Unstoppable

by Ralph Nader

  People receive motivation to continue and build if their pleas or demands are being heard by their fellow citizens. The demonstrators protesting outside the Democratic Party’s national convention of 1968 in Chicago were roaring, “The whole world is watching,” as the police set upon them. Well, that was the high mark of coverage by such mass corporate media—television, radio, and press—of dissenting street demonstrations. Somewhere high up in the skyscrapers, where decisions for reporting on outside political conventions and elsewhere are made, the men around the table acted in a way that meant, “Yeah, well, that’s not going to happen again.”

  But 1968 was a long time ago, and the media has many more faces than in the days when there were only three national TV networks reaching everybody who chose to watch. At this point, convergent initiatives have to be particularly adept in moving, for what it’s worth, through the fractured social media as well as in the traditional media, which still hold the greatest influence on decision-makers. Convergers have to use crisper, sharper words to make their points. They need to peacefully picket and demonstrate in the grand American tradition, not just to get attention but to enlarge their own community solidarities and laser-beam concentrations. Importantly, they must go into the dens of the legislators and the agencies of the executive branch of government to make known personally and directly their goals, and be willing to file serious lawsuits where merited.

  The operational fuel for these efforts is money. Justice needs money; it always has in American history, whether for abolition of slavery and early women’s rights movements or the civil rights and environmental drives of our generation. Far less than 1 percent of the affluent in today’s America can put convergence on a fast track. Convergence has to be a uniquely appealing strategy to people of exceptional wealth, especially in their later years, when they have a different perspective on their own legacy. Granted, donated money can dilute, control, and even corrupt. But received with the requisite alertness and clear understanding, money can have a greatly enhanced effect in overcoming the naysayers and skeptics about anything getting done in our gridlocked country. So call, write, and meet them one on one or at group dinners. Prepare to reach only a few of them. That will be more than enough to get the train on the tracks for a sustained journey.

  A sense of division of labor among convergers is enhancing. Reaching out to find the wealthy supporters needs traits associated with extroverts: sociability and gregariousness coupled with calmness and deliberation. For other functions, such as persuading media or legislators, or preparing arguments and briefs, different personalities come into play. That convergers often come with substantial experience in public advocacy does not obviate these obvious points too often ignored. Experience, it should be noted, can be antithetical to innovative, bold thinking that breaks new ground and invites new talents to emerge from settled personalities. Convergence is not for the timid. Convergence is for pioneers breaking out of cultural ruts to move to the higher planes of human agreements and achievements.

  Acknowledgments

  My thanks to the individuals who consented to the interviews cited throughout the book. Thank you to Jim Fiest for his thoughtful suggestions. I am grateful to John Richard and his capable associates Monica Giannone and Katherine Raymond, who went through the numerous processes set forth by the diligent editors at Nation Books, in particular Carl Bromley, before Unstoppable could pop out of the printing presses toward a broad-based readership.

  Special thanks to the Intercollegiate Studies Institute (ISI) for keeping Who Owns America? A New Declaration of Independence, co-edited by Allen Tate and Herbert Agar, and so many other works by thoughtful conservatives in print. For a list of ISI publications visit http://isibooks.org/.

  Notes

  Introduction

  1. Out of the 6,312 votes, 3,258 were cast by Republicans, 3,054 by Democrats. Federal Elections 92: Election Results for the U.S. President, the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives (Washington, DC: Federal Election Commission, 1993), http://www.fec.gov/pubrec/fe1992/federalelections92.pdf.

  2. Aaron Bernstein, Michael Arndt, Wendy Zellner, and Peter Coy, “Too Much Corporate Power?” Bloomberg Businessweek, September 11, 2000.

  Chapter 1

  1. Michael Ganley, “Both Sides Seeking Final Votes on Clinch River,” Environmental and Energy Study Conference Update, September 27, 1983, 8, http://digitalcollections.library.cmu.edu/awweb/awarchive?type=file&item=430733.

