Dear Barbara Ehrenreich

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

Dear Barbra Ehrenreich,

I want to begin by congratulating DSA for its ability to gain a foothold 
in the mass media. With you subbing for Thomas Friedman and Cornel West 
taking a bit part in "The Matrix Reloaded", what can be next? (Is there 
any truth to the rumor, by the way, that Bogdan Denitch will be doing a 
Food Network show? I understand that he does a killer paella.)

With that out of the way, I want to turn to something that I am not so 
impressed with, namely your op-ed attack on Ralph Nader in today's NY 
Times (http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/18/opinion/18EHRE.html). That 
being said, I have to hand it to you. You implicitly throw your 
celebrity-leftist heft behind Kerry without mentioning his name once. As 
a student of Communist Party history, I for one feel a sense of déjà vu 
when I read this sort of thing--as in 'Defeat Landon at All Costs.'

I can understand this sort of thing when somebody like FDR was the 
implicit choice of the Communists, but a pro-war billionaire who once 
joked to Don Imus that his opponent Bill Weld "took more vacations than 
people on welfare" seems like a case of diminishing expectations when it 
comes to "the lesser evil". In relationship to Nader's 2000 campaign, 
you refer to this year's run as a farce following tragedy. Oddly enough, 
I find Kerry to be sub-farcical when it comes to such matters.

You explain that "hindsight" allows you to describe Nader's 2000 run as 
a tragedy. Isn't it possible that something else is going on, namely the 
enormous peer pressure of the social democratic/liberal milieu to 
renounce everything that Nader stands for? Frankly, I haven't seen such 
a herd phenomenon outside of the Communist Party of Stalin's era. Did 
you ever see Costa-Gravas's "The Confession"? I can see Nation Magazine 
contributors standing before the court of public opinion today 
confessing that they undermined the progressive movement in the USA, 
just as those hapless party members confessed to being CIA agents. Who 
knows, for some of our soft leftists, it might be as painful to be 
ostracized by fellow liberals as it would be to spend 2 years in a Czech 
prison. You even tell your readers that you "risked death by sporting 
your bumper sticker well into the reign of Bush". I am really happy that 
nobody murdered you. Our movement needs fearless journalists, even when 
they obey the herd instinct when it comes to challenging the 2-party system.

Everything seems to hinge on the figure of George W. Bush, who you 
describe as "a figure invoked worldwide to scare unruly children." Odd, 
I feel the same way about John Kerry, who has always looked to me like a 
cross between the Frankenstein monster and Edmund Muskie. Not only is 
this Bush a figure whose evil beggars all description, like Ming the 
Merciless in the old Flash Gordon serials, you had a whole rafter of 
really peachy-keen people running in the Democratic Party who had all 
the same nice values as Nader himself. So why did he have to go and 
spoil things by running against both Democrats and Republicans.

Since you mention Dennis Kucinich as one of these really nice Democrats 
whom you support now (until presumably after he instructs his followers 
to back Kerry), it is only fair to remind you of the unpleasant fact 
that his delegates have folded like a cheap suitcase:

"Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry's campaign headed off a 
showdown in the party platform yesterday over Iraq, convincing rival 
Dennis J. Kucinich's supporters not to demand withdrawal of U.S. troops 
or the establishment of a Department of Peace.

"Saying party unity is more important than particulars, delegates agreed 
to forgo amendments on Iraq, a broader call for same-sex unions and a 
stronger endorsement of Palestinians' rights." (Washington Times, July 
11, 2004)

You raise the same canards as the rest of the ABB crowd about Nader's 
cozying up to the rightwing. "Republicans are the least of it. You've 
been kissing up to the Reform Party, which ran paleo-right-winger Pat 
Buchanan the last time around." Perhaps Nader should have chosen John 
McCain as his running-mate, whom Kerry unsuccessfully attempted to 
seduce in an open bid to capture rightwing votes. Looking back in 
retrospect, this would have been a perfect match for Kerry, whose 
recently published book demonizes the Vietnamese resistance, just as 
Iraqis are demonized today. McCain once told reporters, "I hate the 
gooks. I will hate them as long as I live." A perfect complement to John 
Kerry.

In any case, I'll stick with the Barbara Ehrenreich of 2000. Just 
substitute "Kerry" for "Gore" and this sounds right as rain:

But I can't get really mad at the Gore-ites of the left--there is such a 
becoming and altogether seemly diffidence about them. To my knowledge, 
none of them are sporting Gore buttons or bumper stickers, and I don't 
expect any of them to invite me to a Gore house party anytime soon. 
While they may firmly believe that "a vote for Nader is a vote for 
Bush," they seem also to understand that a vote for Gore is a vote for 
the system as it stands--and specifically for the DLC-dominated 
Democratic Party. Like it or not, that's how the Gore votes will be 
counted, and that's how they'll be spun.

Here's how generous I am: I'll tell them what they can do if they'd like 
to save Gore. They should stop flacking for him--stop all this carping 
about "spoiling" and "vote stealing"--and explain to their man what he'd 
have to do to start taking votes away from Nader. Like renouncing the 
substitution of bribery for the democratic process. Like pledging to 
spend the budget excess on such daily necessities as universal health 
insurance and childcare. Like embracing a worker-friendly approach to 
world trade.

I doubt Gore could ever become Nader-like enough to steal my vote from 
the original, certainly not after his choice of DLC leader Lieberman as 
Veep. But it sure would be nice to see him try.

Full: http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml%3Fi=20000821&s=ehrenreich

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