2004 Fall Vol. 1 No. 2

Editor's Note(pdf) Table of Contents

SALIT: QUOTATIONS FROM CHAIRMAN TERRY, PAGE 5

(and some Details about Independent/Republican Partnerships)

There are some moments in politics - a craven and disingenuous business to begin with - when you realize that you've only seen the tip of the Ridiculous iceberg. Jon Stewart, the host of THE DAILY SHOW, hit on one of my favorites a while ago when he notes that George W. Bush was reluctant to use the Situation Room for a meeting with his cabinet following the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Stewart's comment, as I recall, was something like: "If that doesn't count as a SITUATION, I don't know what does. For God's sake, take the plastic off the chairs and use the damned place."

KRESKY: A CONSTITUTIONAL CRISIS, PAGE 11

What is a constitutional crisis? In a democracy a constitutional crisis occurs when the normal mechanisms for resolving social and political conflict are unable to do so.

NEWMAN: POSTMODERNISM AND THE DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION OF 2004, PAGE 20

The official left-wing story on me is that I abandoned the left. The truth is? Well, I don't know. I don't believe in truth anymore. But there is another story. (Indeed, there's always another story.) But this story isn't about me. it's about Ralph Nader and the latest sellout by the American Left to the Democratic Party. Every dues-paying leftist (and there are fewer and fewer of them) can recite the litany of capitulations by progressives to the institutions they presumably most abhor: capitalist institutions in the simplest (simplistic) version of the story; specific societal (bourgeois society) institutions in the more "sophisticated" versions created by "political scientists."

GORE VIDAL'S 1971 CALL TO ARMS, PAGE 33

Ralph Nader can be the next President of the United States

Chicago, Illinois. August 29, 1968. Hubert Humphrey has just been nominated for President. The local police are rioting in the streets. "Maybe," I said to a celebrated leader of the Democratic Party, "the only thing that can save us is a President who isn't a politician. You know, who's onto what's wrong but isn't part of it." Not the most tactful thing to say to a pro, but he saw the point. "Yeah." He bit down hard on his pipe (cigars are bad for the image). "Funny thing, too. I know all these guys pretty well and there isn't one of 'em who could run a small numbers racket, much less the country. Who you got in mind?" At random, I said, "Ralph Nader." The professional politician blinked. "The seat-belts man?" Then he shrugged. "Well, forget it. You can't nominate anybody from outside. The ball game is rigged." That was three years ago.

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