These days, Ralph Nader’s marginality is proving to be more of a source of frustration than of pride. Even the most progressive members of the Democratic coalition won’t take his phone calls.
have both published flattering stories about him in recent years. But Nader’s sense of isolation does reflect the reality that his particular brand of progressivism — which combines an unflinching critique of corporate power with a certain nostalgia for the small-d democratic ethos of the pre-digital age — fits uneasily into the current ideological matrix of the American left.includes a handful of articles that run flagrantly afoul of the progressive movement’s current political pieties.
“Trump is a corporate state,” says Nader, citing the previous administration’s efforts to cut financial regulations and weaken agencies. “You’re getting an extension of corporate domination of the government, which is the clinical definition of fascism.” “[Members of Congress] will respond to birthdays and grandchildren and graduations give RSVP on invitations — they’re very good at that — but when it comes to serious letters … it’s reserved for people who are donors” — a word that Nader pronounces, somewhat confoundingly, with the emphasis on the second syllable . “Major lobbyists connected to major donors” — again, with the syncopated pronunciation — “they would get through.
As Nader pointed out, the firewall that representatives have erected between themselves and their constituents poses a real threat to the basic principles of representative democracy — and yet it remains practically invisible to the mainstream reporters who spend a significant portion of their professional lives rubbing elbows with elected representatives on Capitol Hill.
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