  2. Paul Tsongas, “Deep-Sixing Clinch River,” Christian Science Monitor, March 18, 1983, http://www.csmonitor.com/1983/0318/031830.html/(pag)/e2.

  3. Michael Ganley, “Both Sides Seeking Final Votes on Clinch River,” Environmental and Energy Study Conference Update, September 27, 1983, 8, http://digitalcollections.library.cmu.edu/awweb/awarchive?type=file&item=430733; Congress Watch and Rural America are accounted for in “On Behalf of the Taxpayers Coalition Against Clinch River,” letter to Committee on Science and Technology, “Fiscal Year 1984 Department of Energy Authorization: Nuclear Fission R&D and Waste Management,” US House of Representatives, 1984.

  4. The sources for the $8.8 billion figure are Judith Miller, “Report Doubles Estimate of Breeder Reactor’s Cost,” New York Times, September 24, 1982, and Interim Report on GAO’s Review of the Total Cost Estimate for the Clinch River Breeder Reactor Project, General Accounting Office, EMD-82-131, September 23, 1982; the source for the $5.3 billion to $9 billion range is “Energy and Environment,” Los Angeles Times, September 16, 1982, SD2.

  5. “Clinch River Breeder Reactor Project Dies in Congress,” Wall Street Journal, October 27, 1983.

  6. Henry Scammell, Giantkillers: The Team and the Law That Help Whistle-Blowers Recover America’s Stolen Billions (New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 2004), 278.

  7. Fraud Statistics – Overview, October 1, 1987–September 30, 2011,” Civil Division, US Department of Justice, http://www.taf.org/DoJ-fraud-stats-FY2011.pdf.

  8. Interview with Bruce Fein on October 31, 2013, verifying facts.

  9. Franklin D. Roosevelt, “Message to Congress on Curbing Monopolies,” April 29, 1938, The American Presidency Project, http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=15637.

  10. Peter Schweizer interview on The Sean Hannity Show, Fox News, April 4, 2013, http://www.foxnews.com/on-air/hannity/2013/04/08/boomtown-2-business-food-stamps.

  11. George F. Will, “Rending Steel and Siren Cry Accompany Today’s Song,” The Sun, A19, April 14, 1977.

  12. “Nader Says Gaming Targets Children,” Las Vegas Review-Journal, June 13, 1998; “Making Parents Irrelevant,” Nader Page, October 27, 1999, http://nader.org/1999/10/27/making-parents-irrelevant.

  13. Republican Party of Texas Platform, 2002, 16, http://www.yuricareport.com/Dominionism/RPTPlatform2002.pdf.

  14. Aldous Huxley, “A Note on Dogma,” in Proper Studies (London: Chatto & Windus, 1927).

  15. Mike Duke’s pay was $23.15 million in 2012. Scott DeCarlo, “Gravity-Defying CEO Pay,” Forbes, April 4, 2012, http://www.forbes.com/lists/2012/12/ceo-compensation-12_land.html.

  16. Lori Wallach and Michelle Sforza, Whose Trade Organization? Corporate Globalization and the Erosion of Democracy, Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch, October 1999, http://www.citizen.org/publications/publicationredirect.cfm?ID=7081.

  Chapter 2

  1. Robert A. G. Monks, The Emperor’s Nightingale: Restoring the Integrity of the Corporation (Oxford: Capstone, 1998), 13, http://www.ragm.com/libraryFiles/57.pdf.

  2. Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations (New York: Bantam, 2003), 110–111.

  3. Ibid., 257.

  4. Bruce Frohnen, Jeremy Beer, and Jeffrey O. Nelson, eds., American Conservatism: An Encyclopedia (Wilmington, DE: ISI Books, 2006); Murray N. Rothbard, “Ludwig von Mises (1881-1973),” The Ludwig von Mises Institute, July 27, 2005, http://mises.org/daily/1876.

