I have always enjoyed Mr. Nader's words. They are to the point, and illuminate issues and their solutions. This is an excerpt.
To staff, volunteers, supporters, donors, and voters
Authoritative public sentiments have always been there, have they not? From the Declaration of Independence’s majestic prose to the preamble of our Constitution which begins with "We the People of the United States …" to Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address "toward a new birth of freedom … for a government of the people, by the people and for the people" to the last words of the pledge of allegiance — "with liberty and justice for all."
Sentiments remain mere words; heralding hopes, wishes and poignant nods. Unless they are grounded in reality, behavior, respect, attitude, and renewal, they become the words of controlling processes, pacifying the resigned, fortifying the concentrators of abusive power, and ever manipulating the trusting populace by the latest politicians climbing up the electoral hills.
The Nader/Gonzalez independent ticket set standards for presidential campaigns that were authentic, honest, factual, far-seeing, and committed to a deliberate, deep democracy that creates high expectations and dedicated actions from the people themselves. Democracy is revered all over the world because it brings the best out of people. But the people have to want it, to work for it, and to use it daily in its many splendid varieties.
Elections are a temptation for abstraction, soaring rhetoric without roots in the daily experience of those who are impoverished, ailing, defrauded, and indebted. The vast majority of citizens are marginalized and excluded from the freedom to participate in power — to paraphrase Marcus Cicero.
Our campaign started with the realities of our country on the ground where the people live, work, and raise their families. Politics must never be an abstraction. For if allowed to be such, it will be a mirage that stokes the hopeful emotions while detaching people from a critical recognition that they and only they — individually and organized — can make their representatives truly their representatives, dutifully producing more leaders. Leaders who cannot betray the trust of the people, and that of their children and grandchildren, know from whence they came.
It is with these thoughts that all of us at the Nader/Gonzalez campaign headquarters tender our gratitude to all who stood with us. We thank your enlightened self-interest, your awareness of the necessity for enlightened communities from the neighborhoods and workplaces all the way to our national government. We must make this government a tribune of peace, justice and freedom throughout this tormented world of ours.
While I was campaigning in Syracuse, New York this October in a city beset with hard times, a middle-aged blue-collar worker with calloused hands approached me after our discussion and said, "I’m voting for myself, which is why I’m voting for you." I took that declaration as a serious trusteeship and later on the campaign trail turned it into a basic question: "Isn’t it about time that we all voted for ourselves?" Isn’t it about time that we planned our futures rather than ceding that essential function of citizenship to giant rootless corporations?
What follows is a summary of what we achieved together through the Presidential campaign of 2008, despite being obstructed by the Democrats’ and Republicans’ ballot access hurdles and traps, despite being excluded from speaking to tens of millions of Americans through the Presidential debates (polls repeatedly showed the people wanted us — by name — included), and despite being willfully ignored by the national television and national newspaper/magazine media. These achievements represent persistence, stamina, and the willpower to penetrate this political bigotry so as to give choice to those voters who knew we were running.
Read the whole article at: http://www.votenader.org/blog/2008/11/11/what-we-accomplished-together/

by Cynthia McKinney 

You know you're addicted to a drug when you need it just to feel normal. By that standard, African Americans have been addicted to hope for a long, long time. Nothing wrong with that. As Robert Jensen of the University of Texas, from whom the title of this piece is borrowed points out, hope is seductive, it's attractive, and when times are hard, hope is absolutely necessary. We're all quite naturally attracted to those full of hope, while we pity or shun those without it. But if hope is much like a drug, it's also a lot like capital. Hope can be invested, wisely based on facts and a sober analysis of the forces in play, or it can be squandered foolishly, based on wishful thinking and outright lies. The air in Denver the last week of August will be full of hope. And full of lies.
[to read the complete article,
Jon Stewart, a TV celebrity with a faux news show, is known to be more forthcoming about reporting 'news' than the mainstream media, especially regarding the Iraq war and the presidential election..
As a reader of Common Dreams, I find that they have gone the path of Move-on, that other supposedly progressive organization that can't seem to support progressive candidates, claiming that they aren't 'viable,' so they support the democratic party leadership corporate candidate. First Gore, then Kerry, now Obama. Is there a corporate 'democratic' candidate that these supposed progressive organizations won't support? Especially when they are democratic in name only, not in policies they support.
The joke is that mainstream news is even more of a joke than Jon Stewart.
NPR? A joke.
Common Dreams? A joke. Did they publish articles supporting Kucinich or progressive issues in a serious manner? No. Another move-on type of organization ultimately supporting the democratic party leadership over progressive issues when push came to shove.
I’m not even going to mention the New York Times.
Many liberal democrats don’t even know about Mike Gravel, another progressive democrat who was shut out of the presidential debates. Did Common Dreams run a series of articles supporting the argument that Kucinich or Gravel be included in the debates? No.
I’m not talking about one or two throw away fluff pieces they published, I’m talking about in depth rational articles as to why the democratic process continues to be squashed by the democratic party.
The reason why third parties aren’t mainstream is because mainstream media and political parties work very hard at marginalizing third parties like the Green Party or Ralph Nader. Including Common Dreams. Including Jon Stewart.
Don’t get me wrong, Jon Stewart is very funny and probably the source of more information that never makes it into the mainstream media. But the news he does provide is just below anything that would actually make a change. Conservatives always get to plug their books on the show that makes them even more money atop of the atrocities that they support (like the Iraq War / Occupation).
Not that third parties are perfect, but closer to my goal when I use the same measuring stick that I use with Obama (or Hillary, Kerry, or Gore, or Bill Clinton). All of them sold out to corporate interests at the expense of public, all while they were in public office.
Wake up, how many more times will the people be taken in. I can’t think of a time more important than now to stop supporting the corporate elite and their parties, the democrats and republicans.
I’m voting green, I’m not holding my nose when I vote, and even if McCain wins, I hold the democratic party responsible for not impeaching the president; for excluding candidates from the debate; for excluding Ralph Nader’s issues; for not supporting universal health care; for not challenging corporate corruption; for not reeling in an out of control military policy; for not limiting a publicly armed, but privately controlled mercenary force (Blackwater etc); and the list goes on.
The biggest joke is going to be Obama’s vice presidential choice. It will be fun to see the Obama apologists explain that one away. I can’t wait.
A UTube video of a Ralph Nader supporter explaining why she supports Nader. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPbJY2rs0QI
http://www.NotOneMore.US