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.