By Tony Wicher, November 13 at 12:55 pm

This comment, (definition of an Uncle Tom) was *not* submitted by Tony Wicher. I only just noticed this. I actually wrote this comment, and I just happen to be borrowing a computer that belongs to him, and is configured to be logged in on TD, just as my own computer would be, if it hadn’t died. So, I forgot that I wasn’t at my own computer.
Just wanted to clear that up, for the sake of full disclosure. And, I didn’t want Tony to think he was going crazy if he read it.

Lot’s of explanations for what an “Uncle Tom” is, so I decided to add what I know most black folks to believe an Uncle Tom to be.

An Uncle Tom is the black person who will assist the oppressor in making sure that his/her fellow black folks remain oppressed.

He’s the old black guy lurking in the shadows or the fringes, and he watches as his fellow blacks rush by him as they are running away to avoid capture by the oppressor. When the oppressor (or his agents) get the the spot where old Uncle Tom his lurking, he (Tom) points in the direction of which the blacks have run in their escape, and tells the oppressors..“They went that-a way.!”

A more modern day, (and far more dangerous version) is Clarence Thomas.

Nader is so far out of line, somebody needs to just slap him straight.

I am not an apologist. But I really wish people would find out WHY they think Uncle Tom is a racially charged term before they say it is. Because if you look at the historical significance of the word you will find out that it is NOT. Look up the Reconstruction period. Everyone knows the book “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” but most people don’t know that the true definition of Uncle Tom didn’t take shape until after the Civil War where there was a movement by the KKK to try to make the south a one party state because the Republicans at the time were trying to give black people rights. The KKK thought the way to destroy that movement was to make the south a one party state, the Democratic Party. So when black men were seen quitting the republican party, outspoken black women called them Uncle Tom’s - Black people didn’t like the way they were portrayed in Uncle Tom’s Cabin. White people apparently though blacks were passive and weak. Even though the book was a pro anti-slavery one the actual representation of blacks was incorrect and black people saw that. So the idea of “Black Betrayal” is not a white person’s idea, therefore how is using the term Uncle Tom racist? If you are going to say it is a racially charged term than you might as well stop calling black people, black people and white people, white people.

There has been several Nader apologist that has misused Malcolm X 1960’s commentaries to defend Nader’s gaffe.  The fact is that the “Uncle Tom” that Malcolm X was referring to in 1963 included Martin Luther King.  Malcolm X saw King and other black leaders as an “accommodationist” and thus an “Uncle Tom”.  Malcolm X in 1965 after his Mecca epiphany apologized for his harsh comments.

Malcolm X biographer, Manning Marable, who supported Barack Obama, on Democracy Now! alludes that Malcolm X would have supported Obama.  My opinion regarding this question is irrelevant I would not even presume to know.

The problem is that the Obama campaigned filled the void that the Left created by failing to coalesce the energy from the anti-war movement in 2004.  For whatever reasons Nader and the Green Party failed to build upon his 2.7% achievement in 2000.  Had the Left not deliberately diffuse the anti-war movement because there was voice in the movement who began to turn a lens to Zionism then we would NOT today be faced with an Obama presidency.

This is why there is very little peep regarding Rham Emmanuel selection.  In fact Nader never referred to Emmanuel as a Zionist.  He used the more “acceptable” term “pro-Israel”.  Clearly Nader know how to use language.  Nader poor choice of using “Uncle Tom” clearly shows that Nader feel that he can use such language to refer to an African American but avoids “Zionist” to refer to an actual Zionist.  I’m sure Nader know that had he used such language he would be persona-non-grata in the media.

Therefore the Left needs to reevaluate their how it critiques Obama.  If the Left’s strategy is to weaken the Democrats then the Left should not use language that alienates African Americans who are Democratic Party’s the most loyal bloc.  Clearly Cynthia McKinney has the racial sensitivity not to attack Obama in the same manner like Nader.

The Left needs to prepare the groundwork to capture disillusioned Obama supporters.  This will require tact, sensitivity, empathy and respect.  All Nader had to do is say that it was a poor choice of words and move on.

What I find more revealing is the Nader apologists who rather than think about how solidarity can be built with the African American community would rather defend Nader’s insulting gaffe.

