[Platform] Fwd: Nader: What the Candidates Avoid (discussing amongst themselves)

[Merelice]

Of interest and possible relevance....
Merelice

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Larry Ely <tetrahedrons at crocker.com>
Date: Jan 15, 2008 12:44 PM
Subject: Nader: What the Candidates Avoid (discussing amongst themselves)
To: ....

Monday, January 14, 2008, Ralph Nader

What the Candidates Avoid
Here is a short list of what you won't hear much of from the
front-runners in this presidential primary season. Call them the
candidate taboos.

1) You won't hear a call for a national crackdown on the corporate
crime, fraud, and abuse that have robbed trillions of dollars from
workers, investors, pension holders, taxpayers and consumers. Among
the reforms that won't be suggested are providing resources to
prosecute executive crooks and laws to democratize corporate
governance so shareholders have real power. Candidates will not shout
for a payback of ill-gotten gains, to rein in executive pay, or to
demand corporate sunshine laws.

 2) You won't hear a demand that workers receive a living wage instead
of a minimum wage. There will be no backing for a repeal of the
anti-union Taft-Hartley Act of 1947, which has blocked more than 40
million workers from forming or joining trade unions to improve wages
and benefits above Wal-Mart or McDonald's levels.

 3) You won't hear for a call for a withdrawal from the WTO and NAFTA.
Renegotiated trade agreements should stick to trade while labor,
environmental, and consumer rights are advanced by separate treaties
without being subordinated to the dictates of international commerce.

 4) You won't hear a call for our income tax system to be
substantially revamped so that workers can keep more of their wages
while we tax the things we like least, such as pollution, stock
speculation, addictive industries, and energy guzzling technologies.
Nor will you hear that corporations should be required to pay their
fair share; corporate tax contributions as a percent of the overall
federal revenue stream have been declining for 50 years.

 5) You won't hear a call for a single payer health system. Almost
sixty years after President Truman first proposed it, we still need
health insurance for everyone, a program with quality and cost
controls and an emphasis on prevention. Full Medicare for everyone
will save thousands of lives a year while maintaining patient choice
of doctors and hospitals within a competitive private health care
delivery system.

 6) There is no reason to believe that the candidates will stand up to
the commercial interests profiting from our current energy situation.
We need a major environmental health agenda that challenges these
entrenched interests with major new initiatives in solar energy,
doubling motor vehicle fuel efficiency, and other quantified
sustainable and clean energy technologies. Nor will there be adequate
recognition that current fossil fuels are producing not just global
warming, but also cancer, respiratory diseases, and geopolitical
entanglements. Finally, there will be no calls for ending
environmental racism that leads to more contaminated water, air, and
toxic dumps in poorer neighborhoods.

 7) The candidates will not demand a reduction in the military budget
that devours half the federal government's operating expenditures at a
time when there is no Soviet Union or other major state enemy in the
world. Studies by the General Accounting Office and internal Pentagon
assessments support the judgment of many retired admirals and generals
that a wasteful defense weakens our country and distorts priorities at
home.

 8) You won't hear a consistent clarion call for electoral reform.
Both parties have shamelessly engaged in gerrymandering, a process
that guarantees reelection of their candidates at the expense of
frustrated voters. Nor will there be serious proposals that millions
of law-abiding ex-felons be allowed to vote.
 Other electoral reforms should include reducing barriers to
candidates, same day registration, a voter verified paper record for
electronic voting, run-off voting to insure winners receive a majority
vote, binding none-of-the-above choices and most important, full
public financing to guarantee clean elections.

 9) You won't hear much about a failed war on drugs that costs nearly
$50 billion annually. And the major candidates will not argue that
addicts should be treated rather than imprisoned. Nor should observers
hope for any call to repeal the "three strikes and you're out" laws
that have needlessly filled our jails or to end mandatory sentencing
that hamstrings our judges.

 10) The candidates will ignore the diverse Israeli peace movement
whose members have developed accords for a two state solution with
their Palestinian and American counterparts. It is time to replace the
Washington puppet show with a real Washington peace show for the
security of the American, Palestinian, and Israeli people.

 11) You won't hear the candidates stand up to business interests that
have backed changes to our civil justice system that restrict or close
the courtroom to wrongfully injured and cheated individuals, but not
to corporations. Where is the vocal campaign against fraud and injury
upon innocent patients, consumers, and workers? We should make it
easier for consumers to band together and defend themselves against
harmful practices in the marketplace.

 Voters should visit the webpages of the major party candidates. See
what they say, and see what they do not say. Then email or send a
letter to any or all the candidates and ask them why they are avoiding
these issues. Breaking the taboos won't start with the candidates.
Maybe it can start with the voters.