Capitol Ideas / Citizen Nader ' s Loaded Dais
Bethell, Tom
"Capitol Ideas / Citizen Nader ' s Loaded Dais" students out to fight their good fights for them. Not only was "Big Business Day" a flop, but, when Earth Day 1980 was celebrated on April 22 only the Wall Street Journal seemed to care. When...
...Next up was James Farmer of CORE, " a leader in many freedom lines...
...Does Nader now get free use of government offices...
...Also, Nader received only a brief mention on Ct3S News that night, with the Heritage Foundation's "Growth Day" given nearly equal time...
...What, after all, do they produce...
...Much of the misery of the last 15 years can be laid to these nuisances...
...Can you hear the hollow, mirthless, derisory laughter that mocked and echoed throughout the room...
...had "made $250 million off World War I" and was then somehow involved in "a bizarre plot to overthrow the U.S...
...C A P I T O L I D E A S CITIZEN NADER'S LOADED DAIS As I sat in the resplendent Cannon Caucus Room (the size of an aircraft hanger, with glistening chandeliers, gilded moldings, bright television lights) awaiting the commencement of Ralph Nader's "Big Business Day" ceremonies, I found myself thinking about that preeminent Keynesian inversion of truthmone of the most influential falsehoods of the twentieth century--to the effect that "demand creates supply...
...Q.E.D...
...Did anyone present realize that only the surplus created by profitable enterprise enabled them to spend the morning in such luxuriant idleness...
...Perhaps only someone whose kingdom was not of this world could do that...
...Not much of a turnout--by now only about 100 people were present...
...Next some whiny words from a flinty, glinty eye-glassed moderator named Ruth Jordan, who surprised me by saying: "The media are essentially controlled by the corporate world . . . some did not pay their fair share, and they're in the corporate s e c t o r . . , cribs with slats too wide _9 . . cars designed to explode . . . asbestos blowing h a i r - d r y e r s . . , victims of random violence by corporate criminals . . . . Let me introduce now a sister--my sister--Bella Abzug...
...Giant Corp...
...In the course of his remarks the gentleman said that Dupont Co...
...The possessor of an impressive, Orson Welles-like voice, he wore an eyepatch...
...In the boardrooms of American," Bella then introduced, "the very mention of his name creates a shiver . . . our leader in this struggle to democratize corporate America...
...Anything further might be superfluous, but he told us an anecdote: Once he was travelling on an airplane, and a man next to him asked, "Why are you against b u s i n e s s - - e s p e c i a l l y after all business has done for your people...
...Hello, My Name Is Marcia...
...His victim-status was somehow obscurely related to the book's subsequent failure to be selected by the Book-of-the-Month Club...
...Presently, the ruler of what the Wall Street Journal has described as a "vast conglomerate" with "interlocking directorships" strode off and I had a brief word with Mark Green, who is as charmingly boyish as ever...
...They carry files and stand together in frowning conversation while the still-photographers and television cameras give them their focused attention...
...These poor people, professional victims, gave me the impression that they had embarked on hazardous careers of grievance, thereby risking the attendant danger of laying all of life's hardships at someone else's door-the corporate door, in this case...
...Bella's continued refusal to emigrate to the Soviet Union must be accounted one of life's minor mysteries...
...Could anyone in the world prevail on them to return to their nunnery an.d say the rosary...
...Captains of industry show some spunk...
...You just don't say things like that in Washington, thehome ofcentrism, and expect to be taken seriously...
...Does demand create supply, then...
...Sister Bella spake on this wise: " . . . the wage-gap is widening: sex discrimination in employment means extra profits . . . big business would prefer to keep women down . . . we are assaulted by expert TV advert i s i n g . . , sugar saturated cereals _9 . . overpriced jeans [a nervous tittering from the audience h e r e ] . . . drug companies are virtual drugp u s h e r s . . _ 9 cancer in our daughters...
...ism entailed a lot of "coerced consumption," citing chemical dumping at Love Canal to prove his point, before the Rev...
...Then he started to get carried away, and I noticed a national reporter close his eyes and .quietly shake his head when Nader said the Environmental Protection Agency '' is the manager of environmental violence in America...
...They and their burning causes are rendering America ungovernable, undemocratic, and absurd to those who watch us from afar...
...sounds as though it could be a candidate for the i Corporate Hall of Shame...
...They bust up the joint and then repine that any politician resistant to their threats is endangering the Republic...
...It looks to me as though Nader could be scraping at the bottom of the barrel at last...
...But then he went further and complained that the auto safety agency was "deliberately withholding life-saving technology," showing "how drunk with their own power these business moguls are...
...So earnestly do they converse, with such an evident lack of awareness of the pressing paparazzi, that...
...But the nuns, still stuck in the late 1960s, wear short habits, almost to the knee...
...I wondered at that point if Nader would be able to improve on this general level of nuttiness...
...We all sit down, as tardy Nader-lovers with labels on lapels continue to arrive...
...I give you Ralph Nader...
...Who paid for all this, by the way...
...When the morally upright of the American Left cannot get their own way quietly, they usually commence the demonstrations, the threats, and the lamentations that democracy is being thwarted...
...I am here today because the Eli Lilly company has given me cancer...
...And further, that by demanding cost-ofliving increases they will simply Tom Bet~sell is The American Specta...
...But soon enough he warmed up, talking about corporations that "relieve themselves in rivers," the 15,000 Washington lobbyists "whose cynical full-time job it is to defeat the public interest," the "vast array of predatory, anti-competitive practices," corporations that "undermine respect for and integrity of government," corporations that send "legions of robbers to Capitol Hill...