By easmachine, November 9 at 2:48 pm

•  “No. Ralph has marginalized himself. There is a difference between speaking truth to power and insulting those who wield it. I belive in unlimited Free Speech. I also belive that words have power and their misuse carries consequences. Hey Ralph, Meet Consequence.”

THANK YOU easmachine? This is exactly what I’ve been trying to say for at least a few years!!! But, I could never have (in a million years) articulated it so well.

This is it. I must add from your other post as well:

•  “…Hasn’t anyone noticed that Nader communicates in 60s revolutionary speak?
He assumes the vacant mantle of black revolutionary ideology without bothering to notify black folk….He makes the mistake of assuming that All left wing causes are the same left wing cause and that running as a green also makes him black…”

Yep, this is exactly right!!!

And yeah…it’s the ego that knows no bounds. As a general rule, this is a personality thing, and most folks don’t change their personalities. People say that Nader has never gotten ahead because the mainstream has marginalized him and prevented him from building a coalition. But, that’s bullshit. How are you gonna build a coalition ignoring and/or insulting the *majority*, which is what the mainstream is?

Yet, that’s exactly what his followers don’t get either.

Hey people (Shepard Smith et al): You’re supposed to worship God, not man, whether he’s a Republican or a Democrat (no difference anyway). Do one tiny fraction of the good for your fellow citizens that Nader has done and at least God will notice that while you are idolators, you at least did something good besides serve perverted, blood-drenched corporatocracy.

What’s your wise view of Obama’s selection for chief of staff by the way? Mr. Rahm Israel Emanuel, whose father belonged to the terrorist organization, Irgun, is hardcore rightwing (like you) and pro neoliberal capitalism, which (direction and policies, including free trade) has taken the world to the brink it now stands on.

Beerdoc,
Thanks for the link to the alternet piece, (and the on-going theft). Somehow, I’m not even surprised that they’re actually continuing this theft, (I mean come on, this was planned way too long ago, and they’ve managed to perpetuate/execute the most gigantic heist in the history of the world. And yes, Obama is gonna HAVE to stop them. I swear to god I don’t know HOW…(at least not in terms of the law and the deal as it’s been upon) but I know damn well these fat cats weren’t supposed to finish out their banditry in this blaze of glory.

Now I say that he HAS to stop them, even though I don’t even know how much he can do with these thugs even as president elect. Since they’ve been planning for and anticipating this all along, (putting aside money since the beginning of this year –at least-) and planning to have the loot and be out before Jan 20th.

Meanwhile, Obama is trying to keep them from implementing any status of forces agreement with the Iraqis, unless Congress sees and approves it, or unless it is left open for him to change in January.
Anyway, the chart of contributions and their sources was a shocker for me, even though I don’t see how or why it should have been. Guess I just hadn’t paid that much attention in several months, because it can be difficult to find accurate charts and statistics on this stuff. The information from the Center for Responsive Politics is always good though, and I just hadn’t looked at it in a while.

So, I was somewhat surprised to find the University of California at the top of the list of contributors. I was only slightly less surprised to find 4 other Universities on the list, along with the US Government there at the bottom of the list of 20. Now of COURSE I know why these Universities would have been such huge campaign contributors. We’ve sort of been in serious desperation the past 8 years, and would have done nearly anything to put an intellectual in the Oval Office. Just somebody who knows the Constitution and is willing to lead the nation according to it.

In all honesty, I don’t have a problem with most of his campaign sources. Certainly a handful of them maybe, because they are the banks, and I don’t know how much ‘less guilty’ some are than others. Banks have been failing a long time, (though obviously not these huge ones) and not all of it has been the result of their own corruption. For these much larger ones though..(that we’re bailing out) it’s a different story. Thing is, we’ll never know exactly how they did it. Or maybe I should say that I’ll never figure it out on my own, because they didn’t use just one weapon to trash the entire economy and still enrich themselves. That took careful coordination, and it didn’t happen overnight.

It will be important - one might even say crucial - for Obama to meet with Nader as soon as possible so that he can hear Nader’s perspectives on the issues.

