How Nader Has Made Himself Irrelevant

[LoZoccolo]

Ralph Nader's announcement that he plans to run again for president as an independent has provoked the expected rounds of condemnation (He is a spoiler!) and pathos (He did so much for American consumers!) My own feelings about Nader's proposed run amount to this: he's completely out of step with the development of the independent movement.

Nader ran in 2000 as the presidential candidate of the Green Party hoping to get 5% of the vote to establish the Greens as a national party eligible for federal funding. At the time of the 2000 campaign, I was active in the Reform Party which was undergoing many internal divisions and betrayals. Nader was invited by several of my associates to enter the Reform Party presidential primary to help counter the top-down takeover underway inside the party and as a platform from which Nader could coalesce diverse forces in the independent movement. He turned down the offer. On Election Day, Nader fell short of his goal, gaining 2.7% of the vote, while internal battles over the results rocked the Greens.

http://thedailyvoice.com/voice/2008/03/nader-steps-out-but-hes-out-of-000273.php

I don't agree with the author's strategy of trying to organize people to vote for independant candidates because I'm a very partisan Democrat, but I thought it was interesting to hear that even these independants are turning on Nader.