Birds of a Feather? Nader on Palin
“I think she’s a lot smarter than most people credit her,” says ["longtime left crusader" Ralph] Nader. “Judging by her comments, she is squarely in the camp of conservative populism, opposed to corporatism and its corporate state.” …
“When she was governor of Alaska she really did take on the oil industry, and [she also] approved a statewide referendum that resulted in the first state in the Union to regulate cruise lines and their pollution offshore,” he says. …
If Palin continues down the conservative populist path — and that’s a big “if”; let’s face it, she’s not exactly known for ideological consistency — Nader thinks the message will be a political winner.
“It’s endlessly elaborative. She could elaborate it with all kinds of newsworthy examples — abuses, prosecutions, convictions,” he says.
That will apply especially if she jumps into the current “corporatist” GOP presidential field, Nader says. “She’ll really draw a line between herself and the others, who will never encroach on this.”
3 Responses to “Birds of a Feather? Nader on Palin”
Looks like Nader should jump on as campaign manager…or at least head of PR.
Nader represents the difference between a independent and a centrist. He clearly isn’t in the center of the political spectrum (to the degree that political choices can be represented by two poles that you have decide between, a false dichotomy). However, he is, in fact, independent of the partisan camps that we are expected to line up into. That he allows him to move beyond the partisan political of personal demonization.
I will always have respect for Ralph Nader as a courageous consumer advocate who was willing to go up against giant corporations, but that respect will forever be tainted with the knowledge that he had a hand in giving us GWB in 2000. That “spoiling” cost the country dearly, and the cost continues to accumulate. As for his opinion of Palin? Frankly my response is, who cares?