Tough Choices in Bush Country
Press Action
Tuesday, March 16, 2004
http://www.pressaction.com/news/weblog/full_article/castleman03162004/
By Tom Castleman
I like Ralph Nader. Can’t help it. He’s a man of principles that I understand as right and noble. A rebel who thumbs his nose at the corporate world order and won’t fall in line with those who give up their principles for the sake of “winning.” I don’t like the president, George W. Bush, because I believe he’s a man of little intellectual character and relies mainly on religious conviction -and a lot of yes men and women -to get the job done. He proves if you’re a simply average boy or girl with a lot of money, you too might grow up to be president.
As Nader made campaign stops in my adopted hometown of Houston last month, extending his hand to Texas Democrats and shaking his fist at the business establishment, I found myself in a real predicament. Nader’s rhetoric rings true to my populist, liberal, anti-corporate roots, which are running especially deep these days with the likes of Enron and WorldCom. I was caught up in his fervor and was ready to vote for him after his brief visit here, even if he only won a little more than two percent of the Texas vote in 2000.
But, then, something weird happened. My enthusiasm for Nader started to wane because these 10 years in Texas have changed me. Even though he is an incredibly average former governor and his smirking, arrogant ways piss me off something awful most of the time, George W. is my former governor and I like his stand on terrorism and foreign policy. I suddenly realized I was caught between two rather extreme choices for president.
At first I thought I was looking at a major, almost schizophrenic dilemma -a long drawn out mental exercise along the long drawn out campaign trail. A choice of two extremes: Nader, who harkens to my conscience to strive for a better world through equality and justice; or Bush, whose chest-beating mantra of spreading good and righteousness in the world and ridding it of evil while riding on the back of the military-industrial machine makes me want to stand up and sing “God Bless America.”
On some reflection, though, I think I’ve figured it out. I’m starting to see now, after making it to 46 and riding out a pretty comfortable middle class life, I just might be getting a little conscience in Bush Country.
While in Houston, Nader spoke to a crowd of about 900 at the University of Houston. He said: “What we’re seeing in Iraq is an amalgam of government and corporate institutions where it’s very difficult to distinguish where one begins and the other ends.” And Bush fits right into this amalgamation of the government as business. Nader compared him more to a corporation than a president.
Being a reformed hillbilly from the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, I come from a long line of Democrats who would choke on their squirrel sandwiches if they knew I was even considering voting for George W. Frankly, I’m feeling a little sickened myself by my rejection of my Democrats this election.
But during his visit to Houston, Nader said the Democrats have “lost their soul. They need to be challenged and prodded.” He added that Texas is a top priority for his campaign this year because Democrats have all but abandoned the state.
The only way a Democrat would win this state is if Lyndon Johnson rose from the grave and called a special election. Even then, Texas Republicans would probably cry foul and get the Supreme Court to nullify the presidential resurrection!
Because Texas is Bush Country in which the president got 59 percent of the state’s vote in 2000, the Democrats probably won’t spend much money or time campaigning here this election season. Nader said that would create a void among populists who have a long tradition in Texas. “That’s a vacuum we will be happy to fill,” Nader said.
And then I started to think about it: Voting for the Democratic Muppet with a pituitary problem -John Kerry -is pretty much not the answer for me (using geography and demographics as an excuse). He has no chance of winning in the Lone Star State. So I am left with casting a vote of conscience for Nader or going with the president, whose domestic and environmental policies and near religious extremism almost scare me but whose willingness to take the fight to the terrorists I thought I liked.
It’s a tough choice, one that I have been pondering since Nader announced a month ago that he would make a run for the presidency. And where I stand now may change down the campaign trail. But if anybody asks me today, I will tell them that I am choosing Nader in November.
I recognize that Nader fills the vacuum in my conscience. Hopefully, he’d change this country’s course and stop playing into the hands of these so-called terrorists. Why feed their fanaticism with bullets and bombs that fuel their holy war? As long as we favor the “haves” in the Middle East and ignore the “have-nots,” countless generations from the region will continue to hate and want to kill us in the name of religion. I think Nader understands that and would work to include everybody in America’s good will.
Tom Castleman lives in Houston.