Ralph Nader's super-rich fantasy life

Prepare yourself, ugh, for a rash of publicity marking tomorrow's release of Ralph Nader's novel--that's right, novel--about a cadre of uber-yet-somehow-benevolent capitalists fixing their system so it works for the masses of the people. The title is Only the Super-Rich Can Save Us! and it's published by Seven Stories Press. Now here's the thing: the story, apparently, fulfills the title's claim. It's not a satire, as I at first assumed. No, unless the whole thing is one big April Fool's type joke, Nader actually believes in his conception of achieving peace and equality within the framework of imperialism via the kindly intervention of the very parties who profit from, that is, depend upon, war and inequality.

Not all the super-rich are craven greed hounds, dominators and bullies. Some of them take on their counterpart greed hounds, dominators and bullies. ... Fiction is a way to liberate the imagination, to see what could happen if 17 billionaires and super-rich people really put their minds to it, along with a parrot, and took on the existing business power bloc and the politicians in Washington who serve it.

The spectacle of such a bizarre, twisted delusion being promulgated by someone who used to present himself as a fighter for progressive change might strike some as sad. It ought in any case to expose him once and for all as no legitimate leader in the cause of the class struggle.