An Open Letter To Ralph Nader:

An Open Letter To Ralph Nader.

Dear Mr. Nader,

Progressives here in northern Virginia have been working to bring about the political changes you advocate and in particular to hold the Pres. and Vice Pres. accountable for their crimes and abuses of power, since before the 2006 elections.

For example, we managed to defeat the incumbent Bush clone and closet
racist George Allen and elect Jim Webb to the Senate.

My question is: Where were you while so many of us around the country have been organizing and lobbying Congress to end the occupation of Iraq and begin impeachment hearings?

For example, the grassroots group I have worked with, Virginians for Peace and Accountability, tried every angle we could think of, including a contact who said he had worked for you at one time, to get you to appear at our town hall forum "Should Impeachment be ON the Table?"

We got no response from you. We did get Lawrence Wilkerson and Barbara Olshansky and Markus Raskin. www.peaceandaccountability.com. But where were you?

Here is my point: If you had bothered to join in over a year ago while we were organizing and lobbying and blogging, we could have built a powerful third party constituency by now that would have the Democrats and Republicans on the run.

Instead, what we have is the old Dem v. Repub style election to work with. But the Democrat Obama has managed to mobilize and energize and wake-up the sleeping voters and disaffected independents. I am ready to work at getting Obama to embrace our issues because he can get the people's support for those issues.

Now you show up, after we have been doing the lifting, without having heard so much as a word of encouragement from you, and you say you are the answer. You show up very, very late to the battle to say you will be the voice of the people, and you want to carry our banner.

I am glad you have decided to join us and help carry the banner, but you will carry your piece of the banner right past the White House. There are many of us who carry signs in front of and around the White House to demonstrate. We already know what that's like.

Yes, you will march around it, but you don't want to go in. It is most unfortunate that your candidacy is intended to avoid getting into the Oval Office. My fear is that by supporting you as a candidate my effectiveness will be equivalent to joining in one more protest march.

I am strongly in favor of protest marches, and I will be joining one March 19th. Come and join us in the marches to end the occupation of Iraq.

But this is an election to defeat a criminal Executive administration that has sought to replace representative government with tyranny. McCain has adopted the Bush/Cheney agenda and seeks to perpetuate the tyranny.

This election is a major part of my defense against the tyrants. This election is the battlefield where I must make my strongest stand. To be most effective, I must go into this election with the will to win.

Although I recognize that my candidate may not ultimately win, I must go into battle believing my candidate is committed to taking the Oath of Office.

And yes, I must believe my candidate will honor the Oath of Office.

Please join us, Mr. Nader. We welcome you to the struggle. But you are too late to take the helm just to steer us away from the presidency and the opportunity of restraining an out of control Executive Branch.

Join the ranks and help us use this election to get more of the people into the political process, and help bring the power of the people to bear, as it should, on our representative system.

Here's a suggestion: Use your fund raising skills to build a 527, and flood the airwaves to educate the voters about the issues.

I am under no illusions. We will be marching in protest and demonstrations past the White House this year and next year and beyond, because that is the nature of government by and for the people. Unfortunately, our right to dissent, like the right of habeas corpus, is at stake in this election.

Bob Crowe

-Alexandria Virginia-