"Don't Run, Don't Run, Don't Run, Don't Run..." Whither The Nation? By RALPH NADER
The following letter is a response to "An Open Letter to Ralph Nader," which appeared in the February 16 issue of The Nation.
As I reread slowly your open letter, which kindly started and closed with your demand "Don't run," memories of past Nation magazine writing, going back to the days of Carey McWilliams and earlier, came to mind. I share them with you. Long ago the The Nation stood steadfastly for more voices and choices inside the electoral arenas which today are more dominated than ever by the two-party duopoly trending toward one-party districts:
"Don't run."
The Nation's pages embrace large areas of agreement with the undersigned on policy matters and political reforms, especially the abusive power of Big Business over elections, the government and the economy:
"Don't run."
The Nation has been sharply critical of the Democratic Party's stagnation, the corporatist Democratic Leadership Council and its domination by Big Money. This is the same Party that has just ganged up on its insurgents and reasserted its established forces:
"Don't run."
The Nation has urgently reported on a tawdry electoral system-ridden with fraud and manipulation-that discourages earnest people from running clean campaigns about authentic necessities of the American people and the rest of the world:
"Don't run."
The Nation first informed me as a young man about the deliberate barriers-statutory, monetary, media and others-to third parties and independent candidates for a chance to compete, bring out more votes and generate more civic and political energies. This led me to write my first article on these exclusions against smaller candidacies in the late 1950s:
(I believe that the article Nader is referring to was published in Bert Cochran's American Socialist.)
full: http://www.counterpunch.org/
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