  5. Murray N. Rothbard, “Biography of Ludwig von Mises (1881–1973),” The Ludwig von Mises Institute, http://mises.org/page/1468/Biograph
y-of-Ludwig-von-Mises-18811973.

  6. Rothbard, “Ludwig von Mises.”

  7. Shawn Ritenour, “Biography of Wilhelm Röpke (1899–1966),” The Ludwig von Mises Institute, http://mises.org/page/1461/Biography-of-Wilhelm-Ropke-18991966-Humane-Economist.

  8. Wilhelm Röpke, A Humane Economy: The Social Framework of the Free Market (Chicago: Regnery, 1960), 137, 141, http://library.mises.org/books/Wilhelm%20R246pke/A%20Humane%20Economy.pdf.

  9. George Carlin once said, “The invisible hand of Adam Smith seems to offer an extended middle finger to an awful lot of people.” Gavin Kennedy, “Saturday Snippets,” Adam Smith’s Lost Legacy (blog), January 3, 2009, http://adamsmithslostlegacy.blogspot.com/2009/01/saturday-snippets.html.

  10. Friedrich Hayek, The Road to Serfdom (New York: Routledge Classics, 2005), 125.

  11. Frank S. Meyer, In Defense of Freedom: A Conservative Credo, (Chicago: Regnery, 1962), 9.

  12. Russell Kirk, The Conservative Mind: From Burke to Eliot, 7th rev. ed. (Washington, DC: Regnery, 1986), 490.

  13. Peter Viereck, Conservatism Revisited: The Revolt Against Ideology, 1815–1949 (New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction, 2005), 82.

  14. Ibid., 142.

  15. David Brooks, “Going Home Again,” New York Times, December 29, 2011, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/30/opinion/going-home-again.html; Michael Gerson, “Why Reform Conservatism Deserves a Chance,” Washington Post, April 30, 2012, http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2012-04-30/opinions/35450887_1_tea-party-entitlement-reform-premium-support-system.

  16. Frank I. Luntz, “Five Myths About Conservative Voters,” Washington Post, April 27, 2012. http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/five-myths-about-conservative-voters/2012/04/27/glQAFxr0IT_story.html.

  17. Richard M. Scaife, “An Open Letter to Fellow Conservatives: Why Conservatives Should Oppose Efforts to Defund Planned Parenthood,” n.d., http://www.politico.com/static/PPM153_aaa_040311.html; Marjorie Dannenfelser, “Scaife’s Planned Parenthood Arguments Fall on Deaf Ears,” http://www.redstate.com/mdannenfelser/2011/04/05/scaifes-planned-parenthood-arguments-fall-on-deaf-ears.

  18. Alan Simpson, “Why the GOP Should Support Publicly Funded Campaigns,” Washington Post, May 05, 2011, http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2011-05-05/opinions/35233097_1_campaign-finance-public-funds-campaign-money; Ryan Grim, “Alan Simpson Attacks AARP, Says Social Security Is ‘Not a Retirement Program,’” Huffington Post, May 9, 2006, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/06/alan-simpson-aarp-social-security-retirement-program_n_858738.html.

  19. Fareed Zakaria, “Why Defense Spending Should Be Cut,” Washington Post, August 3, 2011, http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2011-08-03/opinions/35270749_1_defense-budget-defense-cuts-defense-expenditures.

  20. Ronald McKinnon, “The Conservative Case for a Wealth Tax,” Wall Street Journal, January 9, 2012, http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052970203462304577139232881346686.

  21. Jeffrey Rosen, “Review of ‘Against Interpretation: Cosmic Constitutional Theory,’ by J. Harvie Wilkinson III,” New York Times, March 18, 2012, http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/18/books/review/cosmic-constitutional-theory-by-j-harvie-wilkinson-iii.html.

  22. David Brooks, “The Big Society,” New York Times, May 19, 2011, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/20/opinion/20brooks.html.

