WHAT YOU WON'T HEAR
Author(s): RALPH NADER Date: July
25, 2004 Page: E12 Section: Op-Ed
The Democratic National Convention that gathers
in Boston this week to nominate John F. Kerry for president will be more
like a coronation than a competition. Huzzahs, speeches, bands, balloons.
These affairs have long lost any suspense or spontaneity, but somewhere
amid the endless corporate schmoozing and lobbyist glad-handing, you'd
expect an ounce of inspiration.
Instead, voters will watch (or, rather, not watch) as more than $13
million of their tax dollars (the amount allotted by the federal
government for each convention) is spent on saying very little of
substance. Rather than ideas, this convention is about power and
avoidance: the power of big business and special interests and the
avoidance of any issues that might draw a clear distinction between our
two leading political parties.
Here is a short list of what you won't hear this week, either on
the convention floor or in the party's platform. Call them the 12 taboos.
* You won't hear a call for a national crackdown on the corporate
crime, fraud, and abuse that, in just the last four years, have robbed
trillions of dollars from workers, investors, pension holders, taxpayers
and consumers. Among the reforms that won't be suggested are resources to
prosecute executive crooks and laws to democratize corporate governance so
shareholders have real power. Democrats will not shout for a payback of
ill-gotten gains, to rein in executive pay, or to demand corporate
sunshine laws.
* The convention will not demand that workers receive a living wage
instead of a minimum wage. There will be no backing for a repeal of the
anti-union Taft-Hartley Act of 1947, which has blocked more than 40
million workers from forming or joining trade unions to improve wages and
benefits above Wal-Mart or McDonald's levels. One out of four US workers
is now being paid less than $8.75 per hour.
* John Kerry claims that he will call for a review of all existing
trade agreements, but he will not call for a withdrawal from the WTO and
NAFTA. Trade agreements should stick to trade while labor, environmental,
and consumer rights are advanced by separate treaties without being
subordinated to the dictates of international commerce.
* Kerry may suggest that President Bush's tax cuts for the wealthy
be rolled back, but he will steer clear of any suggestion that our income
tax system be substantially revamped. Workers should keep more of their
wages while we tax the things we like least at the source, such as
polluters, stock speculation, addictive industries, and energy guzzling
technologies. Corporations should be required to pay their fair share;
corporate tax contributions as a percent of the overall federal revenue
stream have been declining for 50 years and now stand at 7.4 percent
despite massive record profits.
* There will be no call for a single payer health system.
Fifty-five years after President Truman first proposed it, we still need
health insurance for everyone, a program with quality and cost controls
and an emphasis on prevention. Full Medicare for everyone will save
thousands of lives while maintaining patient choice of doctors and
hospitals within a competitive private health care delivery system.
* There is no reason to believe that the Democrats will stand up to
the commercial interests profiting from our current energy situation. We
need a major environmental health agenda that challenges these entrenched
interests with new initiatives in solar energy, efficiency in motor
vehicles, and other sustainable and clean energy technologies. Nor will
there be any recognition that current fossil fuels are producing global
warming, cancer, respiratory diseases, and geopolitical entanglements.
Finally, there will be no calls for ending environmental racism that leads
to contaminated water and air in our cities, to toxic dumps in poorer
neighborhoods, and to high toxicities in the workplace.
* Democrats will not demand a reduction in the military budget that
devours half the federal government's operating expenditures at a time
when there is no Soviet Union or other major state enemy in the world.
Studies by the General Accounting Office and internal Pentagon assessments
support the judgment of many retired admirals and generals that a wasteful
defense weakens our country and distorts priorities at home.
* You won't hear a clarion call for electoral reform. Both parties
have shamelessly engaged in gerrymandering, a process that guarantees
reelection of their candidates at the expense of frustrated voters. Nor
will there be any suggestion that law-abiding ex-felons be allowed to
vote. Other electoral reforms should include reducing barriers to
candidates, same day registration, a voter verified paper record for
electronic voting, run-off voting to insure winners receive a majority
vote, binding none-of-the-above choices and most important, full public
financing to guarantee clean elections.
* You will hear John Kerry speak about his "tough-on-crime"
background as a federal prosecutor, but you will hear no calls for reform
of the criminal justice system. Our nation now holds one out of four of
the world's prisoners, half of them nonviolent. While they attempt to
counter Republican charges that they favor criminals over victims,
Democrats will say nothing about a failed war on drugs that costs nearly
$50 billion annually. And they will not argue that addicts should be
treated rather than imprisoned. Nor should observers hope for any call to
repeal the "three strikes and you're out" laws that have filled our jails
or to end mandatory sentencing that hamstrings our judges.
* Democrats will ignore the Israeli peace movement whose members
have developed accords for a two state solution with their Palestinian and
American counterparts. It is time to replace the Washington puppet show
with a Washington peace show for the security of the American,
Palestinian, and Israeli people.
* The Democrats will not call for the United States to begin a
military and corporate withdrawal from Iraq. Such a withdrawal would
result in mainstream Iraqis no longer supporting or joining the
insurgency. Troops from neutral, Arab, and other Muslim countries would
temporarily replace US forces as Iraqis get back their country through
internationally supervised elections allowing for appropriate autonomy for
the Kurdish, Sunni, and Shi'ite communities.
Seriously waging peace will be far cheaper than a permanent war
economy which is generating huge deficits and distracting attention,
talent, and resources from the American people.
* Democrats will not stand up to business interests that have
backed changes that close the courtroom to wrongfully injured and cheated
individuals, but not to corporations. Where is the campaign against fraud
and injury upon innocent patients, consumers, and workers? We should make
it easier for consumers to band together and defend themselves against
harmful practices in the marketplace.
To the voters I say: Don't hold your breath waiting for the
Democrats to put people, not corporations, first. Watch as this convention
abides by the 12
taboos.
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