I haven't read this yet, but I plan on doing so soon. I recently heard Ralph on an early morning radio program and he was promoting this book and ranting on associated topics--quite rationally and compellingly, I must say. As he was speaking I found myself feeling a little nostalgic and almost forgiving the man for spoiling one (or was it two?) presidential elections. I still can't believe he did that, but if you disregard those unfortunate events and look at his overall career and contribution to American society, we're talking about a true Saint here, a selfless martyr of the highest order. And, let's face it, he' right (as in CORRECT) on an entire array of subjects. I hear a lot of people praising other "revolutionaries," and investigators like Hunter S. Thompson, Mike Wallace from 60 Minutes, "Moon Beam" Jerry Brown, and other assorted high-profile journalists and eccentric lawyers, but Nader has been in the mud, muck, and mire for almost five decades now, fighting vast injustices and proven diabolical wrongs--and there's mostly contempt for him. A short reflection on his career, however, and you will realize that this austere, modest man is a true genius in the guise of a lunatic. His words are all "inconvenient truths," but they are TRUE. Just read the paragraph by Ralph at the top of this Amazon listing. It is an indictment against the Current Corrupt Corporate Aristrocracy. His words and ideas could be used as the basis for a sensible Unifying Charter for the "Occupy Movement(s)". (They really ought to consult with him for guidance and direction.)
As a Republican who voted for Obama, the one thing I can't get past is that all these Wall Street titans received taxpayer money to cure their self-created ills, and everyone else (the whole world, literally) was left to fend for themselves. Savings and pensions and dreams for our futures have been left to rot. Where were the arrests, where were the Grand Juries and their indictments? Was Madoff's prosecution supposed to be enough catharsis for us? It wasn't for me. I needed to see a couple hundred expensive suits being cuffed and doing their "perp walk" as they were escorted by Federal Marshalls to the Federal Pen. It never happened and there was an urgent moral mandate for that to happen.
Ralph Nader is basically telling us here that we need to fend for ourselves. If a liberal President, who was elected in on a mandate of Hope and Change, can't bring these filthy thieves to justice, then certainly none of the current crop of conservative candidates will do any better in the near future. Nader urges us (concerned Americans) to join togther and to "invest 3% of your discretionary time" (as he said in the interview I mentioned above) in fighting the corporate status quo--the lobbyists who have bought our Congress and the Investment Bankers who have high-jacked our financial system and our middle class. Indeed, never before has there been more of a motivation for us (the 99%) to get "mad as hell." America as we have known it has dissolved before our eyes in just the last decade, or perhaps two. And, of course, there's global warming and other environmental atrocities happening every day, all promoted by corporate interests and not penalized, restrained or otherwise mitigated by government.
Getting involved is indeed a hassle (and ultimately "inconvenient"), but we all have to roll up our sleeves and get with the program. I think Ralph will give us some good ideas in here on how to effectively use our time and how to fight back potently. The particular battle you choose may be different than mine. We all the know the stench of a rip-off when we smell it. And, it's easy to to be indifferent if you haven't been victimized recently. But the next time you get some type of felonious fee from your bank, or have some usurious interest rate imposed on you from a credit card company, or the next time we have a record-breaking hot day, or when we hear the latest update about how all the Houses on the Hill are being bought by .001% of society, or when you're denied coverage on an insurance claim of some sort, a little nagging voice in the back of your mind will remind you: I need to write some letters, I need to do something. But what can I do which best utlilizes my limited time?
Ralph will have some suggestions for you, and he will inspire your own creative impetus to independently develop, so you can wage your own unique battle in the collective war. When I was kid I remember my parents speaking of Ralph Nader in glowing terms: they'd had a friend die in a Corvair crash, and that was one of the cars which Nader implicated as marketed by the auto industry despite the known dangerous design. "Thank god someone is doing something," they said. That someone was Nader. Year after year this guy has toiled away sounding the same theme, which in part is: Don't you dare think our elected officials are sufficiently protecting us from Corporate Greed, and don't think that there are sufficient statutory checks-and-balances against cancer-like private sector domination over all of American life as we know it. There is a check and there is a balance: they are you and me. The corporations will try to demonize us by claiming that we are anti-capitalists, but it is they who have defiled the capitalistic system by exploiting complexities and vaguenesses and leaving fundamental morality at the door. Adam Smith would condemn them to hell.
So, read this book and get mad as hell and get mobilized. Or, if you prefer, don't get mad ("steamed") at all, just get motivated and serve your revenge cold with the strategies recommended in this book and as many letters as you can write. Speaking of which, I'm just now going to write my pathetic little "neo-Con" Representative David Dreir a terse letter reminding him that I will never again vote for him.
