Fear & Loathing on the Campaign Trail

John C. Stauber
stauber@compuserve.com

Web Note: John Stauber is on the Policy Advisory Board of the Organic
Consumers Association

10/27/00
Feel free to e-mail, post, print and circulate this opinion piece, but
please do so without changing or editing it, and with attribution to me
only. This represents only my views as an individual citizen and voter
supporting Ralph Nader for president of the United States.
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REJECT FEAR AND LOATHING ON GORE'S CAMPAIGN TRAIL
John Stauber *

A well-organized campaign of fear and loathing on the campaign
trail is attempting to frighten people from voting their own consciences.
Democratic big business lobbyist Toby Moffett, a Monsanto vice president
until recently and now a consultant, is one of the so-called progressives
coordinating the effort to attack Nader and his supporters.

Moffett and the rest of Monsanto's lobbyists love Al Gore because,
while Gore did not invent the internet, he is the techno-pol responsible
for shoving Monsanto's inadequately tested, possibly dangerous and
definitely unlabeled genetically engineered foods down the throats of
American eaters. Now Toby is trying to shove Al Gore down voters' throats
but that's going over about as well as milk from Monsanto's
hormone-injected cows.

Unfortunately others less identified with corporate power are also
hammering away at the venerable Green Party candidate as a "spoiler,"
although just days ago Ralph Nader was too marginal to debate. Prominent
middle-aged figures obviously much too wedded to the Democratic party and
its contributors, well-known names from Hollywood and the labor, minority,
feminist and environmental NGO world, are furiously stumping for Gore. One
hopes that as they barnstorm from Madison to Seattle to Eugene to San
Francisco they grab some of those airplane barf bags, because for true
progressives to defend the Clinton/Gore record is indeed a queasy
assignment.

I agree that a Bush/Cheney administration would be bad news for
most of what I personally hold sacred. However, voting for Al Gore is
absolutely not the answer. Every four years there comes the less
reprehensible corporate candidate. This year it's Al Gore playing the
role. If he wins, in four years he would star in a repeat performance, and
then maybe the esteemed senator of the insurance and prescription drug
cartels, Joe Lieberman, would step up from his understudy position. No
thanks, its time for change.

I'm working and voting for Ralph Nader because he is giving voice
and leadership to the growing pro-democracy movement needed to bust the
stranglehold that corporations have over our lives and our system of
government. If Nader were running as the Democrat.... But of course,
that would never happen because the system is so rigged that only a
candidate beholden to corporate special interest money can today win either
party's presidential nomination.

Even if Bush wins the White House there is some light in that dark
cloud. Nader has certainly galvanized the grassroots to confront and
blunt either candidate's pro-business agenda, and if voters reject the
Democratic ticket it might inspire some inside that party to re-think its
partnerships with big business.

Bush in the White House would also guarantee that four years from
now we will not have to endure the apologists' excuses about how 'Yes,
President Gore has been a disappointment but he had to compromise to win a
second term. Re-elect him and he will move in our direction.'

I'm joyfully working and casting my vote for Ralph Nader and the
growing movement to reclaim American democracy. No matter who wins I will
celebrate what the Nader/LaDuke campaign has accomplished in forcing the
single biggest issue of our time -- corporate domination -- to the front
burner of citizen awareness and action. Nader/LaDuke has succeeded in this
despite a pittance of money, hostile news media awash in political
advertising lucre, the enforced censorship that kept him out of the debates
and now desperate outpourings of fear and loathing courtesy of corporate
lobbyists for Gore such as Toby Moffett.

Be warned of course that merely voting for anyone is not enough.
Commit yourself to the understanding that the growing pro-democracy
movement sparked by Ralph Nader's candidacy is just the beginning, and you
are part of it. Commit yourself to personally helping it succeed with your
time, sweat and contributions in the months and years ahead long after
November 7th.
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*John Stauber is the co-author of the book Toxic Sludge Is Good For You:
Lies, Damn Lies and the Public Relations Industry

Ronnie Cummins