NADER Returns

"We Welcome Disillusioned Obama Supporters" read the official Ralph Nader website the other day. "Yes", I thought. "That's me".

I am going to piss a lot of people off with this entry. Especially because Obama has been accepted as 'cool'. He is on hipster Tshirts being sold in Williamsburg, Brooklyn and Obey© Posters. He is supposed to bring about Change™. And then we were all shocked beyond belief when Obama broke his word on FISA/Telecom. Is this the sort of Change™ he is speaking of? Even Hillary voted against it. For those of us wishing to live in a country where our emails and phone calls can be listened to and read on a whim, where does democracy and dissent and the ability to change the staus-quo stand? When corporations can lock up activists, chill dissent, and bully any naysayer in the name of anti-terrorism, what Change™ can actually come about?

I am sick of hearing people scared of "splitting the vote" and blaming Nader for "stealing" votes from Gore. Demicans and Republicrats are owned and sponsored by the same corporate powers whose interests are met no matter which of the two colors of wrapping paper they show up in at the debates.

Nader is at 6% support, according to CNN, and those who would vote for him if he were competitive was 14% in a recent Fox poll. This could easily land Nader in a Google and YouTube sponsored debate in New Orleans this fall (the bar is set at 10%) - which if happens, could catapult Nader to an estimated 20% support simply based on disillusioned voters who didn't even know they had a non-mega-corporate-conglomerate-candidate option.

Nader would be -- to say the least -- a formidable presence in any debate. Once one gets beyond the caricature of Nader promoted by the political establishment, one sees a candidate who has intimate knowledge of every aspect of our corporate government, because we learn about an institution not by yielding to it, but by opposing it, something Nader alone has done for decades. Further, he is a man who has never flattered us, never pandered to our baser instincts and never lied to us. Greg Kafoury's After the Obama Betrayal.

Check out Allison Kilkenny's Huffington Post blog titled The Other N Word:

Obama has catered to the middle with gun control, telecom immunity, the death penalty, faith-based initiatives, and troop withdrawal landmarks. The only man who can save us now is Ralph Nader. Before you click that little, red "X" in the corner of your browser, let me explain myself... Having Ralph Nader participate in a debate is not only the democratically right thing to do, but it will force Obama to think more progressively in his policies...Even if Obama backpedals on promises, like holding telecom companies accountable for spying on Americans, he STILL looks liberal standing next to McCain... But if Nader is there...suddenly Americans will see their full spectrum of political choices. Obama and Nader don't get along. At all. Apparently, Obama's charm and pretty smile didn't woo battered hardass Nader, who I imagine nearly took off Obama's head the second Obama said something about wanting to compromise on certain Progressive issues. I guess it's hard to smooth-talk a man who was once tailed by a General Motors-hired private spy

If your values are telling you that corporations shouldn't be running the country, you might want to consider an Independent candidate like Ralph Nader. How many of us even know who the Green Party Candidate is?