TT's Lost in Tokyo — by TokyoTom

Ron Paul, Ralph Nader and Andrew Napolitano are joining forces to emphasize common ground between right-libertarians and progressive Left.

This holds some promise of steering dissastifaction with government by the Tea Party Right into positive directions, possibly blunting efforts by Big-Government GOP to capture and emasculate the Tea Party movement. It may also lead some on the Left to question their reflexive hatred of Tea Partiers and re-examine their assumptions that what is needed is MORE government.

Here’s a clip of a joint appearance by Paul and Nader on Judge Napolitano’s Freedom Watch program on the Fox Business channel on January 19, 2011: 

[View:http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_profilepage&v=kwIZ4syCFLc:550:0]

As noted by the liberal The Raw Story (‘Ron Paul, Ralph Nader agree on ‘progressive-libertarian alliance’) (emphasis added):

In this corner, a libertarian, tea party hero who ran several campaigns as a candidate for US president on the Republican ticket. And in that corner, a progressive icon of the left who also ran several campaigns for the US presidency but on the Green Party ticket.

One might think the two men, seemingly ideologically opposed to one another, would rather argue than help one another.

However, on Wednesday’s broadcast of Freedom Watch on the Fox Business channel, Judge Napolitano sat down for an amiable interview with Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) and Ralph Nader to discuss a progressive-libertarian alliance in the 112th session of respective chambers in Congress.

Nader, who has recently called this coalition “the most exciting new political dynamic” in the US today, explained that it works well because both groups stand against corporatists who believe government should be run in the interests of corporations.

“I believe in coalitions,” Rep. Paul echoed. “They talk about we need more bipartisanship, and I say we have too much bipartisanship because the bipartisanship we have here in Washington endorses corporatism.”

Paul added that he agreed with Nader on a host of issues, such as cutting the US military’s budget, ending undeclared US wars overseas, restoring civil liberties and civil rights by dumping from the Patriot Act, and withdrawing from the NAFTA and World Trade Organization agreements.

“I think we should come together and work together, and I think we can,” he said, noting that the coalition had previously worked on deficit financing solutions.

Rep. Paul and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), the most conservative and most liberal members of their respective chambers, joined forces last session to fight for an audit of the Federal Reserve, a private institution that handles America’s monetary policy, which Nader explained is under no legal control of Congress.

 I would add:

• let’s not forget Larry Lessig, who is also at work building bridges at Harvard, prticularly in the wake of last year’s “corporations are people too!” Supreme Court decision in Citizens United.
• Ron Paul too seems to be falling in with those envirofascists who think that there’s something profoundly rotten with corporations — those state-created Heads We Win-Tails You Lose machines which embody Moral-Hazard, primarily as a result of the grant of limited liability to shareholders.