Dear George,

Great to have you back. You were much missed.

Mr. Lyster is right about minimizing the importance of the polls. Our task is to believe Bush can and will be defeated and do everyhthing we can to bring that about. Our book, Where We Stand: Voices of Southern Dissent, is one small effort in that direction. But, among other things, it discusses many of the deep structural problems and subversive values that beset our nation that are addressed by neither party. They will never be addressed so long as the Bush regime remains in power. Our task is to change regimes and then work hard on the Democrats to lead us in an assault on at least some of the problems that remain deeply buried. One thing we can be sure of is that Ralph Nader offers no hope in that direction. He had an an op-ed piece in Friday's L.A. Times. My response appeared in that paper this morning:

Ralph Nader accuses the Democratic Party of skulduggery in its attempts to keep him off the ballot. What he refuses to acknowledge is that the only consequence of his candidacy will be to improve President Bush's chances. When asked what the country would be like if Bush were to win, he avoids an answer by reciting his perceived shortcomings of the Democratic Party.

He claims to favor the president's defeat, but he does not honestly own up to the fact that Bush's victory would be worse than Kerry's. That political naivete should be enough to dismiss his claim that he is a "serious" candidate, should unmask the hypocrisy that underlies his campaign and will probably ensure his legacy as a petulant egotist, not a responsible prophet of a better America.

Paul Gaston
Charlottesville, Va."

(electronic mail, August 9, 2004)