[Peace-discuss] Fwd: Open Letter to the Democratic Party

[manni at snafu.de]

Forwarded Message:
> To: portside at yahoogroups.com
> From: portsideMod <portsidemod at yahoo.com>
> Subject: Open Letter to the Democratic Party
> Date: Sat, 2 Nov 2002 20:06:14 -0800 (PST)
> -----
> by Ralph Nader
> 
> Published on Thursday, October 31, 2002 by CommonDreams.org
> 
> The Democrats should have an easy time winning control of the
> House of Representatives and the Senate in next week's election.
> Recession is deepening, unemployment is rising, and corporate
> corruption headlines are proliferating. Health care costs, drug
> prices and the number of Americans without health care coverage
> are all increasing. Median household incomes are falling.
> Corporate crime has heavily depleted 401Ks and other pension
> losses.
> 
> These should all help the Democrats win against the corporate-
> indentured Republicans marinated in corporate cash, soft on
> corporate and environmental crimes and demonstrably anti-labor.
> 
> Why then is the overall contest for Party control of Congress too
> close to call? Because Democrats are not clearly, relentlessly and
> aggressively emphasizing these fundamental issues to distinguish
> themselves from the Republicans. Why? Are they unaware, neglectful
> or torpid? No, their chronic ambiguity flows from being largely
> indentured to the same monied commercial interests as the
> Republicans.
> 
> So Governor Shaheen of New Hampshire, running for the U.S. Senate,
> refers to corporate crime as "corporate mismanagement" and other
> Democratic candidates are allowing the Republicans to blur key
> poll-tested issues like prescription drug benefits, tax cuts for
> the super wealthy, and corporate crime enforcement.
> 
> Voters want to know whose side candidates are on in their daily
> struggles as workers, consumers, patients, small taxpayers and
> savers on the one hand, and, on the other hand, the giant
> corporations that pay for control of our government in order to
> get all the goodies that come out of the hides of working
> families. Fairness is the great issue in American politics,
> stupid!
> 
> Franklin Delano Roosevelt and the Democrats won election after
> election by conveying one singularly clear impression - that the
> Republican Party was beholden to the wealthy and the Democratic
> Party represented the working people. Karl Rove, in the Bush White
> House, understands this history. That is why he is engaged in the
> "blur and spur" strategy of fuzzing the hot-button issues to
> portray the Republicans as fighters for ordinary Americans,
> instead of the big businesses which own them. This is also why the
> Republicans are using the spur of the drumbeats of war to distract
> the country away from pressing domestic necessities, injustices
> and hazards.
> 
> By a margin of nearly two to one the American people do not want a
> war against Iraq that involves an invasion, American casualties
> and essentially having the United States go it alone. Not when
> rigorous UN inspectors can go to Iraq first.
> 
> Even more Americans would join these citizens if the mass media
> relayed the facts about how boxed in the militarily-weakened
> dictator of Iraq is, surrounded by more powerful enemies (Iran,
> Turkey, Israel), two- thirds of his country out of his rigid
> control (no fly zones), deterred, contained and under 24-hour
> satellite surveillance.
> 
> More voters would be anti-war if there was greater media
> discussion about the likelihood of awful civilian casualties and
> sickness among the innocent children and adults of Iraq. Voters
> would also be anti-war if Americans were given the facts about the
> opposition to the touted conduct of this war from inside the
> Pentagon, among retired military officers and other experts who
> believe the risks of undermining the effort against terrorism, of
> generating a boomerang of domestic terrorism around theworld and
> an endemic civil war in Iraq (where the U.S. stays as expensive
> occupier) are not worth toppling the government of Iraq by a
> unilateral invasion.
> 
> When a group of Gulf War veterans had a news conference at the
> National Press Club in Washington on October 24 to point out some
> of these consequences (which included conditions, leading to the
> sickness of 128,000 Gulf War veterans in 1991) the media did not
> show up. (For their statements, see
> www.veteransforcommonsense.org).
> 
> The "cakewalk" view of the planned war widely espoused by the
> circle of chickenhawks surrounding George W. Bush is obscuring
> serious public debate about another possible outcome -- diverse
> human and economic consequences adverse to U.S. and global
> security during and after the war is over.
> 
> The Democrats can still raise their voices for the people in the
> next few days before November 5th, if they understand that
> waffling rarely wins campaigns. The people want it straight talk
> and real action.
> 
> 
> 
> __________________________________________________
> Do you Yahoo!?
> HotJobs - Search new jobs daily now
> http://hotjobs.yahoo.com/
> 
> 
> portside (the left side in nautical parlance) is a
> news, discussion and debate service of the Committees
> of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism. It
> aims to provide varied material of interest to people
> on the left.
> 
> Post            : mail to 'portside at yahoogroups.com'
> Subscribe       : mail to 'portside-subscribe at yahoogroups.com'
> Unsubscribe     : mail to 'portside-unsubscribe at yahoogroups.com'
> List owner      : portside-owner at yahoogroups.com
> Web address     : <http://www.yahoogroups.com/group/portside>
> Digest mode     : visit Web site
>  
> 
> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ 
> 
>