If you agree, please sign this:
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/obama-meet-w-nader

Thanks!

Putting aside Nader who has become just another ineffectual blow hard. Meanwhile as he invokes the ghost of Harriet Beecher Stowe, the complete robbery of the country proceeds unabated. By the time the President-elect comes into office the entire store will be completely gutted.
Ralph Nader is another product of that infamous 60’s. Perhaps the hard left, like the hard right, represent viewpoints that are basically useless.
http://www.alternet.org/workplace/106195/

There is a question, Paracelus, whether Al Gore would have orchestrated 9/11-anthrax as the Bushites probably did, leading to the political counterrevolution in the US. 

the argument for is that the attack on a World Trade Tower that occurred in 1993 had documented involvement of the FBI and Massad, and the explosives were suppolied by the FBI. A parked car prevented them from bring down the tower with massive loss of life.

But it is conceivable that Clinton didn’t know about this and a false flag operation attempted to force him to into military adventures.  Much of US intelligence is done by Private Enterprise.  You could argue either way.  Gore’s campaign manager however was Peretz, a Zionist warmonger who inherited Singer Sewing Machine money through his wife and now edits the neoliberal NEW REPUBLIC.

Beerdoctor you’re drunk again.

Windy, a Zionist racist like yourself who identifies with apartheid Israel and wants to join the ruling class calling me a racist is comic.  Keep up the good work.

re: Doug Tarnopol

As someone who actually was conscious when Malcolm X was killed, who actually witnessed on live television the shooting of Oswald by Jack Ruby, I can tell you that was a time seeped in bloody confrontation, that in today’s context is useless. What I mean by that, is those who actually lived in that time, are often, much too often,rehashing the conflicts of those times, which only leads to frustration and failure.
It is vitally important that someone who wasn’t forged in that crucible be given a chance to start a new direction. As for Malcolm X, I remember an interview with the writer Albert Murray, who was asked by Brian Lamb what he thought of Malcolm. “Not much,” said Murray, showing disdain for the historic media figure. He considered the legacy of Thurgood Marshall to be of a much more profound impact.
Do not misunderstand me, I love reading stuff that Malcolm X said. The same for Martin Luther King Jr. and others. I am moved by their determination, but I do not think it is substitute for finding our own new solutions.
I am in no way a religious person, but this quote from the Bible sticks with me:
“Cease to dwell on days gone by and brood over past history,
Here and now I do a new thing, even before it breaks from the bud,
Can you not perceive it?”

[continued from below]

I have a dream that one day in the deserts of Iraq, the sons and daughters of former slaves and the sons and daughters of former slave owners will be able to dismantle all evidence of our presence there.

I have a dream that one day even the prison at Guantanamo, a dungeon sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that candidates for public office, officials of all kinds, and indeed all Americans will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day, America, with its vicious history of imperial warfare, with its leaders’ lips dripping with the words “American exceptionalism”—one day right here in our city on a hill, we will learn humility and be able to join hands with little Arab boys and Iranian girls as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight; “and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together.”

This is our hope, and this is the faith that I go back to work with.

With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our world into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith, we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be truly free one day.

And this will be the day—this will be the day when all of God’s children will be able to sing with new meaning:

  My country ‘tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing.
  Land where my fathers died, land of the Pilgrim’s pride,
  From every mountainside, let freedom ring!

And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true.

And so let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire.

Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York.

Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania.

Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado.

Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California.

But not only that:

Let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia.

Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee.

Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi.

From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, when we truly welcome it in every country, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Christians and Muslims, gay and straight, women and men, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual:

  Free at last! Free at last!
  Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!

[continued from below]

It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This electoral season of the legitimate discontent of the forgotten millions will not pass until there is an invigorating spring of freedom from fear; of the equality of opportunity, health, welfare; of a return of the rule of law; and of a retreat from imperial designs abroad. Two thousand and eight is not an end, but a beginning. And those who hope that Obama’s ascension was all that was needed to blow off the steam of class warfare and legitimate discontent, sometimes expressed in ugly words, that Obama’s reign will spread content among those classes who do not rule will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. And there will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until all her people are granted their human rights: freedom from fear, freedom from want, freedom of expression, and freedom of—and from—religion. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.

