Can the American people squeeze out the middle … like popping the world’s biggest zit?
Ralph Nader thinks the answer is Yes, if by “the middle” we mean the political center, where the Republican and Democratic Party higher-ups want to be, and where most folks in Congress find themselves.
Huge swaths of the American people, he says, are ready for some big changes. But the ruling insider class stands in the way.
What is needed? A coalition of progressives and libertarians and other independents willing to work together on issues like
- initiative and referendum rights in every state and locality;
- stricter ethical standards for representatives;
- an end to bailouts of businesses and investors;
- a rational attack on the eternal and sumptuous giveaways to contractors for the Pentagon; and much more.
Nader thinks a coalition like this is, as the title of his book has it, “Unstoppable.”
His book hasn’t been getting the attention it deserves. (Even from me: I’m at Disney World as I write this, and somehow reading of books hasn’t exactly taken over my schedule.) Nader, one of the most influential activists in American history, has hit a nerve, but not a lot of media outlets. I’m told he did chat with the folks on Fox Business News’s The Independents, but he could use more readers and more listeners.
Interestingly, Nader tips his hat to my day-job outfit, Citizens in Charge, as “already at work” doing what needs getting done, putting citizens (not well-connected businesses and pressure groups) at the center of the government.
By working for greater ballot access and initiative rights everywhere.
So, join us. (And I promise: no more pimple-popping metaphors.)
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
5 replies on “The Next Coalition”
I bought the book on the first day of its availability, and I highly recommend it. I believe Nader is right on target. His thesis defines a ‘real’ Tea Party, not some faux movement advancing phony and self-serving interpretations of the Constitution.
The premise is sound and deserves serious attention.
The RINOs and DINOS in DC are both far away from the majority of Americans who keep trying to elect folks to stop the central command and control big government ideologues.
Since “progressive” is synonymous with “Marxist”, it is difficult to see entering into any coalition with them. It would be akin to a sheep entering a coalition with a wolf.
Vet,
You have to come to terms with the fact that there is basically no difference in the results you get whether you send a democrat or a republican to congress. You still get more debt, more war, more regulation, less liberty, more NSA spying, more meddling in teh foreign affairs of meaningless nations around the world, more of everything bad that we have now. The country is run by the bureaucracy which has a snowballing need for more power, more people to rule and more budget to justify it’s existence.
This is not the same country i grew up in and it’s over the cliff grasping for a ledge to hang onto. THe only way to save this thing is to push out the status quo.
The only practical difference in a Obama term and a Mitt Romney term is Obamacare. This is probably the only time i have sided with Nader and i grew up listening to him and always thought he was a socialist. I suspect he really is but if the problems of this country are going to be fixed, it will take this type of coalition to bring it about. I give it 15% odds of happening before the next presidential cycle.
And since your identity seems to be wound up in being a vet, i’m a vet. Airborne, Ranger and served with Ranger & SF units in the ’70s, a lifetime republican who is for the last 5 – 7 years a Ron Paul Libertarian.
Look to Europe for examples of this playing out in greece, spain, italy, france, portugal and elsewhere.
So Paul, you encouraged your readers to “join us” in this column. What would we be joining and how do we do it? There has been enough talk, its time to act.
Thanks.