Letters at 3AM
Perfidy
BY MICHAEL VENTURA
Shortly before the Supreme Court handed the presidency to George W. Bush, Ralph Nader attempted to placate Democrats and the left with a position contradictory at its core: His candidacy was an important stand for progressive values but it wasn't so important that it cost Gore the election. The electoral numbers demonstrated otherwise, but that didn't faze Nader. He told The New York Times (Nov. 18, 2000) not to worry about Bush becoming president because, Nader assured us all, Bush's "personality will limit the danger he can do. ... He doesn't know much. He is not very energetic. He doesn't like controversy."
Nader's assessment was self-serving and foolish. Bush doesn't know much? Alas, George W. Bush knows a great deal. He knows how to increase the power of the very rich while decimating the power of everyone else. He knows how to lead the U.S. into an illegal and incompetently managed war. He knows how to sell at least half the American people on the righteousness of his actions. And, most important, he knows how to tell the Big Lie. Bush's energy in such matters is unbounded. And he not only relishes controversy, he and his handlers are masters at manipulating controversy.
These Bush "strengths" manifested in the first weeks of his presidency: He quickly took drastic action against women's right to choose; he indicated that the U.S. might not sign promised environmental treaties and might not honor nuclear nonproliferation treaties; and he proposed a budget intended to make the very rich much richer while bankrupting a government surplus that might have benefited people of all classes. Nevertheless, on Feb. 18, 2001, after Bush's radical-right agenda had become clear, The New York Times asked Nader, "So you really believe that the two parties are the same?" Nader replied, "Yes, on most issues."
So, by his own confession, for Ralph Nader "most issues" don't include the rights of women, the environment, the economy, and nuclear proliferation.
However, the real issue in that interview was Nader's refusal to admit that his good intentions might have caused irreparable harm. The election of 2000 had pushed Ralph Nader into an existential sinkhole, giving him but two choices: turn to the refuge of self-delusion or face the consequences of his actions. The second choice would force him to endure the inevitable shame and dread of self-confrontation – after which he would either collapse psychologically or emerge from the ordeal a chastened, wiser, and perhaps more effective man. But Nader, like Bush, has no gift for looking in the mirror. He chose delusion.
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more at: http://www.austinchronicle.com/issues/dispatch/2004-10-01/cols_ventura.html