But there is something that I must say to my friends: In the process of gaining the White House for Obama, you must not be guilty of delusional thoughts. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for justice by drinking from the cup of image and propaganda. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into consumerist gesture. Again and again, we must rise to inescapable duty of meeting real injustice, whatever its source, under whomever’s watch, with integrity and stubbornness.

We cannot turn back.

There are those who are asking the critics of Obama, “When will you be satisfied?” We can never be satisfied as long as anyone is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality, whether on our streets as a daily routine, outside the “free speech zones” that surround our political conventions, or in the Gulags we have set up around the world, most infamously at Guantanamo Bay. We can never be satisfied as long as our civil liberties are sacrificed for political gain. We cannot be satisfied as long as the the poor’s basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our prisoners, many wholly innocent and admitted to be so, are stripped of their self-hood and robbed of their dignity by institutionalized torture. We cannot be satisfied as long as a corporate bailout is forced through against the will of the people and neither party’s candidate utters a word of protest. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until “justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

I am not unmindful that some of you have come to view my e-mails as tribulations. Some of you have come to ignore them, to mock them. And some of you have come to invest so much in Obama because the past eight years have left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of official brutality. You have been the veterans of increasingly desperate times. If Obama does indeed win, continue to work with the faith that unearned accolades are empty. Go back to work on November 5th, even if Obama wins, knowing that this situation cannot and will not be changed without redoubled efforts of all kinds.

Let us not wallow in an orgy of self-congratulation, I say to you today, my friends.

And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.”

[continued above]

Here’s some more relevant commentary on the relative irrelevance of race-as-identity vs. race-as-indicator-of-real-class-differences. It’s based on some more “useless nonsense” from the ‘sixties. I’ll have to break it up over a few posts:

Obama and Dreams: A Reply to a Liberal Friend

Written last night in response to how moving it was that a young, black trick-or-treater dressed up as Michelle Obama, and how important the election (most likely) of a black man would be for the country:

I am happy to join with Chris [i.e., my friend] today in what will go down in history (most likely) as a symbolic passage of limited, but real, significance for the progress of our nation.

Forty-five years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow I write tonight, gave a great oration in front of the Lincoln Memorial [http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkihaveadream.ht m]. This momentous speech came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of human beings who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end a long night of their suffering.

But forty-five years later, African Americans are still not equal. Forty-five years later, even with an African American about to ascend to the presidency, African Americans still suffer from a lower life expectancy, a higher incarceration rate, a higher infant mortality rate, and from systematic prejudice, still sadly crippled by the manacles of economic as well as de facto segregation and the still-iron chains of discrimination. Forty-five years later, despite a growing African-American upper-class, real achievements in equality of opportunity, the end to race barriers at upper-class institutions from Harvard to the White House, far too many African Americans live on a lonely island of relative—and absolute—poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. Forty-five years later, an African-American candidate for president has exiled the poor—black, white, yellow, and brown—to the corners of American political discourse. And so I write here tonight to dramatize a shameful condition.

In a sense, Obama has come to our nation’s capital to cover a debt still owed. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men—yes, black men as well as white men, women as well as men, gays as well as straights—would be guaranteed the “unalienable Rights” of “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” It is obvious today that America has still yet to make good on this promissory note, insofar as her citizens of color, too many of her women, and her gay citizens are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given these people a bad check, a check which has come back marked “insufficient funds.”

But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is as bankrupt as our treasury. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. And so, whether Obama prevails or not, we must cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice—the freedom of economic justice and the justice of economic security.

I have also returned to this hallowed speech to remind my friends of the fierce urgency of Now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of self-congratulation or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of poverty and discrimination to the sunlit path of racial, economic, and social justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of economic injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of our children.

[continued above]

What’s amazing to me is that Nader’s accurate use of “Uncle Tom” causes more outrage than Obama’s lightning-quick appointment of Rahm Emanuel as CoS. Of Emanuel’s many sins, including running conservative Democrats against progressives (the change we need?), consider that he, along with the rest of the Democratic Party leadership, purposely refused to cut off funding for the Iraq war in order to use discontent with “Bush’s War” to take over. Which they have, and the body count for that was, what, again? I mean, y’all are oh-so-moral anti-war types, right?

