Street roots., October 14, 2016, Page 5, Image 5

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Street Roots • Oct. 14-20, 2016
NADER, from page 4
the shelf, they don’t get on the ground
because the people are not shaping our
political e c o n o m y th e top 1 percent is.
That’s why we call it “Breaking Through
Power,” because the shift of power from the-
few to many in all kinds of structured
manners on, all kinds of aspects of our I
society is what produces a functioning
democracy.
If it isn’t shifted, you have a deteriorating
democracy that is largely dysfunctional,
except for its ability to serve and subsidize
the plutocracy and its allied oligarchy in
Washington, otherwise known as the
corporate state - the merger of Wall Street
and Washington - with the government -r
being turned against its own people.
E.G.: Your book contains some examples of
breaking- through power, such as when activists
took on Big Tobacco, and when they demanded
a higher minimum wage and won. B ut at the
end of the day, you can still buy cigarettes in
every convenience store across America, and
nowhere in the U.S. is a minimum wage equal
to a living wage. I f breaking through power is
so easy, why have we failed to do so in areally
meaningful way?
IF YOU 6 0
Ralph Nader
at Powell s
What: “Breaking
Through Power"
discussion and
signing
When: Noon
Saturday, Oct. 22
Where: Powell’s City of Books, 1005 W
Burnside St., Portland
On campaign finance reform
What: Honest Elections in Multnomah
County Ballot Measure 26-184 benefit and
information session
When: 7 p.m. Oct. 22; doors open at 6:30
Where: First Unitarian Church of Portland,
main sanctuary, 1211 SW Main St.
Cost: Suggested donation of $3 to $20;
no one will be turned away due to inability
to pay
BREAKING THROUGH POWER'
In his new book, “Breaking Through
Power." Ralph Nader lays out a blueprint
for organizing citizens in each
congressional district to engage with their
U.S. representative and senator on a list
of bipartisan-supported reforms.
But if you haven't read the book, there are
other ways to get involved right away:
To get involved in lobbying Congress,
Nader suggests visiting Citizen.org. It’s
the website for Public Citizen, a citizens
interest group in Washington. D.C., that
he founded in 1971.
In the website's “Action Center," visitors
can find an array of ways to get involved
in current campaigns, such as Help
Elizabeth Warren Change Wall Street and
Tell Congress to End Forced Arbitration,
by signing petitions, contacting their
elected officials or sharing their stories.
Nader suggests people interested in
advocating for full Medicare for all can
start by visiting SinglePayerAction.org.
Page 5
E.G.: Right now we’re in an election cycle
where both frontrunners have historically low
approval ratings. Here in Oregon, it’s expected
38 percent of voters won’t vote for either of
them. Where do we go from here?
R.N.: It’s not an election*, it’s a selection of
two candidates in a two-party duopoly by the
forces of plutocracy and oligarchy, so let’s
not call it an election.
An election implies choice, and when you
have both parties - parties of war, parties of
Wall Street, parties of police abuse, parties
of the status quo - you don’t have an
election; you have a selection. Of course, it
reached grotesque proportions in 2000
whèn Bush was selected by a 5 4 Scalia-led
judicial coup d’état (he laughs). .
There should be a binding “None of the
Above” on the ballot so those 38 percent
can vote “no confidence” in the whole sham,
and if it wins, it requires new elections, for
mayor or whatever, and new candidates, if a
binding .“None of the Above” wins. That has
about 90 percent support when you explain
it to people.
E.G.: You also write about, in your book,
and this.is one o f the priorities mentioned at
the end: reclaiming the public airwaves. Why
place so much emphasis on this when most
people have subscription cable or get their news
and entertainment from the internet? Why are
public airwaves still important?
R.N.: Because we’ve never reached the 1
For periodic ways to get involved, visit
percent threshold of people mobilizing in
Nader.org to sign up for his weekly
congressional and legislative districts to
column.
make those, changes. Those changes were
R.N.: Because they draw community
made by a fraction of 1 percent of th e
audiences. The internet draws individuated
people.
- Facebook, Instagram - cluttered
A few thousand people challenged the
audiences, No. 1.
