‘the Republican and Democratic Parties have not delivered the most basic fundamental benefits of a productive economy’ •

the real news network celebrates the year since bush lost with a revival of their election-night talk with ralph nader last year also starring bill fletcher and tom morris. (the video pages have full/wonky transcripts.)

MORRIS: But Mr. Nader, with all due respect, don’t you think that what we’ve seen with this campaign is the awakening of the little people, of the masses, regardless of whether they’re supporting this one messianic sort of personality? How do you split the difference between a Ralph Nader who has always stood for the grassroots, for the common people, for the environment, for all these things—how do you split the difference between what Barack Obama is doing to get into the White House and what Ralph Nader represents? How do you split that difference if you’re Barack Obama?

NADER: Well, he did say you can’t get change unless you get people excited about change. But, I mean, that’s a very clever statement, because, look it, politicians have gotten huge crowds, roaring and roaring, and when they put down their last words, the crowds drift away, never to come back. That’s the problem. Look, is there a tenants’ movement in this country? Is there a poor people’s movement? Is there affordable housing? How many people are working for a full Medicare for all, right? The antiwar movement takes off every four years in deference to the Democratic nominee, so that’s gone. The military-industrial complex is exploding. It’s got half of the federal government budget. Now here’s my point. When he gets a status of president-elect, you’ve got to watch the signs: Who’s going to be his transition team? Who are going to be his appointees? And who does he invite? I guarantee you he will not invite me for a single meeting. That’s the litmus paper test.

FLETCHER: There was a fear of criticizing Clinton because, quote-unquote, “it would give ammunition to the enemy.” Well, look, folks, if Obama is elected, the enemy is going to be sharpening their knives. The right-wing populists are going to be out there; they’re going to be stirring things up. But the problem is that if we hold back in criticism of Obama, he will continue to move to the right. I mean, there’s just absolutely no question. And I think that Ralph is right that the rhetoric—and this is one issue I also disagreed with with Senator Obama: his rhetoric of accommodation, while rhetorically quite interesting and perhaps tactically useful, is ahistorical. And part of what I think is necessary from people like Ralph, from the labor movement, from others, is to emphasize that it really is struggle that brings about change. And struggle is very difficult, and it’s very unsettling for many people, but it’s what we have to remind people after this election.

FLETCHER: There are segments of the Democratic Party that will resist [helping unions] because of corporate influence. There’s no question about it. And part of the problem—and, see, this is absolutely where Ralph and I are on the same page, except for one thing. See, in order to move any of this, you need organization. You don’t need just the Ralph Nader candidacy, Cynthia McKinney candidacy, or any number of others; you need organization on the ground. We need to transform the union movement, right? We need to transform politics in these communities. And people, regular people can’t join something and feel like, “Okay, this is a means for me to bring about some sort of change in reality,” then you substitute one savior for another.

NADER: —So let me give you an example, with the trade union movement is stronger in Europe — out of the rubble of World War II, okay, through their trade unions’ cooperatives, multiparty system, people in Western Europe demanded and got for all their people, by law, universal health care, decent wages, decent pensions, paid four-week vacation, paid maternity leave, paid family sick leave, decent daycare, decent public transit, university—free tuition. Sixty-three years later, the Republican and Democratic Parties have not delivered the most basic fundamental benefits of a productive economy. That’s the difference. And all you can say, say, “We have to organize stronger unions, we have to do this and that.” The motivation is not there. The heads of the union are not the right heads of the union, with few [exceptions]. The key is: how do you motivate regular people who are getting stuffed every day, who are getting disrespected, underpaid, overcharged, ripped off? They die because they don’t have health insurance, 20,000 of them a year. Forty-seven million workers, Wal-Mart wages, $7, $8, $9, $10, under $11 an hour. How do you get them motivated? That’s the key—fire in the belly. Rosa Parks had fire in the belly. The workers in the sit-down strikes in the ’30s against the auto companies—fire in the belly. That’s what’s missing, and that’s what we have to locate and generate. Otherwise, you can have the best plans and the best strategies; nothing’s going to happen.

btw this is why i want a simultaneous country, not a new party. we’re never free to have what we want to have, but we should make the rule — fast — that we can want what we want.

me? hey, look, i got no money, i got no social chops, no flow, i’m nuts. some kid emails me “try leading by example” — like a jilted mentor told me 15ya — i say back, “yeah, you’re right, i should shut up; i don’t like fighting, i don’t like talking with people, i feel sick. virtually the only thing i do like is when we identify our desires — the world we really want to live in, not our personal paradise, but the real place, big, complicated, political, scary in a good way — and go for it, dream it, make it, feed it, talk it into real, like we were walking in the park, it’s so natural.

“—i can’t do those myself. most of the time my brain’s exploding, i barely know who i’m talking to. i’m no anchor or gibraltar or dynamo.”

people avoid switching strategies, consciously, subconsciously. that’s a good game plan unless you don’t know what you want. without the lines drawn it’s a wreck — the default strategy is for personal comfort. inclusion. praise.

what good is the praise of toads?

not even a decent paycheck.

(•)

Obama had a chance, coming into Washington after a big rout of Republicans last year, to set out an agenda of major progressive change. He could have called for expanding Medicare to cover all Americans. Instead he handed health reform over to Congress and immediately put out the word that he was open to compromise with Republicans, thus dooming reform from the outset. He could have announced a thorough review of America’s two wars, and then set in motion a withdrawal form both Iraq and Afghanistan. Instead he dithered on Iraq, and added troops in Afghanistan, assuring that both these disasters inherited from the Bush/Cheney administration became his own disasters, which will now drag on through his whole term. He could have declared a global climate emergency, and announced a job-creating crash program to develop renewable energy in the US and to make the US a leader in renewable energy R&D. Instead, he did almost nothing in this critical area. As for the economic crisis, he could have taken a progressive stand against the abuses of Wall Street, ordered a criminal investigation of the banking class, broken up the big banks and established a new regulatory system to put an end to the era of casino capitalism. Instead, he put the bankers in charge of Treasury and poured trillions of dollars into the largest banks, allowing them to grow even bigger and more predatory.

(•)

Future historians will inevitably judge all 21st-century presidents on just two issues: global warming and the clean energy transition. If the world doesn’t stop catastrophic climate change … then all Presidents, indeed, all of us, will be seen as failures and rightfully so.

In that sense, what team Obama has accomplished in the year since he was elected is nothing less than an unprecedented reversal of decades of unsustainable national policy forced down the throat of the American public by conservatives.

in the long run we’re all dead.

“historians” have that habit of forgiving elites their subtler mistreatments of the populace. at the century scale, absolutely, tending to nature and re/depowering civilization — very big — truly things that leave lines in mountains. finer details like the budget-busting failure of the american hybrid health care system (‘privatized health, socialized illness’) won’t appear in the geological record.

unless of course the blatant, callous, loopy unfairness of some proposals riles people to refuse good strong medicine that has earned corporate blessing.

tck tck tck indeed.