Evidence: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2 007/01/11/AR2007011101575.html. Key point here:

The secret for the Democrats, says Emanuel, is to remain the party of reform and change. The country is angry, and it will only get more so as the problems in Iraq deepen. Don’t look to Emanuel’s Democrats for solutions on Iraq. It’s Bush’s war, and as it splinters the structure of GOP power, the Democrats are waiting to pick up the pieces.

More here: http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/171335/david_swanson_w ill_iraq_become_the_democrats_war_

And here: http://www.accuracy.org/newsrelease.php?articleId=1859

And I’m sure you can find more on your own, if you care to look.

Gee, I don’t know, refusing to defund the war in order to gain power seems rather worse to me than using “Uncle Tom” accurately. I really couldn’t care less about Nader the person—as little as I care about Obama, Bush, you name it. Politics is not about marketed personas, not for adults. It’s about power, and we all need to organize to force the change we need, not sit back and wait for Handsome Daddy Leader (Bush, Obama, whomever) to Make It All Better.

End communication.

Thank you for proving my point, beerdoctor. Some of us out here don’t think that Malcolm X or the 1960s were “useless nonsense.” And I was born in 1970.

I notice that the defense of Nader’s stupidity relies upon quotes from people who lived and died in the 1960’s. Like the McCain/Palin clown show, there is a conscious attempt to tie the President-elect to the useless nonsense of that era.

I think Malcolm X would have understood and appreciated Nader’s use of the term to describe a possible future for Obama:

“Just as the slavemaster of that day used Tom, the house Negro, to keep the field Negroes in check, the same old slavemaster today has Negroes who are nothing but modern Uncle Toms, 20th century Uncle Toms, to keep you and me in check, keep us under control, keep us passive and peaceful and nonviolent. That’s Tom making you nonviolent. It’s like when you go to the dentist, and the man’s going to take your tooth. You’re going to fight him when he starts pulling. So he squirts some stuff in your jaw called novocaine, to make you think they’re not doing anything to you. So you sit there and ‘cause you’ve got all of that novocaine in your jaw, you suffer peacefully. Blood running all down your jaw, and you don’t know what’s happening. ‘Cause someone has taught you to suffer—peacefully.

...

The slavemaster took Tom and dressed him well, and fed him well, and even gave him a little education—a little education; gave him a long coat and a top hat and made all the other slaves look up to him. Then he used Tom to control them. The same strategy that was used in those days is used today, by the same white man. He takes a Negro, a so-called Negro, and make [sic] him prominent, build [sic] him up, publicize [sic] him, make [sic] him a celebrity. And then he becomes a spokesman for Negroes—and a Negro leader.

I would like to just mention just one other thing else quickly, and that is the method that the white man uses, how the white man uses these “big guns,” or Negro leaders, against the black revolution. They are not a part of the black revolution. They’re used against the black revolution.”—Malcolm X, Message To The Grass Roots, November 10, 1963 (http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/malcolmxgras sroots.htm).

That’s for all of you, whatever your age, who seem to have forgotten what was actually happening in the ‘sixties in black America, what Obama has specifically claimed to have “transcended,” and finally how postmodern identity politics have replaced any realistic sense of struggle in this country.

Isn’t it interesting how applicable Malcolm X’s picture is to Obama? Nader knows that, if Obama’s followers don’t. Malcolm X has been accused of being a racist toward whites; he’s yet to be accused of being a racist toward blacks, but I expect someone on TD will now make this argument.

We are all slaves to this fiction of Obama’s progressiveness. It’s wish-projection, and Obama was nice enough to let us know that he knows that he is a screen upon which people project their hopes.

Do something a little more worthwhile than bashing Nader: join http://november5.org.

