Uncle Tom redux (with full transcript!)

Ralph Nader posted a response to the Uncle Tom brouhaha on his web site:

Anyone who has worked in the areas of civil rights, economic justice, and health and safety over the decades knows that whenever minority candidates are elected to legislative offices, their minority constituents remain wary regarding whether the entrenched power structures are affecting these self-avowed representatives, or whether the reverse is occurring – that is, they are standing up to the corporate supremacists. All political pioneers have to answer this question as they move into these positions of trust. Unfortunately, as many people of color – struggling through the day in often desperate circumstances – know from the lessons of history, there are more than a few times when they are let down by a surrender to the rich and powerful – an obeisance that has its vernacular. Let us all hope that this will not happen. Tens of millions of Americans await what actually does happen. Everyone, as alert citizens, should strive to make sure that courses of action are taken that put people first and finally make corporations our servants and not our masters.

"An obeisance that has its vernacular"?  Dude is hilarious.

There's also a link to the full audio of the KTRH interview.  And since the transcript is apparently unavailable on the Internets at the moment, I'm going to be a standup guy and transcribe it myself (below the fold).  Did you hear that, Google?  THE FULL TRANSCRIPT OF THE INFAMOUS NADER "UNCLE TOM" INTERVIEW IS AVAILABLE HERE.  Index away, baby!

You know what really steams my clams about all this?  If Obama hadn't given every sign that he's going to be such a complete and total Uncle Tom for the giant corporations who are running America into the ground, so that Nader was forced to call him out in exactly those terms, it would have saved me a lot of hassle.

*** TRANSCRIPT ***

KTRH: Good morning Mr. Nader, thanks for being here.

Nader: Good morning, <mumblename>.

KTRH: By day's end, will we know who's going to be occupying the White House?

Nader: Well, it's going to be no more excuses government.  The Democrats will probably landslide.  We hope to get millions of votes and set a write-in record in Texas which has very high hurdles for third parties to get on the ballot.  That has to be reformed.

But you know, the Democrats for years have been blaming the Republicans for not letting them do this, and blocking them, do that.  Well they're going to control the Congress and the White House.  No more excuses, no more 63 years more delay, to deal with the 100 million poor people in this country who work their heads off for pennies, to get energy independence, deficits down, and cracking down on the greed in Wall Street and that horrific bailout which Nader-Gonzalez opposed from the get-go and Obama and McCain supported.  And of course health care.

All these have been delayed 63 years.  People in Western Europe have abolished in effect poverty as we know it, they've got universal health care, decent wages, decent pensions, paid maternity leave, paid family sick leave, decent day care, decent public transit.  Out of the rubble of World War II.  They've got it in those Western European countries.  And we don't have any of that by law for all our people.

So Obama's raised a lot of expectations.  He's raised more money from corporate and Wall Street interests than McCain—first time any Democratic nominee has achieved that.  And so why are these big corporations investing in Obama?  Because he is their man.  And that's the challenge.  He's raised public expectations for the people, and he's raised record money from the corporate interests who don't want any change and are not advocates of hope.

KTRH: So Mr. Nader, I take it from what you're saying that you think he's bitten off more than he can chew.

Nader: Much more.  He has raised expectations so high and his record as a Senator and as a campaigner has not really been to stand for labor, to stand to give the poor a break, to stand for consumer protection, for getting out of Iraq really, not leaving 50000 soldiers and military bases there.

There's no shift of power from the few to the many, which is so badly needed in this corporate government of ours in Washington, D.C., in the scenario of Barack Obama.  I mean, to put it very simply, he is our first African-American president, or he will be.  And we wish him well. But his choice, basically, is whether he’s going to be Uncle Sam for the people of this country, or Uncle Tom for the giant corporations who are running America into the ground.

KTRH: Third party candidate and Independent Ralph Nader, thanks very much for being with us this morning on election day.

Comments

[cemmcs]

He's raised public expectations for the people, and he's raised record money from the corporate interests who don't want any change and are not advocates of hope.

That really hits the nail on the head, doesn't it?

[SteveB]

I thinks its a little unfair to corporate interests to claim that they're "not advocates of hope." Why, they'll sell you just as much hope as you're willing to buy! Now in the large economy size!

[Donald Johnson]

Makes me wish I hadn't conceded on the undesirability of using the phrase "Uncle Tom" at another blog when this came up--though I still think it's unwise for the reasons you gave earlier.

[Duncan]

I'm working on a blog post about Proposition 8, and found this interesting passage in Randy Shilts's The Mayor of Castro Street, pages 334-5. Milk's successor Harry Britt startled reporters by refusing to apologize for the riots that responded to the manslaughter (instead of murder) conviction of Harvey Milk's assassin Dan White:

"Harvey Milk's people do not have anything to apologize for," Harry Britt told a gaggle of reporters after the Feinstein meeting. "Now the society is going to have to deal with us not as nice little fairies who have hairdressing salons, but as people capable of violence. We're not going to put up with Dan Whites anymore." The reporters were shocked that a public official would condone violence. Britt was shocked they would expect anything else. The journalists asked if such a riot would not set back the gay movement. "No one has ever accepted us," Britt snapped. "What sets a movement back is not violence. What sets us back is Uncle Toms."

[John Caruso]

I think we need a new phrase to keep sensitive people happy. Perhaps we should say: see, his behavior is like that of Tom, the sibling of my father.

[Duncan]

Or maybe, in honor of the Reconquista, Tio Tomas.

[John Caruso]

I like it!