Unstoppable
Book

Unstoppable

The Emerging Left-Right Alliance to Dismantle the Corporate State

Ralph Nader
Nation Books, 2014
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Editorial Rating

7

Qualities

  • Controversial

Recommendation

Consumer advocacy powerhouse and erstwhile presidential candidate Ralph Nader has a keen eye for detecting and dissecting political power. In this bold commentary, he advances an important idea: a bridge between liberal and conservative political ideologies against what he poses as their common enemy, the corporate state. This timely, provocative – yet optimistic – proposal merits serious consideration and wide discussion. Nader holds that nothing matters as much as a united stand against unchallenged corporate power. While always politically neutral, getAbstract recommends Nader’s editorial to concerned Americans who wonder how to make Congress effective once again and who believe in the American promise, perhaps now more of a dream than before, of economic equality. Conservatives and liberals alike will be quite intrigued – though probably not persuaded – by this original, far-reaching proposal.

Summary

The Power of Coalitions

The Clinch River Breeder Reactor in Tennessee provides an excellent example of the power of strange political bedfellows – environmentalists and conservatives – working together. This unlikely coalition derailed a huge nuclear project that enjoyed the backing of White House appointees during the Nixon and Reagan administrations, as well as of industry lobbyists. Government secrecy protected the breeder reactor project, which seemed unstoppable until then governor Dale Bumpers of Arkansas encouraged conservatives and environmentalists to unite to form a coalition and oppose the project, based on cost overruns and its creation of lethal plutonium. The coalition prevailed in October 1983, when the Senate closed down the project despite lobbying by industry proponents and Tennessee Senator Howard Baker.

A similar coalition gained victory with the 1986 False Claims Amendment Act, which protects whistle-blowers who inform authorities about federal fraud and waste. Such coalitions of politically opposite parties can work on other issues, including drug decriminalization, corporate subsidies, intrusions at airport security stations and the public...

About the Author

Author, lecturer, attorney and political activist Ralph Nader was cited by The Atlantic as one of the 100 most influential figures in American history.

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