Trump and Nader not 

so opposite          

  

by DC Larson                    

         

Legendary citizens' rights activist Ralph Nader and 

globally influential business titan Donald Trump 

might seem miles apart.

But I believet that in fundamental ways, they are not.

In 2004, I was Nader's paid Iowa coordinator. And in 

2000 and 2008, I volunteered for his third party and 

independent presidential campaigns. I also co -

founded the Iowa Green Party and served as its 

state Media Coordinator. I left the Greens in 2004 

to work for the independent Nader campaign.

I am proud of those efforts to open up the democratic 

process to more ideologically diverse citizen 

representation. 

Today, I support Republican nomination candidate Donald 

Trump. I will be caucusing for him here in Iowa, and only recently 

changed my registration from "independent" to "Republi -

can" for that very purpose.

I am motivated by the same reverence for long -

established Constitutional principles and safeguards 

that inspired my earlier toil for Nader. 

(Ralph Nader appreciates Trump's potential to disrupt the 

two-party status quo, I understand, though he himself 

does not endorse Trump's candidacy. Both men decry a 

major party structure that seeks through rule manipu -

lations and outright anti-voter actions to stifle genuine, 

meaningful citizen participation in government -- more on 

that, later. )

In advocating their causes, Nader and Trump each 

depend on the same Constitution as legal flooring. Both 

cite established Constitutional principles like national 

sovereignty and defending citizen liberty. 

Nader opposed the authority wielded by the World Trade 

Organization, that globally-oppressive, shadowy, and 

democratically unaccountable group that was empowered 

to rule over nations' locally passed environmental and 

workplace laws. 

Nader had for decades defended citizens against predatory 

corporate practices. He later turned that same public-interest 

spotlight on the major parties' indifference to citizen welfare and 

their lock on the electoral process. That last instantly enraged 

a Democrat Party that had long celebrated him. The icon was 

immediately ostracized, even falsely blamed for the 2000 

election's outcome.

Then, following the 2004 election, it was revealed that an 

under the table, state-by-state 'Stop Nader' scheme had 

been cooked up by Democrats at the national level. Across 

the country (including here in Iowa), nuisance suits were 

filed challenging Nader's ballot access. Their actual purpose 

was to drain his campaign of both funds and energies, 

and to stifle his independent voice.

We see today similar anti-public interest skullduggery as 

fading GOP dinosaurs and their news media cohorts join 

forces to kneecap not only Trump but his supporters and the 

very notion of stepping out of status quo formation.

Donald Trump challenges the ruling beltway party /

mainstream media machine that wheezes its dusty 

dictums at distant remove from actual American 

citizens. For evidence of that yawning divide, consider 

that national polls uniformly place Trump far ahead of 

his competitors despite the political press belittling and 

even vilifying Trump and his supporters at every 

opportunity.

Indeed, in reading recently of the establishment GOP 

(John Sununu, Bill Kristol, George Will, South Carolina 

Governor Nikki Haley) mounting attacks on the populist 

Trump campaign, and even organizing efforts to 

challenge his ballot status in some states, I am 

reminded of the Democrats' 2004 anti-Nader 

efforts.

One today reads of state Republican organizations 

seeking to challenge Trump's ballot status, and of the 

Virginia GOP effort to require primary voters to sign 

party 'loyalty oaths.' 

In his 2002 "Crashing the Party," Nader wrote, "In no 

Western democracy are the hurdles for candidates to 

access the ballot anywhere near as high as ours." 

For his part, Trump tweeted recently of the Virginia anti -

voter shenanigans, "It begins. Republican Party of 

Virginia, controlled by the RNC, is working hard to disallow 

independent, unaffiliated, and new voters. BAD!"

Two other parallels: Both Nader and Trump opposed the 
George W. Bush administration's Iraq invasion. (I
was part of a pre-invasion bus caravan to Washington, DC
that joined some half-million marching through that city, 
urging against invasion.)

And each man has decried the unpatriotic motives that

lead American corporations' to relocate in foreign lands. 

Now, I have evolved a bit since my time working for 

Ralph Nader. While I still hold firm to the ideals that 

drove me, I've come to appreciate that without vigorously 

maintained and fiscally blooming national sovereignty, 

desired advancements are without guarantee. 

I understand, too, that national patriotism is not a 

negative, but a natural, healthy component of the public 

interest. Pride in one's country and concern for those 

genuinely in need are not at all mutually exclusive. 

It is entirely appropriate for Americans to be proud of 

national accomplishments, strengths, and ideals. To see 

the glass as half full and not half empty. To acknowledge 

historic mistakes and shortcomings, but to remember 

that such are deviations from our shared noble arc, and 

hardly define us. 

And that for any justice for American citizens to be 

meaningful, citizenship status must be clearly, legally 

defined, and not simply doled out indiscriminately.

America has traditionally been a force for justice in the 

world, a beacon of light. If it were otherwise, millions 

would not seek to live here. 

Donald Trump wants to return our country to a global 

position of unassailable strength and respect. And I will 

be as proud caucusing for him as I was endeavoring for 

Nader.

Formerly of Marshalltown, Waterloo's DC (David) Larson writes 

the retro-styled Eddie Atomic Space Adventure series. He was 

on the staffs of Pin Up America and Rockabilly magazines, and 

accumulated freelance credits including Counterpunch, Goldmine, 

USA Today, Daily Caller, No Depression, the Huffington Post, and 

American Thinker.

This essay appeared in other forms in Iowa papers the Marshalltown

Times-Republican and Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier, as well as on
the author's political blog, AmericanSceneMagazine,blogspot.com.