Ralph Nader Wants Your Vote…Again
by Jason at 12:54 am on December 19th, 2003 in PoliticsMany of you already know that Ralph Nader, the one-time Green Party candidate, is considering another run for the Presidency. Our thoughts on Nader are no secret. His political life is like a glass ball on a Christmas tree: shiny on the outside, but completely hollow within. And when the season is over, it’s packed away, not to be heard from again until the next time around.
Nader hasn’t made a decision to run yet. But there’s a new poll on his site where you, Joe Average Voter, can weigh in on Nader’s (possible) candidacy. Since I wanted my voice to be heard in a true democratic fashion, I filled it out right away. Below is what I wrote in the “add additional comments here” box:
Personally, I think that Ralph Nader should sit this one out. He’s already shown how hollow his political ambitions were in the last election, and how little he was willing to work for his causes after GW Bush won. It’s like this: in 2000, Nader quite often said that people should vote for him because there were no meaningful differences between the two major parties. No matter how right or wrong this was (and it turned out to be wrong in so many ways), I respected Nader for sticking to his beliefs. But what happened after the election? RALPH NADER DISAPPEARED. Instead of using his newfound noteriety to oppose what the Republicans were doing with the tax cuts, environment, war, Medicare and other issues, he did nothing. For someone who wants to be taken seriously as a polititian, this kind of lethargy and apathy is unacceptible. Like it or not, the results of the 2000 elections put a responsibility on Nader’s shoulders–a responsibility to make noise and prove that he was more than a spoiler; a responsibility to back up his talk with action. And this is a responsibility that he ignored. If he runs again in ‘04, it becomes obvious that he’s less interested in making a difference than satisfying his own ego and sense of self-righteousness. Go home, Ralph. You know where it is: it’s the same place you’ve been hiding out during all of 2001 to 2003.
I like to think that I made a difference. Sort of. Kind of. Not really, in all likelyhood. Oh well.
Coolfer wrote:
The Green Party (or at least some of its senior members) is on the record as saying it doesn’t want Nader on its 2004 ticket. So what party will he go with, if any? And will Pearl Jam throw him a concert or two?
And are you ever right about Nader’s disappering act. What happened to the guy? Except for all the times “Unsafe At Any Speed” was checked out of public libraries across the country, this guy’s voice went unheard for too long. The two-party system that he wants to fight revels in such long vacations.
Posted 19 Dec 2003 at 7:55 am ¶
information leafblower wrote:
I voted for Nader last election and I couldnt agree more with what you wrote.
Cheers.
Posted 19 Dec 2003 at 8:21 am ¶
Jason wrote:
I have read where other people inside the Green Party would accept Nader as a candidate again, because he far-and-away has more name recognition than most possible candidates. I can imagine that the consensus is lacking this time around; after all, Nader’s lack of action (post-election) was no help to the party’s quest for legitimacy. Even recently, when the Greens had their best chance to take hold of an important political post–the San Francisco mayor’s race, where the Green candidate lost by only 6 percentage points–Ralph Nader was M.I.A.
Posted 19 Dec 2003 at 9:17 am ¶
matt wrote:
What happened (and is happening) to Nader is lazyness. Want to start your party out at the top of the ticket? Great, put the work in. I was against Nader running in 2000, but he had the stage after the 2000 election. He could have done whatever he wanted and the press would have covered it. He could have started running for 2004 the day after the 2000 election. Start by pointing out the absurdity of the Florida recount. 4 years of getting his message out would have positioned him as a serious person rather than as a political gadfly.
But his “pigs with different makeup” strategy is even hollower now than it was then. There are clear differences between the parties, and people need to learn how to accept the least bad alternative in situations like these. The damage done in the last 3 years is bad enough, but it is accelerating, and will continue to do so.
Fuck a Nader.
Posted 19 Dec 2003 at 10:02 am ¶