Rant O'the Day

Last week I was listening to Air America, the new lefty radio network. A gentleman by the name of Mike Malloy came on. Apparently it was his first broadcast for AA but he had been on the radio elsewhere as many people called in to welcome him back to the airwaves. Amidst all the welcome backs and well wishes was a caller named Jeff who expressed his disillusionment with the Democratic Party and that John Kerry is essentially the same as George Bush. With vitriol usually reserved for Bush himself, Malloy went after the guy:

Jeff: I'm disillusioned.
Malloy: About what?
Jeff: The Democratic party.
Malloy: (Frustrated tone) Oh God. What about the Democratic party's got you disillusioned?
Jeff: Well, the fact that, ya know, if you look at the 2 party system, you've got Bush as the wolf, you've got Kerry who's the wolf in sheep's clothing.
Malloy: Yeah.
Jeff: That's the way it looks like to me.
Malloy: Yeah.
Jeff: I'm voting for Nader because he's the closest thing we've got to somebody who's honorable, is actually willing to make a stand on anything...
Malloy: Yeah.
Jeff: …without talking outta both sides of his mouth. And is actually concerned for the working class poor in this country.
Malloy: Yeah. OK.
…Malloy: I've been through this discussion a thousand times - I'm so sick of it I could just vomit blood. OK, is that graphic enough? Nader - I love Ralph Nader. He's a great man, he also…if he continues this nonsense, he's gonna hand this election to Bush. Now…in a perfect world, Nader would be the Democratic nominee, I grant you that. But this is not a perfect world, this is Bushworld, alright? If you want 4 more years of Bush, vote for Ralph, that's all I can say. You know that as well as I do. Every vote for Nader is a vote away from Kerry and a vote for Bush. For God's sake, the Republican Party is financing some of these get-out-the-vote campaigns for Nader so don't be a fool. It's OK to be idealistic but don't be a fool, OK?

This is a refrain I hear often from the far left. “Anybody but Bush” is the new motto. Michael Moore and Bill Maher got down on bended knees before Ralph Nader and pleaded with him to withdraw from the presidential race. While the scene was funny on one hand, it also symbolized the great extent to which progressives have given up the fight. Most of the Left views Ralph Nader as an enemy. Why? If I were to vote for Nader, it would go to his column, not Bush’s. Then again, with these new computerized voting machines, it wouldn’t be too surprising if that were to happen. Progressives love to contrast themselves against conservatives by saying such things as they stand for things like fairness and equality – genuinely good moral principles – whereas the Right stands for the interests of Big Business. Not to pick on Michael Moore, but here’s part of his speech from a Nader rally in the last presidential election:

If ya don't vote your conscience now, when will you start? When will you start to follow your conscience? If at the age of 18 or 19 or 20 years old, if at this very 1st election of your life you decide to settle for less, how has that moved us forward? We're at the place that we're at because we have settled for so less for so long - if we keep settling it's only gonna get worse. The lesser of 2 evils - you still end up with evil…we're being asked to choose the 2nd worst candidate…You know, this country never would have got to where it was if people had behaved that way. The Founding Mother and Founding Fathers of this country - what if they had said, "Oh, I'm afraid, I'm afraid of King George. You know, I…I…if we have a revolution we might have a worse king! So, uh, I…I guess we shouldn't have a revolution cuz we can't win, we can't win!"

"Ralph can't win. Ralph can't win. Ralph can't win." How many times have we heard this? What if Rosa Parks had said to herself, "I'm the only person on this bus - I can't win! I'm afraid." But that's not what she did. She took her seat on the bus! She acted some courage! She had the courage of her convictions! The only reason we have moved forward is because of people of courage! You don't make a decision based in fear, make your decision based on your hopes, your dreams, your aspirations, and your conscience. Not from fear!

