis Convention Center on April 20, 2005. "The president has created an enormous security problem for the United States where none existed before,” Dean said. “But I hope the president is incredibly successful with his policy now that he's there.”

Two months earlier, Bush's CIA Director, Porter J. Goss, told the Senate that the U.S. occupation has become a potent recruitment tool for more terrorists from Iraq and other countries.

The military/industrialist Senator from New York, Hillary Clinton, the front-runner for her party’s 2008 Presidential nomination, continues to support the war in Iraq.

And now she is supporting International Paper’s plan to test burn used automobile tires at its Ticonderoga, New York facility – making the Republican Governor of Vermont – across the waters of Lake Champlain – look like an environmentalist for opposing the burn.

The test burn is the company’s first step in a plan to burn 72 tons of tires a day at the facility.

Vermont PIRG points out that the company’s boiler is not properly equipped to catch the highly toxic pollutants that are coming out of the plant right now, yet alone the witches brew of heavy metals and cancer causing chemicals released from burning tires.

Two years ago this week, President Bush, standing under a “Mission Accomplished” banner aboard the USS Lincoln, proclaimed the end of major combat operations in Iraq.

Since then, more than 1,400 Americans and more than 100,000 Iraqi civilians have been killed in Iraq.

And the Democrats can’t muster a single member of Congress to formally call for the impeachment of Bush for his ongoing illegal war.

Democrats as an opposition party?

The Democrats want you to believe that they are the only game in town.

They don’t need to lie to do this.

They can bullshit their way.

"On Bullshit" is the title of New York Times' best selling book (number four and climbing) by retired Princeton University philosophy professor Harry G. Frankfurt.
“Since bullshit need not be false, it differs from lies in its mis-representational intent,” Professor Frankfurt writes. “The bullshitter may not deceive us, or even intend to do so, either about the facts or about what he takes the facts to be. What he does necessarily attempt to deceive us about is his enterprise. His only indispensably distinctive characteristic is that in a certain way he misrepresents what he is up to.”

Perfect description of the Democrats.

No lies needed.

And what exactly is their enterprise?

To make us believe that they are a true opposition party.

Yet the Democrats in Congress can’t find the internal fortitude to stop Bush’s legislative agenda on bankruptcy, tort deform, repeal of the estate tax, and the energy bill, much less to vigorously propose a worthy agenda of their own.

The reality is that there is no opposition party in the United States.

The Democrats and Republicans are two heads of the same mega corporate machine.

And the only opposition is going to come from the people, steeped in the history of resistance to corporate power, and equipped with the tools to change from within.

We’ve recently returned from a two week anti-war tour of Arizona, California and upstate New York.

To all of you who came out to listen, learn, react and activate – it was great meeting with you and discussing with you the state of our political economy.

To those of you who chipped in to help us drive down our 2004 civil liberties debt – incurred fighting off the corporate Democrats driving to push us off the ballot in many states – we say, thank you.

We have raised over $500,000 since the election and now are looking at $95,000 that we must pay off over the course of the next few months.

To both help move our campaign into the black, and to gain more of an understanding of the current political dilemma facing our nation, we make you this offer: For a donation of $100 to our campaign, we will mail to you a copy of Professor Frankfurt’s best-selling book, "On Bullshit", (Princeton University Press, 2005).

In addition, I will send you a copy of "Civics for Democracy", a 338-page history of major citizen movements and a detailed guide to social change.

This book has become a perfect teaching manual for all people – it will help identify the bullshitters that dominate our political arena – and forge alliances with your fellow citizen activists to organize for lasting social justice.

That’s Professor Frankfurt’s best-selling "On Bullshit", and the classic "Civics for Democracy" – all for a contribution of $100 to our campaign.

If out of our tens of thousands of supporters, only 950 of you act now, we will be freed from this imposed civil liberties debt so that we can move aggressively to challenge the political duopoly that plagues this great land of ours.

Purchase them both for yourself, or give them to a friend or someone you love.

And please let your friends and family know about this invitation by forwarding this letter to your e-mail address book.

Thank you for your generous support and bright horizons.

Sincerely,

Ralph Nader

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For a contribution of $100 we will send you the following:

"On Bullshit" is the title of New York Times' best selling book (number four and climbing) by retired Princeton University philosophy professor Harry G. Frankfurt.

“Since bullshit need not be false, it differs from lies in its mis-representational intent,” Professor Frankfurt writes. “The bullshitter may not deceive us, or even intend to do so, either about the facts or about what he takes the facts to be. What he does necessarily attempt to deceive us about is his enterprise. His only indispensably distinctive characteristic is that in a certain way he misrepresents what he is up to.”

Perfect description of the Democrats.

In addition, we will send you a copy of "Civics for Democracy", a 338-page history of major citizen movements and a detailed guide to social change, signed by Ralph.

This book has become a perfect teaching manual for all people – it will help identify the bullshitters that dominate our political arena – and forge alliances with your fellow citizen activists to organize for lasting social justice.

NOTE: This product will ship separately. Due to Ralph Nader's busy schedule, please allow up to 6 weeks for delivery. Inscription includes name(s) of recipient(s) only.