Tom Paine 1949
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- Mar 15, 2020
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- #121
Ralph Nader, whom I have always respected as a tireless citizen activist, a lifetime ally of the little man facing off against giant corporations and government bureaucrats, a man who never betrayed our interests and never ever was corrupted by corporate money ... was clearly too optimistic in his hopes that Republicans in the Senate would do their duty. Let’s review what Nader hoped for in the first weeks after Jan.6th and what I still believe “duty to our Republic” requires...
Ralph Nader despises Republican Senator McConnell as much as anyone. Still he was happy to see McConnell’s initial harsh words against Trump. I personally favor conviction and believe it would help protect the integrity of our Republic — the one Benjamin Franklin supposedly said was ours “if you can keep it.”
Of course the Republic today is dominated by corporate money and the MIlitary Industrial Complex and all sorts of special interests (dominating both parties). But in Franklin’s day Congress was also dominated by special interests. Ours was then a “slave” Republic, in which Northern merchants, small manufacturers and shipping interests were also deeply involved in slavery. We were also then just beginning to build a (Continental) empire. We cannot logically believe our Congress and Republic was worth defending then, but is no longer worth defending.
Nobody should imagine that the road to save our Republic and make it really serve our people’s interests will be easy. No one party and no one man and certainly no narcissistic demagogue can do it for us. But so long as we still have a democratic Republic and “we the people” can vote, we have the opportunity to fight back legally against the oligarchy of wealth, corporate and monopoly powers. Ralph Nader has been trying to show us ways to do that for decades, preaching an alliance of right and left where possible, ending Citizen’s United dark money control of politics, and pushing “good government” and socially conscious democratic reforms of the economy.
Here was Nader’s original view, apparently too optimistically presented just a week or so after Trump’s presidency truly ended in chaos, shame and violence on Jan. 6th:
BY RALPH NADER
Texas Congressman Joaquin Castro ... asked his colleagues: “If inciting a deadly insurrection is not enough to get a president impeached, then what is?” Ten Republicans voted for Impeachment, but 197 House Republicans disagreed....
Congressional Republicans have aided and abetted, for four years, Trump’s assertion that ... “I can do whatever I want as president.” Dangerous Donald did just that. He finally incited a massive, homicidal street crime against the very Congress that let him get away with everything, day after day ...
The GOP speakers who defended Trump in the House Impeachment debate will go down in history as unsurpassed political cowards ... Trump’s Congressional protectors, however, failed. The House of Representatives voted for Articles of Impeachment that are on their way to the Senate for a certain trial. The Senate should convict treacherous unrepentant Trump and ban him from ever seeking federal office again....
Trump’s business allies and supporters are not waiting for any verdicts. Major corporations such as Disney, Coca-Cola, and J.P. Morgan Chase have suspended campaign contributions to the GOP. Last week, the powerful National Association of Manufacturers demanded that Trump be removed from office under the 25th Amendment. Trump’s banks, to whom he owes hundreds of millions of dollars, are distancing themselves from their insatiable borrower....
McConnell ... is turning against Trump by declining to oppose Impeachment and signaling that he may unleash his Republican Senators to convict Trump, if only for their own political survival. The GOP polls are slipping and will slip more as the toxic stench of what occurred before and during the January 6th attack increases....
McConnell does not want Trump either to run or threaten to run again in 2024. The only way that yoke can be lifted is to free 17 or more Republican Senators to vote for conviction followed by a simple majority vote banning Trump from future federal office...
What are the probabilities that a conviction in the Senate will be achieved? Better than 50/50, given the survival instincts of the politicians wanting ... Trump off their backs.
The Impeachment Trial of Donald Trump: Can He be Convicted? - CounterPunch.org
Ralph Nader despises Republican Senator McConnell as much as anyone. Still he was happy to see McConnell’s initial harsh words against Trump. I personally favor conviction and believe it would help protect the integrity of our Republic — the one Benjamin Franklin supposedly said was ours “if you can keep it.”
Of course the Republic today is dominated by corporate money and the MIlitary Industrial Complex and all sorts of special interests (dominating both parties). But in Franklin’s day Congress was also dominated by special interests. Ours was then a “slave” Republic, in which Northern merchants, small manufacturers and shipping interests were also deeply involved in slavery. We were also then just beginning to build a (Continental) empire. We cannot logically believe our Congress and Republic was worth defending then, but is no longer worth defending.
Nobody should imagine that the road to save our Republic and make it really serve our people’s interests will be easy. No one party and no one man and certainly no narcissistic demagogue can do it for us. But so long as we still have a democratic Republic and “we the people” can vote, we have the opportunity to fight back legally against the oligarchy of wealth, corporate and monopoly powers. Ralph Nader has been trying to show us ways to do that for decades, preaching an alliance of right and left where possible, ending Citizen’s United dark money control of politics, and pushing “good government” and socially conscious democratic reforms of the economy.
Here was Nader’s original view, apparently too optimistically presented just a week or so after Trump’s presidency truly ended in chaos, shame and violence on Jan. 6th:
BY RALPH NADER
Texas Congressman Joaquin Castro ... asked his colleagues: “If inciting a deadly insurrection is not enough to get a president impeached, then what is?” Ten Republicans voted for Impeachment, but 197 House Republicans disagreed....
Congressional Republicans have aided and abetted, for four years, Trump’s assertion that ... “I can do whatever I want as president.” Dangerous Donald did just that. He finally incited a massive, homicidal street crime against the very Congress that let him get away with everything, day after day ...
The GOP speakers who defended Trump in the House Impeachment debate will go down in history as unsurpassed political cowards ... Trump’s Congressional protectors, however, failed. The House of Representatives voted for Articles of Impeachment that are on their way to the Senate for a certain trial. The Senate should convict treacherous unrepentant Trump and ban him from ever seeking federal office again....
Trump’s business allies and supporters are not waiting for any verdicts. Major corporations such as Disney, Coca-Cola, and J.P. Morgan Chase have suspended campaign contributions to the GOP. Last week, the powerful National Association of Manufacturers demanded that Trump be removed from office under the 25th Amendment. Trump’s banks, to whom he owes hundreds of millions of dollars, are distancing themselves from their insatiable borrower....
McConnell ... is turning against Trump by declining to oppose Impeachment and signaling that he may unleash his Republican Senators to convict Trump, if only for their own political survival. The GOP polls are slipping and will slip more as the toxic stench of what occurred before and during the January 6th attack increases....
McConnell does not want Trump either to run or threaten to run again in 2024. The only way that yoke can be lifted is to free 17 or more Republican Senators to vote for conviction followed by a simple majority vote banning Trump from future federal office...
What are the probabilities that a conviction in the Senate will be achieved? Better than 50/50, given the survival instincts of the politicians wanting ... Trump off their backs.
The Impeachment Trial of Donald Trump: Can He be Convicted? - CounterPunch.org
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