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February 24, 2008
Ralph Nader, our guilty conscience.
So Nader's in the race again this year, causing bug-eyed terror among my fellow Democrats whose memories of the 2000 election can still elicit a trembling rage. I understand this; if Ralph had thrown his support to Al Gore even two weeks before that election, we'd be living in a very different (and far better) world today. But as the man points out at every opportunity (and he's right), Al Gore didn't run a competent enough campaign to win even his home state of Tennessee that year, and that's all it would have taken.
Heaps o' blame all around. Let's move on.
I agree that Ralph is, as Howard Dean once stated so well, a textbook example of making the perfect the enemy of the good. He is an egomaniac, like any dogged presidential contender must be. In Ralph's mind it's his way or no way, and he carries a bookish, self-assured arrogance about his convictions that makes many a pragmatist want to punch him in the face.
I get it.
But let's remember two things this time around:
1. Ralph is old, both literally and conversationally. With each cycle, fewer and fewer people are buying into his I-go-it-alone evangelism. In 2000, he got 2.8 million votes, or 2.9% of the total cast. In 2004, he got 465,000 votes, or .38% of the total. That's not a promising trend.
2. Ralph is worth having around just for his rhetoric. He's still the most emphatically well-spoken critic of our fucked-up system you're going to see on Meet The Press. Here he is from today (and I suggest you watch the video), harboring no illusions about his chances to disrupt the election this time around:
If the Democrats can't landslide the Republicans this year, they ought to just wrap up, close down, emerge in a different form. You think the American people are going to vote for a pro-war John McCain who almost gives an indication that he's the candidate of perpetual war, perpetual intervention overseas? You think they're going to vote for a Republican like McCain, who allies himself with the criminal, recidivistic regime of George Bush and Dick Cheney, the most multiply-impeachable presidency in American history? Many leading members of the bar, including the former head of the American Bar Association, Michael Greco, absolutely dismayed over the violations of the Constitution, our federal laws, the criminal, illegal war in Iraq and the occupation? There's no way. That's why we have to take this opportunity to have a much broader debate on the issues that relate to the American people, as, as, as a fellow in Long Island said recently, Mr. Sloane, he said, "These parties aren't speaking to me. They're not speaking to my problems, to my family's problems."
He's a scold. He's an endless irritant. He's probably no fun at parties. But don't forget that he brought consumer advocacy and environmental protection to the federal government, and some of his accomplishments have survived even the Bush/Cheney administration, much to its endless frustration. That's gotta earn him a little love.
So do your thing, Ralph, and enjoy your 71,000 or so votes. Keep reminding us of our ideals, you crotchety old fuck, and we'll try to remember them ourselves.
