post-Nader left

I don't think this has been posted yet. A Salon interview with the author of "Letters to a Young Activist." It's got good stuff about bringing the party together for the 2004 election:


Q: I'm wondering if there's not a deeper ideological difference between the conservatives and liberals that would make the left carnivorous and the right not.

A: Yes, distrust of authority. Which is obviously not a problem for the right, because they're authoritarian. I think it's about that simple.

Q: Let's say the Democratic Party does find a way to enfold the Greens, Green issues. What does a post-Nader left look like?

A: First of all, it's ecumenical. A post-Nader left would have to incorporate hardheaded people of different ethnicities, regions, some absolutely opposed to the war in Iraq, some opposed to certain aspects only. Everyone who was committed to rising above the circular firing squad, including on domestic issues.

Some would be deficit hawks, some would want socialized medicine. It would have to include people from major organizations, certainly the AFL-CIO and NAACP. It would include people who recognize that to do successful politics in Missouri, let alone Alabama, is going to require a different political orientation than doing it in Vermont or Massachusetts. But there would have to be a rock-bottom underpinning that the privatizing, rightwing, anti-feminist, anti-gay attitudes of the Republicans are wrong. And a new center would have to form, not just a political center but a center of energy in which the corporate church and the corporate right don't get to rule. It's a tall order, but I think a necessary one.

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More:

http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2003/07/19/gitlin/index.html