I think Malcolm X would have understood and appreciated Nader’s use of the term to describe a possible future for Obama:

“Just as the slavemaster of that day used Tom, the house Negro, to keep the field Negroes in check, the same old slavemaster today has Negroes who are nothing but modern Uncle Toms, 20th century Uncle Toms, to keep you and me in check, keep us under control, keep us passive and peaceful and nonviolent. That’s Tom making you nonviolent. It’s like when you go to the dentist, and the man’s going to take your tooth. You’re going to fight him when he starts pulling. So he squirts some stuff in your jaw called novocaine, to make you think they’re not doing anything to you. So you sit there and ‘cause you’ve got all of that novocaine in your jaw, you suffer peacefully. Blood running all down your jaw, and you don’t know what’s happening. ‘Cause someone has taught you to suffer—peacefully.

...

The slavemaster took Tom and dressed him well, and fed him well, and even gave him a little education—a little education; gave him a long coat and a top hat and made all the other slaves look up to him. Then he used Tom to control them. The same strategy that was used in those days is used today, by the same white man. He takes a Negro, a so-called Negro, and make [sic] him prominent, build [sic] him up, publicize [sic] him, make [sic] him a celebrity. And then he becomes a spokesman for Negroes—and a Negro leader.

I would like to just mention just one other thing else quickly, and that is the method that the white man uses, how the white man uses these “big guns,” or Negro leaders, against the black revolution. They are not a part of the black revolution. They’re used against the black revolution.”—Malcolm X, Message To The Grass Roots, November 10, 1963.

That’s for all of you, whatever your age, who seem to have forgotten what was actually happening in the ‘sixties in black America, what Obama has specifically claimed to have “transcended,” and finally how postmodern identity politics have replaced any realistic sense of struggle in this country.

Isn’t it interesting how applicable Malcolm X’s picture is to Obama? Nader knows that, if Obama’s followers don’t. Malcolm X has been accused of being a racist toward whites; he’s yet to be accused of being a racist toward blacks, but I expect someone on TD will now make this argument.

We are all slaves to this fiction of Obama’s progressiveness. It’s wish-projection, and Obama was nice enough to let us know that he knows that he is a screen upon which people project their hopes.

Do something a little more worthwhile than bashing Nader: join http://november5.org.

So this what is left of Ralph Nader? Stupid incendiary language? What is this professional jealousy? The community organizer who has accomplished something now, something more important than exposing the deadly Corvair?
With his middle eastern roots, he should know how creepy this really is. Note to his die hard fans: he is 74 years old, two years older than John McCain. If Senator McCain made such a remark, people would howl.
http://thebeerdoctor.newscloud.com/

Re: adamjohn12

Thank you so much for the link.  It will spark your interest (hopefully at least) about Part 2 and 3 of this same discussion.  So… the link to all three.  Thanks again, adamjohn12

http://therealnews.com/t/index.php?option=com_conte nt&task=view&id=33&Itemid=74&jumival=265

@ Purple Girl

Al Gore was little different from GW Bush. I know. I had read Al Gore: A User’s Manual by Cockburn and St. Clair. We really have no power to elect anyone that can effect real change. I refer to the British series on dystopia called “The Prisoner”. Every episode seemingly offered a way to change the conditions of the Village. American politics is so much like the living nightmare of #6. Ralph Nader reminds me of #6. The whole game is so rigged that I cannot heap any blame on anyone who fails through honest effort to try to change things. So GW seems all that much worse than Gore, but do we really know if Gore would have been any different than Bush on 9-11? The unprecedented changes we have been forced to endure, these changes, they are not of a spontaneous nature. The horrors we have endured are of a wholly premeditated nature. It would not have mattered which turn we would have taken in the labyrinth, for like rats we would have been guided to a predetermined outcome with similar consequences. That is exactly moral of every “Prisoner” episode. 

This war between the generations is just a brain programming technique. Every generation is made to feel unique and isolated in experience from the previous generation as if those who are older than ourselves could never empathize with problems unique to our time. Such a stance clearly makes a mockery of wisdom and experience. Such wisdom is falsely equated to cynicism and bitterness. Instead of bettering their odds in life the young would rather ignore the old with the conceit that such bad experiences could never happen to them. So the same old hoary scams are played over and over again to each unique and self admiring generation.

If we could look outside ourselves beyond our egosyntonic notions, we could effect real change, but we would have to be willing to listen to the wisdom of our elders. I must add the caveat that there is no fool like an old fool, so be cautious in looking for wise counsel.

