EDITOR'S NOTE
Rothschild, Matthew
EDITOR'S NOTE Matthew Rothschild Get Up, Stand Up Paul Soglin is the mayor of Madison, Wisconsin. He's no longer the radical he was in his student days, when he got his head bloodied by police...
...In a recent William Satire columnin 'The New York Times, Nader revealed thai he won't even endorse some of the planks in the Green Party platform, including progressive ones on immigration and affirmative action...
...Nader's been one of the few public figures in the last three decades who's made a substantial contri-bution to our society...
...It's about time we challenged for power...
...So it was in the Spanish Inquisition...
...This month, I'm angry at Ralph Nader when I should be ecstatic...
...Because Ralph...
...But, evidently, his idea of branching out is4o endorse term limits...
...He can't stay put m his familiar anti-corporate turf...
...And they suffer when their liberty is suppressed...
...But standing up for gay and lesbian rights is also the politically essential thing to do...
...We must confront the far right at the point of attack...
...I've been a proponent of third-party activism for some time, and a fan of Nader's for two decades...
...But he still stands up for what he believes in...
...they suffer as loved ones denied entry into emergency rooms to be with their partners...
...and he's not afraid to take oin Clinton for selling out to corporate America (Alexander Cockburn and JeffreySt.: Clair demonstrate Clinton's environmental sellout in lurid detail this month), So why am I angry...
...God.comm@sheep...
...they suffer as the victims of vicious hate crimes...
...he nears to venture forward and join the broader social-justice movement...
...Surely Nader knows thai the rightwing attacks on these two issues are racially motivated...
...so they feel divinely obligated to go to war against all those who don't log on...
...His Green Party on has the potential to enhance his legasy but he needs to extend himself if he's to realize that potential...
...We certainly don't need his sneer atop theirs...
...I've mentioned this before, and I know the cancellations keep trickling in, but I'm going to say it again: The left must stand up for gay and lesbian rights...
...This year a draft Nadar effort is actually going somewhere...
...Nader should stand up and stretch...
...In March, he ran on the Green Partyi ticket in the California primary and worj 20.571 votes, and it looks like he may mount a serious effort in several other states come November...
...He won't let anywhere by being silent—or snide...
...He's no longer the radical he was in his student days, when he got his head bloodied by police while protesting the Vietnam War...
...When a city firefighter distributed vile leaflets condemning homosexuality as evil, Soglin publicly criticized him for doing so...
...These modern-day Torquemadas believe they've got the word of God modemed directly to their computers (what's the e-mail address...
...And one of those things is gay and lesbian rights...
...And so it will be in America, if the far right gets its way...
...they suffer as spouses denied health benefits...
...With the right more virulent than ever, we need someone of Ralph Nader's stature to take on the demagogues, not to dodge them...
...It was a death threat...
...This is not the kind of leadership the left, or America, cries out for...
...If we don't stand up for our friends who are under assault today, who's going to stand up for the rest of us tomorrow...
...They suffer as parents denied custody of their children...
...His silence is, to say the least, not welcome...
...Nader is speaking* directly about the failure of the "two-paitjj duopoly...
...Here in secular Madison, seven conservative Christian pastors sent Soglin a rather un-Christian letter...
...These clerics have the conceit of all theocrats: that their line to the Lord serves as the executioner's noose...
...Nader refuses to point out the ugliness or the right's social agenda...
...I went to work for him ten days after I graduated from college, and four years ago I threw myself into an un| successful effort to draft Nader for Presi dent...
...But Nader was worse than silent on the issue of gav and lesbian rights...
...That's a real shame...
...This brought on the wrath of the reactionaries...
...He was downright dismissive...
...They gave Soglin, who's Jewish, the following choice: Convert to Christianity, repent your views on gay rights, or else "God, somehow, supernaturally, will remove you from office...
...So it was during the Crusades...
...It's the moral thing to do, first and foremost...
...Asked by Safireil he endorses same-sex marriage, Nader responded: "Not interested in gonadal politics...
...So it was in the Ayatollah's Iran...
...On the surface, tiis brings him closer to Pat Buchanan &)i Ross Perot—not the rest of us...
...Along with abortion providers, gays and lesbians are the chief infidels in the right's holy war...
...The letter from the pastors was no polite disagreement on a public-policy issue...
...Our gay brothers and our lesbian sisters have as strong a claim on liberty as do the rest of us...
Vol. 60 • May 1996 • No. 5