  23. David Brooks, “The Road Not Taken,” New York Times, July 18, 2011, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/19/opinion/19brooks.html.

  24. Melanie Mason and Matea Gold, “Bachmann’s Had Her Share of Government Aid,” Los Angeles Times, June 26, 2011, http://articles.latimes.com/2011/jun/26/nation/la-na-bachmann-20110626.

  25. David Stockman, The Great Deformation: The Corruption of Capitalism in America (New York: PublicAffairs, 2013); Stephen Moore, “Bow to Our Malefactors,” Wall Street Journal, April 17, 2013, http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424127887324695104578415263903796402.

  26. George Will, “John McCain’s Never-Ending War,” Washington Post, June 22, 2011, http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2011-06-22/opinions/35236055_1_libya-moammar-gaddafi-isolationists; George Will, “Obama’s Lawless War,” Washington Post, June 19, 2011, editorial, p. A21.

  27. Patrick Buchanan, Where the Right Went Wrong: How Neoconservatives Subverted the Reagan Revolution and Hijacked the Bush Presidency (New York: Thomas Dunne / St. Martin’s, 2004).

  28. David A. Fahrenthold, “‘Peace’ May Never Get a Chance in House,” Washington Post, May 20, 2012, A06.

  29. Peter Viereck, Shame and Glory of the Intellectuals: Babbitt Jr. Vs. the Rediscovery of Values (New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction, 1965), 18.

  30. Howard Gardner, Changing Minds: The Art and Science of Changing Our Own and Other People’s Minds (Cambridge, MA: Harvard Business Press), 2004.

  Chapter 3

  1. H. Con. Res. 107, 112th Congress (2011-2012), http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c112:H.CON.RES.107:.

  2. See US Senate, Official Declarations of War by Congress, http://www.senate.gov/pagelayout/history/h_multi_sections_and_teasers/WarDeclarationsbyCongress.htm.

  3. Gore Vidal, Reflections Upon a Sinking Ship (Boston: Little, Brown, 1969), 136.

  4. Lee Ferran, “The $77 Billion Fighter Jets That Have Never Gone to War,” ABC News, April 8, 2011, http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/77-billion-raptor-22-fighter-jets-war/story?id=13322450; Graham Smith, “The Osprey: Good Reviews, But a Costly Program,” National Public Radio, October 24, 2011, http://www.npr.org/2011/10/24/141589693/the-osprey-good-reviews-but-a-costly-program; Lee Ferran, “Multi-Billion Dollar F-35 Fleet Grounded,” ABC News, Feb 22, 2013, http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2013/02/multi-billion-dollar-f-35-fleet-grounded.

  5. “‘Blow the Whistle’ Project: On the Media & GAP Team Up to Identify the ‘Secret Hold’ Senator,” Government Accountability Project, n.d., http://www.whistleblower.org/action-center/secret-hold-campaign.

  6. Kevin Zeese, “After Seven Years of War in Iraq, 8 Years in Afghanistan, Opposition to War Crosses the U.S. Political Spectrum,” thepeoples voice.org, March 17, 2010, http://www.thepeoplesvoice.org/TPV3/Voices.php/2010/03/17/after-seven-years-of-war-in-iraq-8-years.

  7. ComeHomeAmerica.us: Historic and Current Opposition to U.S. Wars and How a Coalition of Citizens from the Political Right and Left Can End American Empire, ed. George D. O’Neill Jr., Paul Buhle, Bill Kauffman, and Kevin Zeese (Lake Wales, FL: Titan, 2010).

  8. “ABA Policy and Report on Domestic Surveillance in the Fight Against Terrorism,” American Bar Association, February 13, 2006, http://apps.americanbar.org/op/greco/memos/aba_house302-0206.pdf; “ABA Policy and Report on Presidential Signing Statements and the Separation of Powers Doctrine,” American Bar Association, August 7–8, 2006, http://www.americanbar.org/content/dam/aba/migrated/leadership/2006/annual/dailyjournal/20060823144113.authcheckdam.pdf.

