Coffin Ships, Deregulation, and Al Gore

Samuel Plimsoll was born in Bristol, England, on February 10, 1824. He became a businessman, but of the sort who cared about his fellow humans. In his business, the coal trade, there was a dark secret. Ship owners found they could maximize their profits on their oldest vessels by stopping maintenance, overloading them with goods, using fewer sailors than was safe, and over-insuring them. A ship that made its voyage was profitable. A ship that sank was profitable too, because of the insurance payment. Never mind the dead sailors. Such ships were known as coffin or death ships. Plimsoll pleaded with the British Parliament to outlaw these practices. Parliament did nothing. Plimsoll ran for and was seated in Parliament in 1868. It took him until 1876 to get his Merchant Shipping Act passed. He is known to history as "the sailor's friend."

Regulation good, de-regulation bad? Democrats good, Republicans bad? Not so fast.

Regulations can be bad, often depending on your point of view. The devil is in the details, and the details, all too often in modern times, are written by corporate lawyers. Laws and regulations about business practices are yet more grist for the gruel of law.

Regulations can make people safer, but they can also kill beneficial industries by failing to take into account that a degree of danger is inherent when any human wakes up in the morning, and to some extent even when they sleep at night. Many regulations, however, are not about safety, but about some other government set goal. Regulating fishing, for instance, is (supposed to be) about preserving enough breeding fish each year so that fishing will be just as good next year, or ten years from now. Thus they should benefit business and workers alike.

Laws and regulations, like cholesterol, tend to accumulate and choke the life out of things at times, even if they are well-intentioned. As a public school board member in California I saw this effect. Over the decades whenever something went wrong at a public school the state legislature, or the office of education, or even the Federal government, wrote a law (usually added to the Education Code) in response. Often, to ensure compliance, some paperwork was added: an annual certification that the school complied with the regulation. Over the decades, to ensure compliance, which is necessary to get funding, the ratio of administrative support staff to teachers grew.

I have no problem with the idea of periodically purging unnecessary regulations. The problem is, who picks? Too often, business lobbyists choose to leave in regulations that help them fend off ruinous competition, while getting rid of regulations that protect workers, consumers, and the environment.

Which brings us to Al Gore, former Vice-president of the United States of America, now known as a flaming liberal because of his anti-global warming posturing. For no particular reason I started reading Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair's Al Gore: A User's Manual, printed back in 2000. The section I am in is how Gore led the deregulators when he was vice-president. He pushed the Clinton administration for REGO, his reinventing government program. It would please any Tea Party activist or corporate Republican. It was sold to the public as a waste-eliminator, but in fact opened the doors of government to business predators, while gutting departments that did useful public service [pages 172-187]. Gore topped this with his attack on the federal welfare system [pages 188-209]. Gore's ability to completely alienate any Democratic Party politician or voter who still believed in the New Deal or Great Society was the reason he lost his campaign to become President in 2000.

But people have short memories. Particularly, apparently, do voters. And journalists. So raise a glass to Samuel Plimsoll, one of the rare good politicians.

Remember, too, the glory that was Imperialist America, but don't expect the paychecks to be as good during our post-imperial decline and fall.

Ralph Nader Should Not Run

Ralph Nader announced another independent candidacy for President today. I am against him running for President. Let me count the ways.

But first let's note that I have no problem with Raph's run in 2000 on the Green Party ticket. He saved the nation from Al Gore. In post-2000 America, Al Gore is the darling of liberals and environmentalists. But up until 2000 Gore could easily have passed for a Republican. He was vice-president for 8 years and did zero about global warming. He pushed the global trade agreements that have been so destructive to the environment and to working people. As a Senator and Vice-President he never saw a military budget appropriation he did not like. We should all be glad he has since done some good work promoting an understanding of global warming, but that does not erase his pre-2000 record.

In 2004 Ralph Nader, revealing his core arrogance, demanded that all independents and third-parties drop to their knees and genuflect before him. Within the Green Party he was challenged by another pubic interest attorney, David Cobb. Rather than running in the Green primaries and going to speak at Green state nominating conventions (most states have laws designed to keep the Green Party off the ballot), Ralph just demanded that the Green Party endorse him and not run a Green Party candidate. David Cobb got the nomination. Even then Nader and his supporters tried to steal Green Party ballot lines at the state level. It was ugly and it revealed how dishonest Mr. Nader and his camp followers can be when they want something. It was a sad end to a long career.

But like General Franco of old, Nader refuses to die. He is nearly 74 years old (See Nader bio at Wikipedia). Maybe he's inspired by John McCain.

Nader said he had held back from announcing yet another run because John Edwards (now out of the race) was saying good things. Yet Ralph is not willing to support Cynthia McKinney, former Congresswoman from Georgia, in her bid for the Green Party nomination. Cynthia McKinney is far closer to Ralph politically than John Edwards.

I think Ralph is a closet sexist and a racist. He demanded seatbelts for cars but he never was a leader for civil rights for blacks, Hispanics, or women. Not that everyone can do every kind of activism, but he sure seems to have missed that one of the Green Party Ten Key Values, feminism, might mean letting there be a female Green Presidential candidate for the first time in U.S. Green Party history. At this point, if Ralph keeps Cythia off the Green Party ballot line, I'll vote for some party that does nominate a woman or non-white candidate. It is way past time.

Ralph's legacy is being flushed down the toilet by his senile egocentric obstinacy. He should have supported Cynthia McKinney.