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the breakfast table
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from: Ralph Nader
to: James Fallows

On the Greens' Back

Posted Tuesday, April 30, 2002, at 4:10 PM ET

Who are these people?

Good afternoon, Jim,

Your recollection of times past, when many young college and graduate students came to Washington to investigate corporate and government wrongdoing and write books from their research that received wide notice and brought about significant changes, brings back fond memories. One is that you, at barely the age of 21, wrote one of the best books ever under our umbrella called The Water Lords—on the serious polluters of the Savannah River.

One point, just one point (for more you and others can read my book Crashing the Party) on Election 2000. If the selective what-if game is to be played, the Greens can take credit for sending Maria Cantwell to the U.S. Senate—thereby giving the Democrats a 50-50 split and setting the stage for Sen. Jeffords' switch to Independent and tipping the control of the Senate to the Democrats in June 2001. Sen. Cantwell won over the incumbent, Sen. Gorton, by a mere 2,300 votes, and, absent a Green senatorial candidate, my 103,000 votes went heavily for Cantwell, in part because of their deep aversion to Gorton's votes and policies. Sen. Harry Reid told us in his office that he and Cantwell were "very well aware" of the Green spillover vote.

On today's news—perhaps one reason for the Catholic pedophilia story being largely "an American rather than a worldwide scandal," as you out it, is that civil litigation—yes, the tort system—took the issue to a public court and made public the abuses. It was not the criminal laws, which are enforced by the states, but the personal injury laws, which are invoked by the plaintiff—victim—that started the engines of justice. The tort-feasors lobby needs to take note of that the next time they try to get laws passed that restrict the access to the courts of wrongfully injured Americans—a persistent effort of these lobbyists that they have given the Orwellian term "tort reform."

Your guess that a "celibate, all-male priesthood will seem as foggily antique as fish on Friday does now" seems itself to be a major leap of faith. Rome decides such matters, and resistance is strong at the Vatican against allowing priests to marry. It would take a break from the church on the part of cardinals in the United States to defy such doctrine. Not likely.

Richard Cohen's piece is well-taken and well-reasoned. If criticizing the Israeli government is seen by that government's partisans as "anti-Semitic," there must be half of the Israelis in that category. It is remarkable how much more freedom there is in Israel to criticize that government's practices—inside the Knesset (as compared with the Congress), inside Israeli human rights and veterans' groups than is the case in the United States. About three weeks ago, some 15,000 Israeli peace advocates marched together with the speaker of the Knesset and other notables in Israel while the invasion was ongoing. That is the equivalent of over 750,000 marching in this country (population ratio), yet it received very little coverage in the U.S. media.

Whenever I read, as you did in the New York Times today, about spiraling health-industry prices, I recall the General Accounting Office report in 1992 that estimated that 10 percent of health-care costs goes down the drain due to billing fraud and abuse. This year, 10 percent will amount to about $130 billion dollars. This system is broken, and there are studies and reports halfway to the moon documenting the waste, redundancy, fraud, crimes, deception, and malpractice. Of course, the United States, 52 years after President Truman sent his universal health-insurance proposal to a recalcitrant Congress, should join all other Western democracies (and some Third World countries) and provide full Medicare for everyone, including an emphasis on prevention of disease and trauma. Americans spent 500 million citizen hours watching the NFL Superbowl one afternoon/evening. That amount of citizen time in key congressional districts, well-organized for a year, would bring us that long overdue legislation, provided that there are also 1,000 full-time organizers back in those districts. Recall, about 120 members of the House were for universal health insurance (called "single payer") in 1993, with very few organized demands from back home. Matters have reached worse levels now, and the number of uninsured Americans keeps climbing—millions more than in 1993.

Over to you, Jim.

the breakfast table
entries
12345678910
from: Ralph Nader
to: James Fallows

On the Greens' Back

Posted Tuesday, April 30, 2002, at 4:10 PM ET
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James Fallows is national correspondent for the Atlantic Monthly and author, most recently, of Free Flight. Ralph Nader, a consumer advocate, is author of Crashing the Party.
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Notes From The Fray Editor:

Fray stars were out in force for this "Breakfast Table," proving that there's still a lot of strong feeling about Ralph Nader and the 2000 election. A post from the Ghost here, one from Kassandra here, and BML's contribution, here, all produced good threads (and some good arguments), as did Dilan Esper's contribution, below. RonK (of Seattle…) wasn't taking any prisoners on the subject of that Senator from Washington State, and other matters.

There's a nice post on trains from Lee, and the Fray team agrees with him that the train ride from Portland to Seattle is a winner: and that the trains go so slowly to those of us who have lived with European speeds. Publius makes the point that it is cars and trucks that did for the railway system, not airplanes.

Many many readers had comments on lawsuits. The problem is contingency fees says Trebor Ecilef. Econ Rocky's view is that "the largest legal cost is the loss of the business that is not done. By this I mean opportunities are missed because of perceived risks caused by the uncertainty of regulation and legal awards that could potentially be given." History Guy agrees with the Gerard Winstanley below: "Well over 90% of all lawsuits today, and I'd bet also in 1830, are debt collection actions…. The total number of cases has nothing to do with the impact of litigation on the economy." Leonard asks: If campaign finance reform kicks in and really does change the way money is raised in politics, will the Dems start to distance themselves from trial lawyers?...making tort reform more likely."


Reader Comments From The Fray:

There seems to me to be something tremendously anti-democratic about those who, like James Fallows, blame Ralph Nader for Gore's loss in the election. Essentially, that argument must rest on some sort of duty Nader has to stay out of the race so as to force liberal voters who didn't like Gore and didn't think he would be a good President to vote for him anyway.

I think it is quite arrogant of Fallows and other Gore supporters to say that liberals shouldn't have the opportunity to choose a presidential candidate who reflects their views. Fallows has his own vote to cast in the Presidential election; he doesn't have the right to dictate how others cast their votes. And if Gore failed to convince Nader voters to vote for Gore instead, that was entirely Gore's fault. And if we are going to cast blame, how about blaming the elites who run the Democratic Party who nominated a presidential candidate who was so weak he couldn't even carry his own state, and folks like Fallows for supporting such a loser?

--Dilan Esper

(To find or answer this post, click here.)

It's deliciously tempting to wonder what would happen if Nader was in office. All the corporate fatcats he'd take the hickory to--it's hard to even know where he'd begin. As obnoxious as America's energy, financial and health care oligarchs may be, however, I don't think society's ready to reach for his brand of problem solving just yet. If and when corrupt corporations and rent-seeking lobbyists become a serious drag on the prosperity and happiness of a majority of the American people, though, he'll be in for a renaissance.

By "serious", incidentally, I mean severe enough to outweigh the inefficiencies, costs, and oppressiveness of strong and intrusive government, which (as anyone but Nader himself could tell you) are quite considerable. I'd say a few more changes in the tax code, combined with 6 or 7 more Enrons would just about do it.

--Thrasymachus

(To find or answer this post, click here.)


It's often said the in the Good Old Days business deals were often made on a handshake, and a man was as good as his word. The first half of this statement is true. The second half is no more true than today. For that reason, the dockets of courts in the 19th century were chock full of "assumpsit" cases, occasioned by failures to fulfill promises (often not sealed with a written contract) to pay or provide goods and services. Because cash was scarce and banknotes constantly devalued or became worthless, even routine transactions were made on credit. So when someone didn't pay for that new stereo-opticon it didn't go to a collection agency: it went to court.

--Gerard Winstanley

(To find or answer this post, click here.)

(5/1)


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