Though reluctant to admit it publicly, for the sake of morale and status, progressive citizen group leaders taking on the corporate supremacists and their political lackeys are in hard times. With few exceptions, they are neither adjusting with bolder strategies and tactics nor growing fast enough to spin off new divisions and groups. On the other hand, corporatists, driven by profits, have constant motivation and measurable yardsticks for defining their success. Corporatists, with their monetized minds, are not seized by internal worries and debates about how to address climate catastrophes, addicted customers (tobacco) and patients (Opioids). They are corrupting governments or becoming tax dodgers, all while demanding government handouts.
Against that background, I offer some suggestions. Progressives should:
1. Not succumb to the satiety of exposing and denouncing, without moving to action. Their reports gather dust. Be like law professor and leading child advocate Robert Fellmeth (See, Children’s Advocacy Institute). He has exposed wrongdoing, proposed reforms, and taken them all the way through the California Legislature to the governor’s signature.
2. Avoid being overly turf-conscious which weakens your group and rejects the reality that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. In 1972, we produced magazine-size profiles of all the members of Congress running for re-election. This was never done before or since. We asked Common Cause—similarly committed to accountable, responsive lawmakers—to notice these profiles to their membership. They politely declined. Our groups, under my watch, always publicize the good works of other groups.
3. Understand that the affliction of aliteracy—knowing how to read but not reading—is widespread among progressives—outside of their narrow specialties. Trying to get progressive advocates or researchers just to read our new Capitol Hill Citizen newspaper (https://www.capitolhillcitizen.com/) and use its special contents to press their own causes is no easy feat. It is very difficult to break through the addiction of screens and unending voicemails. So, why not have communal non-fiction book clubs within the groups like Public Citizen, Common Cause, People for the American Way, Greenpeace, Sierra Clubet al. to bring people up-to-date on the crushing new swarms of corporate controls? Readers Think and Thinkers Read. Both motivate action.
4. It is too difficult to dislodge honest but ineffectual leaders of the larger citizen groups and their subdivisions. As baseball coach Leo Durocher used to say, “Nice guys finish last.” To overcome normal sentimental feelings, think of all those people, families, and children out there who are not being served, protected, and encouraged due to weak, unimaginative, or burned-out heads of civil rights/civil liberties, labor, consumer, and environmental groups. They should realize their own limitations in their present positions and move on to tasks for which they are more suited, letting fresh leaders succeed them.
5. Wake up! There exists a truly irritating strain among both progressive lawmakers, staff, and outside advocates, of prejudging their own defeat, of scrapping bolder or new initiatives for change or reform with the cry “It just ain’t gonna happen.”
Imagine if Newt Gingrich, a junior Republican from Georgia, had that attitude in 1991. He bullied his way to the top, and evicted two Democratic Speakers of the House of Representatives to become Speaker himself in 1995 and then started the GOP wreckage of the country.
Let’s face it, messianic right-wing ideologues have more energy and “We’re going to make it happen” fervor than many of their laid-back counterparts in Congress. Compare the sheer moxie and determination of the so-called House Freedom Caucus (eventually driving out their Speaker John Boehner) and taking no quarter from present Speaker Kevin McCarthy, with the years-long anemia of the much larger Progressive Caucus—just recently stirring itself a bit, but not enough to prevail on issues contrary to the corporatist leadership of the Democratic Party.
Justice Louis Brandeis was relating well-known history when he wrote: “Most of the things worth doing in the world had been declared impossible before they were done.”
Nader is opposed to big insurance companies, "corporate welfare," and the "dangerous convergence of corporate and government power." While consumer advocate/environmentalist Ralph Nader has virtually no chance of winning the White House, he has been taken quite seriously on the campaign trail.Indeed, he poses the greatest threat to Sen. John Kerry. Democrats fear that Nader will be a spoiler, as he was in the 2000 election, when he took more than 97,000 votes in Florida. Bush won Florida by just 537 votes. The win gave Bush the election. Nader, an independent candidate, who also ran in 1992 and 1996, is on the ballot in 33 states, including Florida, Ohio, Wisconsin, and New Mexico—tough battleground states. Kerry stands a chance of losing those vital states if Nader siphons away the votes of Democrats. President Bush and Kerry have been in a statistical dead heat in nationwide polls, and votes for Nader could well tip the balance in favor of Bush.Many Kerry supporters contend that a vote for Nader is in reality a vote for Bush and have made concerted efforts to persuade Nader to throw his support behind the Democratic candidate. Nader, however, has held fast to his convictions that the two candidates are nearly indistinguishable and are pawns of big business.Designing Cars for Everything but SafetyNader was born in Winsted, Connecticut, on Feb. 27, 1934 to Lebanese immigrants Nathra and Rose Nader. Nathra ran a bakery and restaurant. As a child, Ralph played with David Halberstam, who\'s now a highly regarded journalist.Nader with Democratic nominee Jimmy Carter outside of Jimmy Carter\'s home on August 7, 1976, discussing Consumer Protection. (Source/AP) Nader graduated magna cum laude from Princeton in 1955 and from Harvard Law School in 1958. As a student at Harvard, Nader first researched the design of automobiles. In an article titled "The Safe Car You Can\'t Buy," which appeared in the Nation in 1959, he concluded, "It is clear Detroit today is designing automobiles for style, cost, performance, and calculated obsolescence, but not—despite the 5,000,000 reported accidents, nearly 40,000 fatalities, 110,000 permanent disabilities, and 1,500,000 injuries yearly—for safety."Early Years as a Consumer AdvocateAfter a stint working as a lawyer in Hartford, Connecticut, Nader headed for Washington, where he began his career as a consumer advocate. He worked for Daniel Patrick Moynihan in the Department of Labor and volunteered as an adviser to a Senate subcommittee that was studying automobile safety.In 1965, he published Unsafe at Any Speed, a best-selling indictment of the auto industry and its poor safety standards. He specifically targeted General Motors\' Corvair. Largely because of his influence, Congress passed the 1966 National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act. Nader was also influential in the passage of 1967\'s Wholesome Meat Act, which called for federal inspections of beef and poultry and imposed standards on slaughterhouses, as well as the Clean Air Act and the Freedom of Information Act."Nader\'s Raiders" and Modern Consumer MovementNader\'s crusade caught on, and swarms of activists, called "Nader\'s Raiders," joined his modern consumer movement. They pressed for protections for workers, taxpayers, and the environment and fought to stem the power of large corporations.In 1969 Nader established the Center for the Study of Responsive Law, which exposed corporate irresponsibility and the federal government\'s failure to enforce regulation of business. He founded Public Citizen and U.S. Public Interest Research Group in 1971, an umbrella for many other such groups.A prolific writer, Nader\'s books include Corporate Power in America (1973), Who\'s Poisoning America (1981), and Winning the Insurance Game (1990).
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