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A Venceremos book
recommendation:
The Good Fight:
by Ralph Nader
“Freedom is participation in power,” said the Roman orator Cicero. By this deep definition, freedom is in short supply for tens of millions of Americans, a scarcity with serious consequences.
Back in the summer, I was having a heated discussion about the 2008 presidential election with a friend of mine. My friend was a proud Barack Obama supporter, apparently because he is definitely the lesser of two evils, and I was equally proud of my choice, Ralph Nader. He lobbed many of the usual charges thrown at Nader supporters, like, “A vote for Nader is a vote for John McCain!” Comments like that roll off my back largely because they are undemocratic in nature. One argument that my friend uttered, however, has lingered in my head since that day. He stated, with a straight face, “All Ralph Nader does is run for president ever four years!”
I was astounded by the lack of knowledge that my friend, a so-called progressive American, had of one of the most progressive activist America has ever seen. In The Good Fight, written in 2004, Ralph Nader invites us to join him on his justice-fighting campaign by outlining why we should, and how we can, get involved. For anyone who has thought that their government was not working for them; that the current system is leading to a spiraling decline of our community, environment, and justice system; that the priorities of our “elected” leaders have been outrageously misguided; that they somehow would like to get more involved and didn’t know where or how to begin, I encourage you to give The Good Fight, a very readable 275 pages, a solid look.
Chapter after chapter, Mr. Nader, proves beyond a reasonable doubt that America is being hijacked by “large multinational commercial powers,” and how “today’s Democratic-Republican duopoly” profits from keeping the American people disenfranchised.
'My father had a pithy way to make a potent point. He described the two basic economic systems as follows: “Socialism is government ownership of the means of production, while capitalism is the business ownership of the means of government.” (emphasis mine)'
In chapters like Consumer Wonderland and Selling Our Children, the case-in-points are numerous on how exactly the public is duped daily by the current corporate-first system.
'See all those advertisements for double cheeseburgers, and those fat-immersed hot dogs that are the dietary equivalent of deadly pink missiles. Millions of ads everywhere, despite studies connecting fatty food to diet-related diseases costing over three hundred thousand lives a year. You never see an anti-ad that gives dietary cat-scans for the sake of real knowledge – that elusive thing that makes a market work. You’ve never seen one of these anti-ads on television, although it’s a sight I bet millions of physicians, dieticians, nutritionists, and vegetarians would welcome. You are surely not getting the other side of the story.'
Environment Self Devouring is a chapter that simply explains how capitalism is ravaging the planet in a way that is irreversible, and how the “duopoly” turns its back so justice for the people is never served.
'Across the country to the East, violent extractive practices literally reshape the landscape. In West Virginia, they don’t mince words: mountain-top removal is as plain a description as might be found, though it carries with it an air of undeserved surgical precision. Enormous earth-moving machines give mountain-top removal coal-mining astonishing destructive power. First, the forests are ripped out, then soil and rock are carved away and sent tumbling into streams in adjacent valleys, and then the coal is dug out. Industry officials occasionally claim that an important collateral benefit of their activity is a leveling of the landscape from which future strip malls and other development might sprout. …Despite sharp growth in mountain-top removal in the 1990s, the number of federal inspectors whose job it was to identify the impacts of the practice on waterways was cut in half.'
In Corporate Crime and Violence, it is apparent that the Justice system is heavily lop-sided in the wrong direction, especially enlightening since the recent financial bailout of 2008.
'In 2002, the FBI estimated that the nation’s total loss from robbery, burglary, larceny-theft, motor vehicle theft, and arson was a not insignificant $18 billion. Let’s compare that to just one segment of corporate fraud: health care fraud. The General Accounting Office put health care billing fraud at $150 billion… …The savings and load fraud…cost us anywhere from $300 to $500 billion. Then you have the lesser frauds: auto repair fraud, $40 billion; securities fraud, $15 billion a year before the recent crime wave.'
Numerous other abuses are exposed in The Good Fight, such as burdens on the working class, “patriotic” tax cheats, foreign policy blunders, and globalization. The most inspiring aspect of this book, however, is Mr. Nader’s incessant encouragement to, and examples of how we can, fight back. Throughout his exposes of corporate and political abuses, he shows how ordinary citizens, who were fed up, stood up and fought back. Giving readers a sense that they are not alone.
'Once upon a time there were mothers who lost their children in car crashes due to drunk drivers. One day in 1980, Candice Lightner lost her teenage daughter to a drunk driver. She got mad, real mad. Mad enough, she says, to seek justice and revenge. So she started MADD, or Mothers Against Drunk Driving, which took off like a rocket. Nationwide, thousands of other mothers joined her to pass or toughen laws against drunk driving and get them enforced.'
Stand For Justice is the final chapter in The Good Fight and the first paragraph leads the reader in to 20 pages of how to join the struggle for true democracy and justice. I’ll leave you with it because it says it all:
'Half of Democracy is about just showing up – informed people showing up to vote, to rallies, marches, demonstrations, to give testimony, attend action meetings for schools, to partake in community protection, advance civil rights, improve health care and work for peace. But most people don’t show up, even though it doesn’t take all that much time or money and there is no one to stop them. Politicians pander to us with slogans, flatter us for doing nothing about their behavior. Do we need to lull ourselves with shrugging cynicism or other rationalizations for apathy? Too much can go wrong for our country if we don’t apply some “tough love” and get our friends and neighbors going. So much goodness, well-being, fulfillment, and foresight are ours for the asking if we dedicate our values in those directions.'
To purchase The Good Fight and support the author go to: http://www.ralphnadersgoodfight.com/
For my friend who didn't realize that Mr. Nader actually works between elections: Just some of the organizations Ralph Nader founded or helped start:
Instrumental in the passing of the following legislation:
Some of the books Ralph Nader has written or helped produce:
For more on Ralph Nader visit:
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