Oh, how far the mighty have fallen! Moore now endorses Kerry though his sympathies still lie with Nader and/or the Green Party. Why? I’d do not hesitate to guess that he fears another 4 years of Bush. Not only Moore but much of the Left fears another 4 years of Bush. They are content to settle for the second worst candidate and let things get worse. The Left is fond of railing against businesses who seek short-term profit instead of long-term viability which, they argue, would be better for the people on the shop floor. To my mind, the credibility of many liberals is lost in their rush to abandon their consciences and take up the same tactics they’ve been denouncing for 20+ years. Moore asked the youth of America to cast a vote in favor of their hopes and aspirations. As his words make clear in his films, books, and speeches, Moore believes in the goodness of the American populace and he called for them to stand up to the affronts against it. He called on people to help make fundamental changes to the status quo, changes to core problems in our society. A few years later, Moore has retracted that call to service and, instead, rings a klaxon warning us of the evil that is George Bush. While I don’t know much about Malloy or his past views, here in 2004 he is content with being the obverse of Fox News pundits. And his cynicism is disturbing. After conceding that the Democratic Party is funded by big corporations, he ended the call above like this:

For Christ's sake! The funding for all campaigns in this county - for everybody - is all the same. Pick your poison.

After a commercial break, the next caller came on and wanted to return to the “Nader caller”, now a derogatory term. Malloy disallowed this and the caller was left to remark that the guy “needs to get off his high horse.” Doesn’t that sound familiar? If Rush Limbaugh were to do that, these same lefties would be falling all over themselves to use phrases like “limiting the debate”. Nowhere did Malloy actually address Jeff’s concerns - he did not want to talk about corporate power, for instance. Instead he dismissed it as a given. And he used the same tactics as does the Bush administration – fear. Doesn’t “A vote for Nader is a vote for Bush” sound a bit like Orwellian doublespeak? In other words, if you vote for a candidate that represents the concerns and values that we both share, you’re actually voting for the candidate that does not represent these things.

Remember: NADER DID NOT COST GORE THE 2000 ELECTION! Michael Moore knows this – he discusses it in Fahrenheit 9/11 and in Stupid White Men. And how does he know this? Go to any liberal/progressive web site that has recommended reading and you’ll find Greg Palast’s The Best Democracy Money Can Buy. The first chapter is about Palast’s investigations in the debacle in Florida back in 2000. It is from here that Moore drew his information. The Democratic Party demonized Nader after Bush was put into office and now the Left is demonizing him out of fear. Rather than view the record of the Bush administration as a call to arms, as a rallying point for strengthening efforts to enact change in our society, progressives have given up the fight. Instead of seeing the past few years under Bush as making the case that we need to elect Nader more than ever, they’ve internalized the “I can’t win” mantra. My worry is that most progressives see this whole situation as just a bump in the road and that the movement will just be able to pick up where it left off. That any momentum gained up to this point can simply be conjured at the drop of a hat once Kerry is in office. Progressives have spent years complaining about the lack of choices at the polls and trying to expand those choices. And now they are undoing all of that work. The lesson here for the Dems is that, if you are able to demonize the GOP enough, the far left will fall in line and you’ll get their votes. Progressives are throwing away all their hard work they’ve done in creating a viable 3rd party.

Let’s be fair. If you’re going to say that a vote for Nader is a vote for Bush, then also follow-up by admitting that a vote for Kerry is a vote for big corporations. As progressives prepare to go to the polls to cast a vote for John Kerry, they are also becoming chicken shits who are afraid to follow their consciences. They are doing the exact opposite of what Rosa Parks did. They are also becoming hypocrites in that they’ll continue to speak against the influence of corporate power from one side of their mouths and preach the virtue of Kerry from the other. “Anybody but Bush” may be catchy but it is virtually meaningless and enlightens no one. The Bush administration, when not lying outright, couches their words in vagueness and now the progressives are doing the same. “Anybody but Bush” does nothing except express contempt for an administration. It says nothing of where you stand on issues or lay out the course you’d like to see this country take in the future. Too many liberal voices sound disembodied from any firm positions or ideals other than their dislike of Bush. And after expressing their dislike, they follow it up with apologetics. They have to throw their support for Kerry out of fear of Bush and then temper it and distance themselves from Kerry for fear that they’ll lose their progressive credentials. For me, they’re already lost.