Only the Super-Rich Can Save Us!

My first knowledge of this book came in a Newsweek magazine review that devoted a whole page to slamming it, including an ugly picture of the author. That really perked my interest, because the reviewer called Ralph a "loser" and "pathetic," ostensibly for portraying scenarios in the book that would never happen in real life. Okay - without having read it, I knew that the book must have really pushed that guy's buttons to make such a flimsy case against a book, which is after all a work of fiction! So I bought it and am sooo glad I did. I have enjoyed reading it as much as anything I've ever read. I found the details of the machinations going on to be both hilarious and informational. I found so many instances, for example his portrayal of the meeting of the CEO of WalMart and his board, as their anti-American practices are being spotlighted in nationally released videos, to be hilarious. I wish it was non-ficition. Oh well.

I think Ralph's use of real people adds to the sense of possibility inherent in his protagonists' tactics. A PR person once wrote, "when you change the 'picture', you change the situation", and this is a very, very, very good (and desperately needed) attempt to do just that. And take down Thatcher's T.I.N.A. falsehood. :) Telling the picture-painting story that presents a feasible and affordable alternative reality, which resonates with our DEEPEST desires (per history and science, they are Peace, Cooperation and Sharing - the antitheses of the current commercial cultural meme of violence-competition-greed) is the absolutely critical first step in taking a different direction. Ralph shines a flashlight into the future, highlighting the many potential paths to the same humane end :)

In "Network," Paddy Chayefsky's 1976 Academy Award winning satirical screenplay, TV news-anchor Howard Beale electrifies and awakens a nation from lethargy shouting, repeatedly, "I'm as mad as hell,and I'm not going to take this anymore!" In "OTSRCSU," Nader's rollicking satirical admixture of virtuosity, imagination, and mega counter-corporate strategy, Patriotic Polly, a resplendent scarlet parrot ("the trumpeter of truth") galvanizes millions of Americans into action squawking, repeatedly, in 15-second spots aired on thousands of TV stations, "Get up! Don't let America down!" Nader's cinematic political novel describes in fascinating insider detail a titanic struggle between the "Meliorists," a team of 17 rebellious real-life retired (or elderly) super-rich billionaires/megamillionaires battling for the people, and the "corporatists," a formidable cabal of entrenched super-rich CEOs battling to retain their control of the federal government. The Meliorists (Ted Turner, Barry Diller George Soros, Paul Newman, Phil Donahue, Warren Beatty, Yoko Ono, and others) are led by Warren Buffett, the world's second richest person; the CEOs, by Jaspar Cumbersome III, head of Leviathan Corp., who hires Lancelot Lobo ("a beyond-the-pale corporate raider") and Brovar Dortwist (patterned after real-life conservative political strategist Grover Norquist) to defeat what he calls the SROs (Super-Rich-Oldsters). Lobo and Dortwist, in turn, enlist combat-hardened talk-radio veterans Bush Bimbaugh (Rush Limbaugh) and Pawn Vanity (Sean Hannity). And the galactic battle for America is engaged. The most innovative of Nader's organized civic initiatives are brought into play, including Citizens' Utility Boards, the People's Chamber of Commerce, the People's Court Society, the Clean Elections Party, Congress Watchdogs, Sub-Economy Leaders. The pitched ten-month battle waged by the Meliorists and a reawakened citizenry to redirect America from corporate to patriotic populist objectives is richly instructive in the political intrigues hatched in corporate boardrooms and inside the Washington Beltway. It is also fabulously entertaining. The whimsically named characters and, on occasion, their absurd behavior are reminiscent of Billy Pilgrim in Vonnegut's "Slaughterhouse-Five," and of Milo Minderbinder in Heller's "Catch-22." There is the supporting cast: including Senators Thurston Thinkalot and Fred Flagrant, lawyer Theresa Tieknots, organizers Luke Skyhi and Evan Evervescent, domestic CEOs Samuel Slick and Justin Jeremiad, and global CEOs Hugh Mongous, Sam Selitoff, Manny Tentacles, Sy Clopean. There are the antics: when stressed, Lancelot Lobo exchanges rapturous kisses with his pit bull and devours raw carrots to the point that his skin turns orange; dapper Brover Dortwist earnestly consults with his Doberman (Get'Em) during strolls around the Tidal Basin; after a rare Dartford warbler alights on the Capitol Dome, drawing crowds of activist bird watcher

Humphry Bogart's character in A Passage to Marseille says in effect/I Don't trust this Major Duvall. Claude Rains's charcter replies in effect/Yes. Why not? Bogart/He,ll radio the police. I've been fighting his kind all my life. I know what to expect. Rains/ There are many ways to serve your country, my friend. Bogart/I don't care about my country. The country you & I loved is dead Captain. She's been dying for a long time. I saw her die. Like Rains's character Ralph Nader is a super-patriot who will never say die to the American way of life. When reality says the Republic is either dead or on it's last legs Nader will dig in and fight. He has always used truth as the weapon. Now he artfully uses fiction to speak these truths in a form that that simply had me smiling from ear to ear. His knowledge in so deep/intricate in the workings of this country's political/economical entanglements that he misses nothing in the telling of this story. The story opens Sept/2005 with Hurricane Katrina. Warren Buffet is at home watching in disbelief the nonstop coverage of floating corpses, people on roof tops crying, seeing nothing but chaos & collapse personifying this reality of his country. How could this be happening in the world's wealthiest country? He hadn't a clue about the ineptitude or recklessness or rotteness of the people in power. Even the poorest of country's buried their dead quickly. Warren then assembles 16 bilionaires and people of influence to turn this country back over to the people, return it to a Republic the world could once again admire, where the statue of liberty (w/o handcuffs) is again a shining beacon of librerty & justice for all. Crazy idea. Daunting task to say the least. Ralph Nader uses his superb organizational talents with respect to political/economic changes to effect this fictional miracle. It is a virtual how to. This time there is beaucoup money/connected people with access to many needed platforms of attack, who are patriots in Nader tradition, raring to fight the good fight. It is going to get down & dirty. For instance, the American elections alone are breathtaking in scope and detail that the author has no bones about getting the real skinny on (devilishly humorous). In this novel there is no mainsream press cuttings on the floor, no sound bites that cut to commercials. Want to know the REAL story? Ironically, your going to have to read fiction just to get away with it. Worth more than its weight in gold. The best book I've read in decades. In reading this fine work I'am reminded of a quote from a young JFK, "If you can't help the many who are poor, you can't save the few who are rich". HIGHLY RECOMMENDED !!!!! P.S. "All governments lie. But disaster lies in wait for the countries whose officials smoke the same hashish they give out." - I. F. Stone P.P.S. When a powerful category-5 hurricane hit Cuba in 2004 neighborhood citizen committees and local Communist Party personnel evacuated some