Re: johnnyfarout

Your comment: “I’m shocked…shocked I say!...at the normally insightful comments of purplegirl. Who knew she harbored such misplaced vituperation for baby boomers, the old activists and radicals, all of whom went through the 60’s and got their asses handed to them in street fights with the cops over and over again, and kept on talking to authority with a fist in the air. The hippies lost to the dinks and yuppies and the republicans installed themselves in the seats of power and we and Nader saw the people go for their slick lies and evil empire new American century.”

You are absolutely correct, Purplegirl is full of it.  I am slightly older than Purplegirl and I watched as SO FEW of my “compatriots” spoke truth to power.  They attempted erroneously to gain a sliver of the pot of gold which gleamed for them larger than a flippin’ ice cream cone does to a child.

We never had to face a draft, yet they talk their shit.  I’ve heard it so many times it nauseates me.  Something as simple as standing together as employees, no bodily threat…no jail…NOTHING to stand in our way, instead THEY took their “barbie princess phone” and retreated into their “GI Joe bedroom”.

We watched from the sidelines, as elementary students and middle school students (not that that’s our fault) while the turmoil erupted around us.  But we WERE TOLD and WERE AWARE, yet when serious issues began to arise, in our time of position and WE knew it…. we checked our 401K and hoped it wouldn’t come to us.

For the most part, those born on the tail end of the “boomers” (1954-1964) were pampered souls who needed our Brady Bunch reality to qualify our supposed enlightenment irregardless of the suffering around us.  And we qualified it, at every backyard barbecue, coffee shop and work party.  “It wasn’t our fault, what could we do, it isn’t as if we don’t “care”...etc.

Like so many of this time frame they want their hero.  But they also want a qualification of their blatant disregard for the suffering of those around them irregardless of the long term consequences.  Because they KNOW their hand was in that cookie jar along with the rest of them, screw humanity and screw integrity and honesty, I WANT MINE.

Here is Nader on Real News from a few days ago…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-bC7F7gD4g&sdig=1

“the wind” said:
“You are not only anti-semitic, you’re down-right racist!”

Your moanin and groanin again, sir. That is exactly why they ran Obama because people like you will take any criticism as a racial attack. Those corporate city slickers are sure smart. Always good to hear from you boyz at Fox.

“He just keeps repeating the mantra that the US is the greatest country in the world.”

Yes and that we are God’s children and God will bless America. LOL. Just believe Lordy lordy. He’s just more eloquent and charming than GW, but it’s the Northern version of the same “faith based” script. Very entertaining, not.
Chris said: “Reforming health care is a prominent part of his policy platform.”  Did you read the fine print? It boils down to tax breaks and subsidies to the insurance companies, which doesn’t do much of anything to the indigent, the unemployed, or most retired people. What it does is keep the workers in continued dependency upon their employer’s every beck and call in fear of losing “health care” which most Americans no longer can afford. Most workers can not even afford the insurance.
This is from Obama’s website. It’s less than worthless.
“Barack Obama and Joe Biden’s plan strengthens employer–based coverage, makes insurance companies accountable and ensures patient choice of doctor and care without government interference. Under the plan, if you like your current health insurance, nothing changes, except your costs will go down by as much as $2,500 per year. If you don’t have health insurance, you will have a choice of new, affordable health insurance options.”
This plan assists employers in strengthening their whip over their scared workers especially those who are already sick, old, or face the possibility of unemployment should they not be obedient to increased employer demands. This fear breaks the back of the possibility of employee strikes when health care is threatened. Secondly the $2500 per *year* is in the form of a tax credit, which is only valuable to those who are gainfully employed. Most families are paying over $1000 per *month* for private health care coverage.   
My ife works in health care.  It’s amazing! A huge business. Big Pharma, the Insurance companies, MCOs, government and institutional regulators, the employer associations front groups, and similar self interest groups are sucking the system dry at the expense of both the therapists and the clients. That comes down to the US having *the most* costly health care system on the planet, while ranked behind 26 other countries in quality of care overall. US health care costs are on the average seven times higher due to top heavy administrative and regulatory overhead than any other country, due to the lack of a “Universal Single Payer health care plan.. (Sultz and Young, 2008, “Health Care USA: Understanding its organization and delivery”, 6th edition, Jones and Bartlett). This system additionally is responsible for billions of added medical liability insurance premiums and litigation because health care is so expensive. Liability insurance due to high medical costs is insidious. Every house, business, automobile driver, and human pays dearly because of it (something that MM failed to document in his Disney like portrayal of the US Health Care situation). 

