2008 Elections: Nader Enters The Ring

Ralph Nader, once one of our Great American Heroes, has decided to run for election.

Words cannot express our deep disappointment in Mr. Nader. When he ran against George W. Bush and Al Gore in 2000, we were actually hopeful that he would win. But he lost, and worse, he siphoned away votes from Gore, handing the election to Bush.

Like Skippy, we don't believe that Nader could have handed the country to the Republicans if there weren't already a great deal wrong &mdash with American politics, the electoral process, the Democratic party, and, more importantly, the people who could look at George W. Bush and not realize what a disaster he would be for the nation.

We do not forbear to mention the dirty tricks of Karl Rove; the lapdog mainstream media which for over a decade has functioned only as a corporate mouthpiece, completely betraying its standing as the Fourth Estate; the systematic corruption of the voting process by introducing machines that create no paper trail so neither voters nor election officials can check on whether the vote has been stolen; and the suppliers of such machines who openly boasted of their ability to "deliver" votes of a particular type.

But after 12 years of Republicans in power without any activism on the part of the Green party or Ralph Nader, we have to question Nader's judgement and his aim. We don't believe he will succeed in stealing votes from the Democratic frontrunners this time. We're just really embarrassed and humiliated and sorry that this once-fine man, and the Green party, for which we had such high hopes, is turning into a blatant, paid whore of the Republican party &mdash which itself has deviated from the high ideals that once governed it.

We cannot in good conscience ever &mdash barring some drastic turnabout in their political stance &mdash espouse the Green party or the politicians that it chooses to be the peoples' representative. We cannot aid or assist them in any way, despite our deep and abiding commitment to environmentalism, human rights on the national and international level, workers' rights, women's rights, the rights of children, social justice, and the fight to save the beleaguered planet and all life-forms that abide thereupon.

For the Green Party to openly take money from the Republican Party, which has repeatedly espoused anti-environmental positions, laid to waste workers' rights, devastated the nation, its people, and even its currency &mdash is nothing short of despicable.

For Ralph Nader to say hardly a word in the past twelve years about the destructive policies of the Republican Senate and Congress and the brainless puppet and his puppetmaster whom they put in power by bamboozling the American people &mdash is nothing short of despicable.

Where were you, Ralph, when the white house was manufacturing excuses for a bloody immoral war that has killed and maimed and devastated so many, American, Iraqi, Afghani alike? Where were you when the coffins were coming home with the bodies of our dead, lied into a war, and cheated on their return?


Where were you when the white house sent their lawyers to argue that veterans were not entitled to mental health benefits, even as the number of suicides among the troops were skyrocketing? Where were you when we threw a bunch of poor peasants and taxi drivers and journalists and farmers into Guantanamo and held them there for years, incommunicado, in violation of every human rights treaty, every legal excuse, every clause in our own Constitution?

When the megacorporate media bought up America's radio and TV stations, newspapers and magazines, where were you? When good investigative journalists were laid off while rabid attack dogs were given the airwaves, which are public property, where were you? Did you speak out against the sale of our ports to Dubai? Did you say word one when our national infrastructure was privatized? When troops received inferior armor before being shoved in the meatgrinder of a war of occupation, while Blackwater received millions in taxpayer money, did you raise your voice? Did you speak out against the immunity Blackwater still uses to rape, injure, murder innocent people? When New Orleans was drowning while your financiers Bush and McCain were celebrating at a birthday party?


We heard not one word from you over the past decade. Shout yourself hoarse, now, Ralph. We don't believe anyone's listening to you. And if they are, they're even greater fools than the 19 per cent of the nation who think George W. Bush has anything worthwhile to say.

Stumble It!