Senator Hillary Clinton

Dear Friend,

She sat on the board of Wal-Mart for six years.

She is Rupert Murdoch’s new political buddy and beneficiary of his fund-raising draw.

She voted for Bush’s illegal, immoral, and fabricated war in Iraq.

And she supports NAFTA and GATT-WTO.

She does not challenge the bloated, corruption-ridden, redundant military budget.

She does not challenge hundreds of billions of dollars in corporate welfare - subsidies, giveaways, bailouts...

She does next to nothing against the corporate crime wave sweeping through the inner cities of New York state and around the country - the poor pay more and are defrauded more...

And if the vote were held today, Senator Hillary Clinton would be the Democratic nominee for President in 2008.

And even the most progressive of Democrats would support Clinton in her campaign for the White House.

The philosophers have a word for this – it’s called self-deception.

These Democrats are deceiving themselves into believing that they can support Clinton for President and live with themselves as conscientious human beings.

They cannot.

Self-deception is a major problem affecting conflicts throughout the world – in families, corporations, politicians, and in war zones.

Self deception arises when we deny our own humanity and the humanity of others.

Actions that contradict our own human standards.

And then we seek all kinds of ways to justify these contradictions...

This happened in 2004.

And it is destined to happen again in 2008.

The only way out is for the country to understand that it is in a box of collective self-deception.

And then to get out of the box.

And there is a way out.

See others as human beings.

Not as objects or subjects.

Once we do this, our humanity will not allow us to support pro-war, corporate candidates like Senators Clinton and Joseph Lieberman.

And we will begin to build a viable, strong, winning alternative to the corrupt, decaying, and deceiving two party system.

Here is one thoughtful way to see others as human beings. It comes from one of America's greatest philosophers of justice - John Rawls.

Rawls came up with a concept called the "veil of ignorance." Put on a "veil of ignorance," and imagine a just and fair society without yet knowing where you would place in it. Set the rules before you know whether you'd end up rich, poor, middle class, white, black, man, woman and so forth.

That's one way to put aside one's biases and class and see how you would design a fair and just society.

Sincerely,

Ralph Nader