Was Nader Right?

During the 2000 election, in between accusations that the two major candidates were identical, Ralph Nader commented that it might take a Bush presidency to shake the left out of its complacency, with the implication that things could then be turned around. This attitude (and the hypocrisy apparent in it) caused me to leave the Greens for the Democratic party in the hopes of actually getting something done.

But was he right?

History has a way of changing everyone's plans, and September 11th was one of the biggest right turns in modern history. It has allowed the neocons to accelerate their plans to a previously inconceivable pace. The reaction, however, has been heartening. Peace protests of a scale unlike anything imagined before have rocked the world. There is an increasing awareness of the threats to our freedom from PATRIOT and bills like it, and by all indications the Idiocy In Iraq will only be a brief distraction to that realization. The left is finally asking the important questions: How do we become relevant again? How do we regain the ear of the mainstream? In this, at least, Nader was certainly correct.

The big question, and one that is yet unresolved, is whether or not it's too little, too late. Right-wing attack pundits rule the radio waves and are on their way to conquering television. The Bush administration may be using precision missiles in the war, but it's all saturation propagandizing on the home front, and the news business, with a few refreshing exceptions, is baring its throat. Stealth legislature is worming its way through Congress, often attached to legitimate projects. Whenever the few Democrats with spines cry foul, the new right wraps itself in the flag and accuses the resistance of "obstructing" necessary works -- which they themselves have taken hostage with their partisan villainy. The tragic irony is that the Republican party itself is becoming a rubber stamp for the executive branch, as the overwhelming majority of its members fall over themselves in an effort to prove their patriotism and loyalty to the President.

Meanwhile, the neocons encourage intimidation, threats, and outright attacks on anyone who dares to disagree with the president, accusing those who protest against the war of treason itself. Those who exercise their Constitutional rights risk their jobs, their liberty, and even their lives now. Protests where hundreds of thousands are in danger of being arrested for their beliefs -- or worse, being attacked by the spiritual heirs to the brown shirts -- are being compared to pro-war rallies supported by large corporations where the only thing the few thousand (at most) attendees risk is a second helping of free food. Meanwhile, our legislature is busying itself by taking the word "French" out of every menu product they can think of. In my more pessimistic moments, I suspect that Congress itself is becoming steadily less relevant. I have to wonder when we will hear from Fox News that "the last remnant of the old Republic has been swept away."

So here we are at the crossroads, where a one-vote lead in the Senate and a slim one in the House, won by a razor-thin majority, is a "mandate" -- and a first-strike invasion is "preemptive defense" and "liberation." Our government's solution to forest fires is to cut down all the trees, and people devoted to non-violent solutions are accused of aiding mass murderers. And yet, when our legal freedom is at its nadir, we are expressing it most vociferously. Can we save liberty and justice for all? Have we awakened from our stupor in time? Or was Orwell our Cassandra?

We will know all too soon.

(/) Roland X
Not Cassandra -- don't have the legs (with apologies to Neil Gaiman)