There is a lot to learn, but I don’t we will get the bias right at Fox.

Tom

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sA-451XMsuY
botutuwha hum doo way hey

Congratulations VolksVehrer!

You are not only anti-semitic, you’re down-right racist!  Your description of Obama as a tool is insulting and, truly, a dishonest lie.  He’s done more for oppressed Blacks than you’ll EVER do—and that was before he even held elective office.

I’m getting damn tired of pseudo-Marxists using “revolutionary” argot as an excuse for attacks on Jews and now, the most prominent Black man in the world.  It’s just a cover.

Nader is serving his optimal purpose by phrasing his criticism of Obama the way he did. The US is a highly racist country, indeed, based on racism, and Nader distinguishes when a leader’s race is used against the interests of African-Americans and all the American population.

One of Obama’s political functions is to put a black face on the imperialist oppression of black and colored peoples, the same function of the Sec of States, Powell and Rice.  He raises the issue this way in the mainstream media because, God knows, nobody else will. 

It is not only perfectly reasonable, it is essential that this be done.  So Americans can distinguish between racism and justified political points, between racism and Tomism.  It’s the same difference as opposing leaders because they are Jews or because they are Zionists.  Here Nader is discussing Obama’s political position not his genetical makeup.

And it is quite natural that imperialist Progressives among TD commenters would favor Fox News over Nader.  It the same favoring of Gops over progressives that Obaama is doing in picking his cabinet.  It is distinctions like this that separate the anti-imperialist progressives from the pro-imperialist progrressives, and this has to be done before the population can be mobilized by a consistent comprehensive anti-imperialist narrative.

I do not agree with Nader’s liberalism; but he served a useful purpose here in moving the discourse along progressive paths.  Bravo Nader.

The US ranks 28th in the world in infant mortality rates and 45th in the world in terms of life expectancy.  The reason for this is our corrupt health care system and our falling standard of living.  Obama is blissfully unconcerned about any of this.  He never mentioned it once during the campaign.  He just keeps repeating the mantra that the US is the greatest country in the world.

@ Inherit The Wind

Nader is turning into a real racist pr**k.  “Uncle Tom”??? Why doesn’t he just call Obama a “House n****r” while he’s at it?  Talk about a racist term—he’d NEVER call a White man an “Uncle Tom”.

I’ll quote you and see if Truthdig lets me get away with it. I have been having trouble with those asterisk curse words around here. I think it is up to black folks to call Obaaaa maaaa<think sheep> a house negro. But Obaaaaa maaaaaa’s support of Wall Street makes a strong case that he is an Uncle Tom.

Thank God we have that vessel of all that is “progressive” in Ralph Nader.

Spin it any way you like, he could have and should have used better wording. He knew what he was doing, so the question becomes “why did he do it?”

He might have said, “Will Obama be a President for the people or for the corporations?” (Or some variation of that.) He chose his reference, and i doubt that it was for “literary” purposes. How many Fox viewers have read Beacher-Stowe?

He may be “right on the issues”, but he falls pretty far short as a human being. Stay classy, Ralph, stay classy.

When it’s too late the majority will come around to Nader’s way of thinking.  The US has fallen way behind in quality of life issues like average life span, infant mortality rates, availability of quality health care, etc.  Of course if you don’t mind living in a banana republic this doesn’t bother you.

I understand what Nader is trying to say with regards to the choice of direction facing Obama.  However, he adorns his ideas with offensive language which demonstrate a deep lacking of tact and racial sensitivity.  It is out of step with the times, and comes a across with no small hint of bitterness.  Evoking slave era terminology is seriously out of place in today’s politics. I wonder what Cynthia Mckinney would think of that comment.