  9. George Corsetti, “Poletown Revisited,” Counterpunch, September 18–20, 2004, http://www.counterpunch.org/2004/09/18/poletown-revisited; Ralph Nader and Alan Hirsch, “Making Eminent Domain Humane,” Villa-nova Law Review 49, no. 1 (2004): 207.

  Chapter 5

  1. “Overview: FY2014 Defense Budget,” Office of the Under Secretary of Defense, April 2012, 1-1, http://comptroller.defense.gov/defbudget/fy2014/FY2014_Budget_Request_Overview_Book.pdf.

  2. “Audit: U.S. Lost Track of $9 Billion in Iraq Funds,” CNN, January 31, 2005, http://edition.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/meast/01/30/iraq.audit.

  3. “Defense Inventory: Opportunities Exist to Save Billions by Reducing Air Force’s Unneeded Spare Parts Inventory,” GAO-07-232, Government Accountability Office, April 27, 2007, http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-07-232.

  4. Howard Dean, Let’s Drive Over the Fiscal Cliff (video), Big Think, August 14, 2012, http://bigthink.com/videos/howard-dean-lets-drive-over-the-fiscal-cliff.

  5. Robert Pollin, “Making the Federal Minimum Wage a Living Wage,” University of Massachusetts, 2007, http://www.peri.umass.edu/fileadmin/pdf/other_publication_types/Pollin_May_2007_NLF_Column--Making_Federal_Min_Wage_a_Living_Wage.pdf
; “Letter from 100 Economists in Support of $10.50 Minimum Wage,” Time for a Raise, July 2013, http://www.timeforaraise.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/Economists-Petition-for-10.50-Minimum-Wage.pdf.

  6. John Boehner, “A Plan for America’s Job Creators,” Greenville Daily Advocate (NC), June 11, 2011, http://www.johnboehner.com/news/plan-americas-job-creators.

  7. David Corn, “Reagan: Morning After in America: Why the Gipper’s Tax-Cut Guru Is Aghast at Today’s GOP,” Mother Jones, February 4, 2011, http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2011/02/reagan-anniversary-david-stockman.

  8. “Tax Revenue Is at Its Lowest Level Since 1950,” Center for American Progress, June, 2011, http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2011/06/pdf/low_tax_graphs.pdf.

  9. Corn, “Reagan.”

  10. Phillip Inman, “EU Approves Financial Transaction Tax for 11 Eurozone Countries,” Guardian (London), January 22, 2013, http://www.theguardian.com/business/2013/jan/22/eu-approves-financial-transaction-tax-eurozone.

  11. Katrina vanden Heuvel, “Stop Coddling the Big Banks,” Nation, February 12, 2013, http://www.thenation.com/blog/172842/stop-coddling-big-banks.

  12. George Will, “Too Big to Maintain?,” Washington Post, October 12, 2012, http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2012-10-12/opinions/35501753_1_banks-andrew-haldane-systemically-important-financial-institutions.

  13. Ryan Grim, “Dick Durbin: Banks ‘Frankly Own the Place,” Huffington Post, May 30, 2009, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/29/dick-durbin-banks-frankly_n_193010.html.

  14. Ian Wilhelm, “Start-Ups of New Charities See No Slowdown in Bad Economy,” Chronicle of Philanthropy, April 18, 2010, http://philanthropy.com/article/Great-Recession-Generates-Many/65102/.

  15. David McCullough, John Adams (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2001), 53.

  16. Ibid.

  17. Arizona Christian School Tuition Organization v. Win, 131 S. Ct. 1436 (2011).

  18. A link to the full report is available in the press release “What Works? A Review of Auto Insurance Rate Regulation in America,” Consumer Federation of America, November 12, 2013, http://www.consumerfed.org/news/720.