No. 2: We own this property, the public
tobacco industry, for example. What if a
million people did that? A few thousand \
airwâVës, and the cable - we give the
people picketed McDonalds and Wal-Mart.
monopoly licenses. So why isn’t there a
What if 200,000 people did that?
cable channel for labor? Why isn’t there a
That’s why I subtitled the book “I f s
cable channel for students? Why isn’t there
Easier Than We Think,” because what these
a cable channel for consumers? For
few people have shown is that if they were
environmentalists? Why do they have 650
joined by up to 1 percent of the people, say
channels, and it’s all junk, and it’s so
2.5 million people who have Congress watch'
fractured, it’s almost grotesque - you can’t
as their hobby, around an agenda that’s
characterize i t
supported by a majority of the people, it
How come we don’t have a cable channel
would prevail, no matter how powerful we
on civic activity that’s succeeding and
think corporation^ are.
improving one community, that other
I wrote a book called “Unstoppable: The
communities want to know about so we have
Emerging Left-Right Alliance to Dismantle
best practices?
the Corporate State,” where I identified 24
It’s because our expectation level is at
major areas that are supported by left-right,
zero. We all grow up corporate unless we
but the ruling powers focus on what divides .
free ourselves, and so we have the low-
expectation levels of corporatism. How
us, and divide-and-rule strategy has been
Ralph Nader testifies before Congress in 1966 about car safety. Nader’s advocacy led to reforms
working for over 2,000 years as a way of
many ads do kids see by the time they’re
of the automobile industry’s safety practices.
1 11? They’re all ads by corporations. You
entrenching autocratic power.
.
When you get down to where people live,
don’t see an ad for mass transit Yqu see ads
So my first answer is: Why don’t you show for cars, horsepower, speed, glamour, style.
E.G.: “Breaking Through Power” lays out
work and raise their families, the so-called
up? /
priorities that you say have left and right
The progressive press is estranged from a
polarization, ideological divide dissipates
You think the rightwing media wouldn t
support, along with a blueprint and strategy
critical, penetrating, realistic critique of our
rapidly, because they’r e facing reality, and
show up for a C-PAC convention every year?
for how to organize and break through this
conservative families are defrauded just like
society. They don’t show up locally. They
There’s serious, serious deficiencies in
power. Are you attempting to start a
liberal families. Their kids are exposed to
don’t show up nationally. They’re in a rut of
liberal and progressive arenas in this
movement, and i f so, what role do you see
bad water and dir, just like liberal families.
satisfying themselves with exposés and
country that prohibit even intimating an
independent media playing?
We regulated the auto companies with
denunciation, and they never go to action.
association with the word “movement” It’s
less than a couple thousand people working
If we propose ways that utility ratepayers
R.N.: Well, the first role is showing up.
a farce. If you go and look at
around the country on Congress, And as far
could organize themselves, or insurance
Yorn: media did not show up for “Breaking
brealdngthroughpower.org
you’ll
see
what
I‘
as tobacco is concerned, you saw the part
policy (holders) can organize themselves,
Through Power” (conference in Washington,
mean. - 64 hours of videotaped
where the best estimate is just a few
etc., they would be bored. They’re bored
D.G.). Eight days: four days in May, four
presentations, people who actually change
thousand people? But tobacco use now is
with electoral reforms.
days in September. They weren’t there. Isn’t
things, and none of the progressive media
Once in a while they’ll mention instant-
down from 45 percent in 1964 to under 18
that amazing?
showed up. And of course the mass media’
runoff voting and proportional
percent. So whfleyou can still buy it, we
Democracy Now! wasn’t thefe, In These
didn’t show up, the corporate media.
representation - but they won’t pursue it,
don’t want to drive it underground. Haven’t
Times wasn’t there, Mother Jones wasn’t
If you don’t show up for the future of our
and they won’t publicize it where it exists,
we learned with marijuana and other drugs?«: there, Nation magazine wasn’t there. This is
country
as
you
see
it
and
agree
with
it,
then
like in San Francisco, where they have
You don’t drive it underground. You create a
the major gathering of progressive civic
there’s not much more to discuss, and
criminal incarceration society. It’s being
instant-runoff voting.
leaders and doers on more issues and more
there’s not many more recommendations
They get high from exposing and
treated as a health problem, which is what
reforms than has ever been brought
that can be made in answer to your
denouncing - they love i t And they don’t go
hardcore drugs should be treated as - a
together in Amèrican history - and they
question. •
health problem.
didn’t show up.
See NADER, page 7