[Peace-discuss] Allies on the Right

[C. G. Estabrook]

I've been saying for a while that the anti-war movement shouldn't assume
that its only allies are on the self-described left in US politics. In
fact I think both left and right are riven by the war and by the question
of where we go from here in the Middle East.  In his discussion with Amy
Goodman on Democracy Now yesterday, Ralph Nader makes a similar point.  
As he says, large segments of the right are unhappy with this
administration over "the PATRIOT act, the invasion of privacy, the erosion
of civil liberties, NAFTA, GATT, huge deficit, corporate welfare
subsidies," as well as the war policies. We're wrong not to be talking to
these people.  --Carl

---------- Forwarded message ----------

RALPH NADER: ...The two parties demonstrate towering similarities that are
way, way larger than the differences that the democrats are willing to
contest over, and it -- the convergence process indentured to the same
financial interests that fund both parties continues unabated. So, I think
that a case could be made, however provocative that the Democrats don't
know how to defeat Bush because they're so cautious and they're so
withdrawn and so indentured to the same financial interests that they need
other progressive initiatives to open up other fronts and open up other
issues that if the democrats were smart they could pick up on.

AMY GOODMAN: Would you put Howard Dean in that category?

RALPH NADER: Yes. I would. I think, for example, that the Bush
administration is far more vulnerable politically than the Democrats are
probing, or exposing. I refer people to essential.org which has my letter
to George W. Bush from a month-and-a-half ago about the Texas State
Republican Party platform of 2002 which has 25 positions diametrically
opposed to the Bush administration. It's basically the platform of the
conservative libertarian republicans who are furious all through the
South, including other states, with the Bush Administration on the PATRIOT
act, the invasion of privacy, the erosion of civil liberties, NAFTA, GATT,
huge deficit, corporate welfare subsidies.  It's surprising that the
democrats are not probing a wedge that would depress Bush's vote. There
are a lot of ways that to depress Bush's vote that the democrats have to
be educated on...

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