Nov 17 2008
Empire Notes are weekly commentaries filed by Rahul Mahajan, author of Full Spectrum Dominance and The New Crusade. Today’s commentary is called “Only in America”
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I think Mr. Mahajan should practice what he preaches. For some reason, Mr. Mahajan keeps critiquing Ralph Nader and tearing him apart after the end of the election campaign. Aren’t there more relevant issues that he could tackle or critique? If he is troubled with Nader’s “Uncle Tom” comments, shouldn’t he be also troubled by Obama’s racist comments during his AIPAC talk? Mr. Obama said that “the identity of Israel as a Jewish state must be maintained”. What if these same words were said about America: “America’s identity as a white state should be maintained”? Isn’t that a more troubling comment to Mr. Mahajan? After all, Nader is insignificant in today’s politics but Obama is our next president and his words are worth of more scrutiny that that of Nader’s.
Thanks,
Ani
Really agree with what he is saying about Nader. My thoughts exactly. Loved this segment of Uprising this morning!
I usually listen with interest and agreement to Rahul Mahajan’s “Empire Notes,†but his Nov. 17 commentary on Ralph Nader was just as off-base as Nader’s “Uncle Tom†comment.
Indeed Nader’s comment was a mistake, but it was a mistake only in the sense that Nader should have realized the term would be considered racist because 1) its context has been forgotten and 2) context is not communicable on national television. “Unlce Tom†is in no way a racist term, unless of course our political correctness has become so corrective that it is now racist to refer to the color of a person’s skin.
An Uncle Tom is a black slave who does not help the abolition of slavery, to help his or her own condition, per the main enslaved character of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel “Uncle Tom’s Cabin.†So the term is no more racist than Stowe’s own book is racist–for among other things the narrative quite blatantly urges that blacks who say “yes sir, no sir†to the white slaveholder must do better for their own cause despite the most terrible risks of torture and death.
But Mahajan, instead of agreeing that Nader’s points on Obama’s tendency to swing Right are valid and worrisome, employs an ad hominem tactic like that of so many other liberals and conservatives who over the years have come to hate (and yes, “hate†is not an exaggeration) Nader and label him a “solipsist,†where the unyielding demand for justice is considered “self-righteous,” etc.
Mahajan sounds here like another supposed progressive who still deems Nader guilty for taking votes from capitulating Democrats.
No doubt Nader is not the only voice of the left, as Mahajan notes, but he is the only voice of the left who can reach national audiences and who can create enough voter turnout to scare Democratic candidates Leftward. He is one of few political figures who is trying to hold Obama accountable, and thereby he is holding Obama voters accountable and opening more of their eyes (hopefully) to Obama’s faults. This is no irrelevant thing.
Will every critic of President Obama be labelled a racist? In America it’s a good label to discredit someone, second only to “anti-Semite.”
The question is–will Obama seek better ways of doing things? Or will he try to find new defenses for doing things in the same way? The people want change, not newer arguments that there shouldn’t be change.
u.cabineer
This commentary proves what people, like Nader, have said about the state of the left for decades. Fake outrage on a comment gets all kinds of attention, while real issues raised by McKinney and Nader, and even Ron Paul from the right, get no traction. The American left is useless, weak, elitist, and will get exactly what they deserve from Obama: Swift kick in the groin. If demand nothing you will get nothing. Instead of focusing on the real issue of Nader’s comment, which has already been answered as an emphatic yes to corporate power, your dumb ass focuses on the wrong part. You should look in the mirror when looking for someone who has proven their worthlessness. Obama has not even made a peep as a new wave of looting of the treasury hits the country. But I guess it is more important to sit around searching for perceives slights to the new Emperor of the left. Clinton neutralized the Left while promoting the most corporate agenda of any President. Obama will do the same. Power concedes nothing, never has never will. I suddenly lost any desire to listen to your show. It’s been Real…
Muhajan needs to get off his politically correct high horse. He says Nader should have chosen his words more carefully. Bullshit.
That’s the problem. While everyone wastes time carefully choosing words, the powers that we try so hard not to offend are wreaking havoc.
As a black person, I am not the least offended by Nader’s comments. His past and current record on issues affecting blacks and the nation in general far outweigh any not so carefully chosen words he uses. Those of us minorities who didn’t drink the Obama kool-aid have the same feelings about “Change/Hope Man” whose team of domestic and foreign advisors/potential cabinet picks, along with his flip flopping and carefully chosen rhetoric show Nader’s comments ain’t too far off the mark.
Words may offend some but sticks and stones, i.e., warmongering, enabling corporate greed, job losses, prison revolving door, and a host of other problems hurt far more people.
I am beyond sick of pious, paternalistic liberals such as Mahajan. They think they are helping black folks with their P.C. vigilance. But they are as big an obstacle to black progress as right wing zealots and bigots when they coddle instead of call out wayward left leaning polticians who continually work against our interests.
Black people have survived much and a few ill chosen words won’t kill anyone. Keeping black soldiers in wars, shipping jobs out of the country that provide working/middle class wages, continuing the healthcare crisis with more bureaucratic red tape and substandard care – you get the picture – however, will hurt/maim/kill far more people of every race.
The left never misses a second to condemn Ralph Nader but always misses opportunities to hold its Democratic plantation masters accountable for their aiding/abetting of right wing evildoings.
If Nader’s political stature is diminished, it’s because of the hypocritical, spineless left who instead of embracing and supporting candidates such as Nader, McKinney, and Kucinich with real progressive records, continue to prop up whatever corporate puppet the Democrats tell them to support.
Nader tells the truth and has the record to back it up. If the masses had the opportunity to hear Nader’s message 24/7 like they do with politicians from the two-party oligarchy, he’d be in the White House by now – or at least the Dems and even Repubs would have the public on their asses more to work in the people’s interests.
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