Attacking the Underdog

December 13th, 2007 by jpeters

Consumer advocate Ralph Nader has taken The New York Times to task over a recent commentary that attacks Democratic underdogs including Senator Gravel.

Writes Nader: "[A]ren’t we all glad that ballot access was so easy in the nineteenth century, compared to today, that small parties like the anti-slavery, women’s rights, labor and farmer-populist parties got onto the ballots and pioneered hugely important agendas, ignored by the Democratic, Whig and Republican Parties? These small starters never came close to winning the Presidency, except for the populist parties, winning many Congressional elections."

You can read the entire column at CommonDreams.org.

Comments

A Candidate for Our Times

Submitted on December 14th, 2007 by Independent_Patriot

Ralph is right (as usual).If they don’t change course and soon, the Democratic Party is doomed to failure and deserves to lose.  

Karl Rove sees Hillary as a "fatally flawed candidate", however, I believe that term is applicable to any one of the anointed holy three.Did we, as a party, learn nothing from 2004?No more mealy-mouthed extreme-sport-endeavoring invertebrates. It’s beyond time the Democrats nominate a candidate who kicks ass, takes names and won’t back down.Indeed, wasn’t one of Bush’s celebrated strong suits, with which he would later ride to victory, his ability to shoot straight from the shoulder, or at least convincingly feign doing so?Why then, is the only Democratic candidate with a well-tested brass pair, consistently being ushered off the stage like a leper, or, if lucky, getting to debate from a podium located calculatingly nearer and nearer to exit stage left?-on some occasions, practically having to shout his answers through the back-alley exit, where he’s been situated amongst a captive audience of dumpsters and tabby cats.

Stunning isn’t it?

With the exception of Tommy Thompson & Sam Brownback (both who dropped out by their own volition), the Republican candidate pool hasn’t been winnowed out. In fact, underdogs like Tancredo and Hunter still remain. Where is the proportional clamor on the Right, as it exists currently on the Left, to quell these second tier candidates? This, above everything else, speaks volumes about the state of modern liberalism in America.Those on the Left who would wish to silence Senator Gravel or ANY candidate, are long overdue for a pensive long gaze in the mirror; as they are obviously no longer in concert with the tenets of their own political persuasion.One “liberal” friend of mine even believes that Mike Gravel is clandestinely working for the Republican Party to make Democrats look loopy or out of touch. Personally, where others hear “loopy” or “disgruntled”, I hear words of clarity and wisdom that could’ve been penned by the prodigious quills of the Founding Fathers themselves.  

Jefferson. Franklin. Washington. Adams. Madison. Gravel

  

Let’s Make it Happen! 

amen!

Submitted on January 4th, 2008 by ashsan

 

I find it so depressing that the partisan political system has become so incestuous and fawning that people who advocate for torture and war are considered legitimate candidates and people who suggest that people have power or that NAFTA spawned our immigration crisis are viewed as peripheral. This is a testament to what happens to democracy when soundbytes rule the day and corporate media gives woefully scant coverage to vital issues. We MUST cover (and celebrate!) candidates like Gravel, who are weilding real criticisms and solutions rather than speaking an impoverished politicalese that ensures a status quo! People who have real things to say are dangerous to the establishment known as "politics"--an establishment that increasingly gets its power from ignoring the real politics: the ideas, wishes, and imagination of the people.