The reasons Ralph Nader gives are all hard and demonstrated truths:
Nader, 73, said most people are disenchanted with the Democratic and Republican parties due to a prolonged Iraq war and a shaky economy. The consumer advocate also blamed tax and other corporate-friendly policies under the Bush administration that he said have left many lower- and middle-class people in debt.
What he never says is that our democracy is t0o screwed up for his ego trip to have any positive effect on the problems he cites. Politics is a sordid business, a bucket full of compromises leaking good intentions away into the dust. But that is what we've got for a process and he demonstrated how badly it goes in 2000.
He'd do better, [if he could keep from vomiting], to have run as the "Green Democrat" or some thing like it but within the machine of the Democratic party. That way, he would have a few delegates come convention-time and he could bargain with that to get a few green or middle-class-friendly planks put in or left in the Democratic platform. The way he is going about it, not only will he have no desired effect on the Democratic campaign positions, he will increase the risk that we get four years of being screwed by John "I am against lobbying, trust me!" McCain making supreme court appointments and going full steam ahead toward wider military involvement in the middle east. What is with this guy Nader? Doesn't he know you need a strong stomach if you want to make democratic progress? [Or maybe he really is on the republican side...for them to make republican progress all that is needed is a partial detachment from reality .... yep, he could be one of them and just not know it.]
As I scan the 'sphere for reaction, I find all comments in agreement. One of the most damning is from a very smart writer who came of political age working with Ralph but sees the path of Nader reaching a nadir of pathos.
3 comments:
"When your only tool is a hammer..."
My sense is that Nader has just one hammer, one tool, one talent. He made a long career of being a gadfly. It seems to me that's all he knows how to do.
His hammering technique worked to make cars safer. It doesn't seem to work to make democracy safer. Unfortunately he doesn't see it that way.
Well, to be honest etbnc, I too am kind of a one-tool-wonder...the splitting maul to be exact. But at least I have not taken to using it on my friends.
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