Ralph Nader offers an interpretation of recent American political history from his distinctive point of view. He
makes frequent reference to his previous book Unstoppable: The Emerging Left-Right Alliance, but in general
he is looking for ways that rightists might support populist policies of the left.
The book offers a strong critique of the Obama years, including Obama himself and the approach of Democrats
during those years. He says he is not equating the Democrats with the Republicans, which he sees as much worse,
although he famously called the nominees Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee in 2000. Although Obama was liberal
on many points, Nader points out areas where he could have taken a more populist progressive approach, such
as the minimum wage, the TPP (trans pacific partnership), regulations in certain areas, and there's a sharp critique
of the policy of drone strikes. One area where he does praise Obama is the Keystone XL pipeline. While the 2012 election brought a victory over Mitt Romney, Nader believes it should have been greater, and the 2010 and 2014 performances were lackluster over what he says should have been a vulnerable GOP due to a number of their
stances. In Ralph Nader's imaginative writing technique, he speaks as both the ghost of Osama bin Laden and
a bacterion of e coli, among others. He has great respect for Liz Warren, and the late Ted Kennedy who was good
on the minimum wage.
Then of course there was the emergence of Bernie Sanders. He is compared to Dennis Kucinich, Paul Wellstone
and implicitly Nader himself. Nader admires Sanders about as much as he can any candidate who made it into
the mainstream. Much of the agenda is the same-Medicare for all, minimum wage, etc. There are some differences, however. Nader is more explicitly dovish and more sharply critical of Israeli policies. On the other hand, while Nader
is opposed to corporations and their power, he isn't as detailed in his prescriptions as Sanders. Ironically, Nader had
a perceptive critique of Sanders' tendency to esoteric abstractions and repetition, but his own 2000 campaign was similarly repetitive in its ranting. Nader makes a strong criticism of Hillary Clinton for her connections to Wall Street, big money speeches, and hawkish approach to the military.
While unrelentingly leftist, Nader makes it a point to find any areas of common ground with rightists,
such as Dave Brat, the populist conservative who defeated Eric Cantor in the House primary. In the
GOP primary he praised Rand Paul for breaking with the foreign policy consensus, and John Kasich
for showing empathy and compassion with Medicaid. The Contract With America and the tea party
movement are admired, not for their content but their strategy. Unsurprisingly, he's not a fan of
Paul Ryan and particularly negative on Ted Cruz. But then, so was John Boehner.
Needless to say, Ralph Nader isn't a big fan of President Trump, whom he calls "mad" among
many other adjectives. At the end he sort of comes around to embrace Obama's legacy, and calls
for the ex-President to break protocol and speak out against Trump more directly. I don't feel the
need to go into Nader's critique of Trump, since it should be familiar material for most of his
readership. But he does acknowledge the things that Donald got right. One example is the TPP
and trade in general, although Nader says it's for the wrong reason, it should be for regulation and
protections for labor and the environment. And of course there was the emotional connection to
the anger and disillusionment toward Washington, which Nader blames in part to the Democrats
not being populist enough and too wedded to corporate interests (as are the GOP).
It's inevitable for me to compare Nader to Sanders. While Sanders has always been called
positive and issue-oriented, becoming the de facto leader of the party (which is odd for an
independent) has seemingly changed him somewhat. He has moved from class identity to
the identity politics and intersectionality that is more characteristic of the contemporary left
and the millenials. This isn't a change in positions but in emphasis, with feminism, LGBT, immigrants
and African Americans. He believes it's necessary because of the Trump resistance era. Nader
mentions feminism a few times and takes a knee jerk leftist position, but it's mentioned only
in passing, and the LGBT movement, which has been such a preoccupation in the 2010s, isn't
mentioned much at all. It's just an interesting contrast.
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