{news} FW: MY LETTER TO THE COURANT ABOUT ANTI-NADER EDITORIAL

[Mike DeRosa]

Hartford Courant

Hartford, CT

 

Dear Editor:

 

Your recent editorial on a possible Ralph Nader presidential candidacy in
2008 only proves that if truth is the first casualty in war then language is
the second casualty.

 

When your editor chooses to use dismissive language to describe Ralph Nader
such as "spoiler", "crank", "nag", "a narcissus", and a "class-warfare"
messenger, the editor ought to at least address the real reason that so many
voters--a majority--are still more in agreement with Ralph Nader than they
are with any of the remaining primary candidates on the Iraq war. Mr. Nader
has consistently opposed the war from the first drum beat to the present
quagmire.

 

It is no longer a secret that the Bush administration and the Republican
Party knowingly and maliciously fabricated evidence of weapons of mass
destruction in Iraq, and suppressed honest intelligence agents in order to
create a pretext to invade a sovereign nation, and that the majority of
Democrats have enabled this process and still refuse to adequately question
and investigate this deception.

 

A little time studying the voting record of the two remaining Democratic
candidates still in the race reveals that they voted for nearly $300 Billion
in war appropriations for this illegal war and only recently voted 'no' when
the presidential race started to heat up.  The Republicans still in the
race, excluding Ron Paul, have never seen a war appropriations bill that
they did not like.

 

Based on past comments and other evidence it is highly probable that the
four candidates with leading positions in the primaries have no intention of
completely leaving Iraq any time soon and that these candidates may redeploy
some of the U.S. troops in Iraq into other countries in the Middle East to
fight even more illegal and immoral wars.

 

Pundits obsess over "electability", but they pay scant attention to the
problem faced by tens of millions of U.S. voters: Are the major party,
media-ordained candidates really for change or is this just another false
hope?

 

Ralph Nader offers a real choice in 2008 by proposing thoughtful and
innovative solutions to our national and international problems and
challenges.  Nader and the other third party voices of sanity in this time
of great national scandal will not be discouraged by those intent on
destroying the Bill Of Rights, the U.S. Constitution, and the rule of law.

 

Mike DeRosa

Wethersfield CT

(860)919-4042

Mike DeRosa is co-chair of the Green Party of CT

 

 

 


Here is the original editorial that the Courant ran last Sun. on the
editorial page:


Courant.com


It's All About Ralph


February 10, 2008



 

Nearing 74 and still on the political fringe, Ralph Nader knows he's never
going to be president of the United States. But that is not stopping him
from preparing for a fourth long-shot run at the White House.

Once again, the spoiler role.

Mr. Nader, a Winsted native who still uses the family home there as his
official voting address, announced recently that he's forming an exploratory
committee to test support for his candidacy. Naturally, he doesn't have
anything good to say about any of the candidates who have been campaigning
for the past year.

Imagine that.

In a month or so, Mr. Nader says he will determine whether he has enough
support and money to run. We bet whatever support pops up will be sufficient
in his mind.

He's drawn to this quadrennial troublemaking like a moth to a flame. Once
one of this country's most admired and effective figures as a
public-interest lawyer, author and organizer, Mr. Nader has become a crank
and a nag, a Narcissus who seems to believe that if he hasn't said it, it
hasn't been said.

But it has.

Mr. Nader's message is not new. It is, broadly, that big corporations are
parasites who control our lives and send Americans' good jobs overseas and
that the current crop of elected leaders should be held accountable if not
impeached. 

It has been repeated in one shape or another by other candidates, especially
Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio and former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina.
But that populist, class-warfare message didn't resonate with voters, and
Mr. Kucinich and Mr. Edwards dropped out. What makes Mr. Nader, who is even
harsher and more divisive, think he'll have any greater success? 

Mr. Nader says everybody has a right to speak and a right to run for
president. That's true, of course. And everybody has a right to trash his
own legacy.

Another Nader campaign would be all about ego. The once-admired consumer
advocate has become Connecticut's Harold Stassen - the boy governor of
Minnesota who became a national laughingstock because he didn't know when to
quit. 

Copyright C 2008, The Hartford Courant <http://www.courant.com/> 

 

 

 

 

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