...That looks like one more slip-up to me...
...But if you've ever been discriminated against, if you've ever had your taxes raised because the company wanted to lower its taxes, then you know that corporations do not know what's best for you...
...They nod and then frown, transferring file folders from one hand to the other (click-click-click, w h i r r r . . . ). I'll swear Nader has a sun tan today...
...What, I wonder, are they doing here, auditing this anti-business conclave...
...The members of the most pristinely democratic party of all have a long record of disdaining the views of the American majority...
...No such luck, I'm afraid...
...they almost succeed in convincing me that they are oblivious of the media's attendon...
...Is he the recipient of any CETA grants other than the ones detailed in the Wall Street Journal's April 17 editorial...
...The final section of the morning program consisted of a rather sorry parade of sisters--sob sisters--who bravely bore witness to their status as victims of corporate abuse...
...The status of women derives from the voluntary nature of our social arrangements...
...government...
...Most wear longish skirts with side slits, some wear well-cut riding jackets with ties, giving a mannish look...
...I decided to forget it and enjoy lunch: pre-sliced Jewish rye bread, potato salad, cole slaw, neatly rolled up slices of roast beef and ham...
...Giant...
...summon forth even greater efforts on the part of the p r o d u c t i v e . . . Hush, here to interrupt my reveries comes Ralph Nader himself, tall, angular, and blue-suited, accompanied by his tousle-headed deputy, Mark Green...
...Hello, My Name Is Rachel...
...I joined the others for a sandwich lunch laid out on tables at the back of the room...
...I barely had time to ask him why he so disapproved of voluntary transactions between consenting adults, capitalby Tom B e t h e l l ism in a nutshell, and he barely had time to reply that in his view capital...
...Nonetheless, I am glad Dr...
...The fact that the average American sees the inhabitants of the Citizens Party as increasingly absurd is reassuring but not reassuring enough...
...Nader might one day care m unveil his elaborate financial arrangements...
...Farmer went on to say that if a work force is going to stay productive it must stay healthy, which meant that public health, community health, and mental health agencies were indeed necessary...
...Children, old-age pensioners, college students, hospital patients, welfare recipients, and numerous government employees contribute solely to the demand side of economic life, and to that list could be added Naderites, I concluded as I observed Nader's willing minions filing into the room...
...The time for dirty tricks is now...
...Throughout all this Nader sat at the curved dais (normally occupied by Congressmen hearing testimony), but it was interesting to see that he never looked up or reacted while the others spoke...
...You kind of blew it there, Ralph, attacking your friends like that...
...tor's Washington columnist and Washington editor of Harper's...
...With never a minute to waste, dossiers to memorize, this man struck me as being as incorruptible as . . . Robespierre...
...Perhaps we see here a hint of desperation from Nader, who I should imagine does not get as much attention from the news media as formerly, and in response is turning up the volume level of his accusations...
...They demand rather than supply, and that no doubt is why they champion the interests of "consumers," a category that serves merely to demarcate the productive...
...The hoots then turned to whoops, but still Nader studied and frowned at his dossiers...
...I t is an honor to share this platform with Betla Abzug and Ralph Nader," he commenced...
...He started out cautiously, claiming that he was merely a representative of "the long historic tradition of challenges to big business abuses over the past 100 years...
...One look at the fellow tells you he is too piggish to turn down their loot, and I should very much relish the day when it was revealed that he was in the pay of the Giant Corporations...
...Mmmmmmm_9 Goes very well with the Peas Farm 100% Natural Apple Juice, which has been poured out into white foam cups from Giant Corp...
...I urge the officers of the Fortune 500 to have their corporations donate to his campaign...
...One u n f o r t u n a t e woman began her address to the cameras and remaining audience (about half had left by now) as follows...
...We then listened to a speech by someone called Bob Peterson (wearirrg a three-piece business suit, with red spotted tie), who was pleased to inform us that big business had "declared war on the workers," THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR JUNE 1980 5 whose p a t i e n c e was wearing thin, and, in consequence, he promised: " i f it's war they want, it's war they'll g e t . " Amen to that, and a big hand for Bob...
...We also heard from a rather strange man who had written a book about the Dupont Company, published over seven years ago by Prentice-Hall...
...He stood at the lectern with one hand thrust into his coat pocket, his knuckles jammed against his ribs as though he himself shivered...
...While Bella bellowed, and the audience oohed, Nader steadfastly studied documents in front of him, occasionally turning a page...
...David Burgess, one-time CIO organizer, began to deliver the invocation: " . . . condemn those who sell the righteous for s i l v e r . . , textile workers slowly dying of brown l u n g . . . chemical workers slowly poisoned by w a s t e . . , struggle for e q u i t y . . . never-ending struggle for justice," Amen...
...How comforting it must be to Naderites, welfare recipients, et al., to believe that by depositing their checks at the bank they thereby keep the wheels of industry turning...
...But I can think of other, perfectly good reasons why it was not (unconnected with corporate armtwisting...
...Hello, My Name Is Sister Antonelle...
...Commoner is running, and I have a plan to enliven the proceedings...
...6 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR JUNE 1980...
...Has he perhaps been living it up in the Caribbean...
...They have become in a meaningful sense the conscience of this nation...
...Finally, he noted, big business has " a scorched earth policy...
...Not James Farmer, who continued: "What they're telling you is we know what's best for you...
Vol. 13 • June 1980 • No. 6
