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.

[whistle]

1. Ralph Nader is a political relic, he just does not know that yet

[hunter]

5. Nader has always stood safely back from the bleeding edges of Progress.

Sometimes he gets in the way of it.

[Ordr]

2. Ugh.

He's the reason why Bush is in office.

[Winterblues]

3. That statement is an insult to people's intelligence

What a ridiculous thing to say..

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

10. And your statement is an insult to anyone that can do simple math.

What an absurd thing to say...

[Orrex]

13. Bush is in office for many, many reasons

Of which Nader is among the most trivial.

To blame Nader for Gore's loss is risk letting Bush's enablers engineer exactly the same kind of three-card-monty the next time around, because we'll all be so busy mistaking the last-of-many contributing factors for a significant contributing factor.



I was furious at Nader for years until I realized that such anger is misplaced.

[TheCowsCameHome]

4. I hope he runs.

right out of the country and keeps going.

[Taverner]

6. Instead of running failed presidential bids, year after year...

Why doesn't he go back to do what he does best - consumer protection.

We have a host of shit coming from China that's candle-dipped in lead

We have downer cows being served to you at your local McDonalds

We have Aqua Dots with Date Rape Drugs in them

RALPH! FUCK THE WHITE HOUSE! WE NEED YOU IN THE COURTROOMS!!!

[LoZoccolo]

11. That's what I wonder too.

I did see him saying something about it a little while back, but if he was focused he'd be right in front of this issue.

[Zorra]

7. He made himself irrelevant by running against Al Gore in 2000.

If Gore had received enough votes to where that election could not conceivably be stolen, putting Al in the WH, a progressive third party may have had a chance to grow to the point where they could have become a small, viable party.

Because Bu*h was able to steal the election and subsequently destroy the US, progressive third parties and their candidates have become irrelevant.

All progressives are so desperate to get rid of republican legislators that they will vote for the Democratic nominee, even if they despise that nominee, in order to save the country, as well as themselves and their families.

Remember back in 1999-2000 when some members of third parties were saying that they wanted Bu*h to get elected because it would teach Democrats a lesson, and they felt that third party membership would increase?

Well, they were dead wrong, they helped destroy the country, they helped increase membership in the Democratic party, and they made their third party irrelevant for generations to come.

I have nothing against third parties, I think the Greens have a great platform. But they short-sightedly ruined their chances of growing into a party of political significance by helping facilitate the most dangerous fascist leader in the past 30 years getting into the WH.

[Bread and Circus]

8. Nader's problem is that he failed to create a "movement" in between elections...

showing up just in the nick of time to be a spoiler is not inspiring.

He'd be better off to create a coalition of issues based voters and use them as a "bloc" to influence and get important issues as part of the debate. The goal would be to educate the broader Democratic electorate and make the leadership listen. Single payer health care would be the best issue to tackle in my opinion.

Also, he shouldn't be "the candidate" but rather the mastermind and one of its spokespeople. He's not going to live forever and thereafter what will he have left behind?

[ORDagnabbit]

9. who? n/t

[JackRiddler]

12. He's never irrelevant to you, though. nt

[LoZoccolo]

14. It's hard work to make him irrelevant! n/t