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Today's
Stories
October
30 / 31, 2004
Winslow
T. Wheeler
Spartacus Tells All
October
29, 2004
Harry
Browne
No Justice for Peace Activist in County
Clare
October
28, 2004
Forrest Hylton
"The Gas is Ours:" Bolivia's
Ghosts of October
Col. Dan Smith
Rebellion
in the Ranks
Alan Maass
Jon Stewart v. the Pundits
Ron Jacobs
Ecstasy
in Red Sox Nation
Alexander
Cockburn
Kerrycrats and the War
October
27, 2004
Jules
Rabin
Crammed with Distressful Politics
Dave
Lindorff
Bulgegate: the Lies Continue
Katherine
Van Tassel
On the Home Front: Both Parties
Ignore Working Parents
Jeffrey
St. Clair
The Bi-Partisan Politics of Oil
October 26,
2004
Brian Cloughley
Three
Weddings and Lots of Funerals: Atrocities in Iraq and Afghanistan
William Blum
Fear
Factors
Lenni Brenner
The
1964 Berkeley Free Speech Movement: Lessons for 2004
Ben Tripp
The
Chicken Salad Election
Fidel Castro
After the Fall
Greg Bates
The Nation's Flawed Calculus
Walter Brasch
Gag the Public: the War on Dissent
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
An Open Letter to Pat Buchanan
Mickey Z.
Rumble in the Jungle at 30: Ali, Foreman and the Congo
Amir Taheri
The Boom in Conspiracy Theories
Alexander Billet
Say It Ain't So, Bruce!: the Boss Endorses Kerry
Doug Giebel
The Religion of G.W. Bush
Kathleen Christison
Why
I Liked Thomas Friedman's Latest Column Before I Didn't
October 25,
2004
Ralph Nader
Letter
from a Minnesota Highway
Werther
West
Texas Wahabbism
Dave Zirin
Boston's Killer Cops: Death of a Fan
Fred Gardner
Pot Shots: Oregon Revokes Dr. Leveque's License
Omar Barghouti
Executing Another Child in Rafah
William J. Nottingham
Lori Berenson's Story
John Chuckman
A Foolish Consistency
Uri Avnery
On
the Road to Civil War
October 22
/ 24, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
You
Can't Blame Nader for This
Rev. William Alberts
On Bended Knee: Faith-Based Deceptions
Willliam A.
Cook
Killing for Christ
Saul Landau
George W. Bush: a Man of His Words?
Bill Quigley
I Held the Bullet in My Palm: Masked Haitian Police Shoot Children
While Arresting Priest
Christopher Brauchli
Seal It With a Frown: What Compassionate Conservativism Really
Means
William S.
Lind
Fallujah and the Moral Level of War
Sharon Smith
Guilt Trippers for Kerry
Greg Bates
Kerrynomics: "Hurt the Ones Who Vote for Us"
Justin E.H. Smith
Is Lesser Evilism a Compromise with Evil?
Rebecca Evans
Tarnished Legacy: Pinochet and the Chilean Military
Mike Whitney
Al Hurra TV: the Second Invasion
M. Junaid Alam
Purchasing Individuality in America
David Krieger
Nuclear Non-Proliferation: Examining the Policies of Bush and
Kerry
David J. Ledermann
The Emperor's New Crumbs
Lawrence Reichard
Same Old FBI Story
Website of
the Weekend
Lie Girls: the Real Coalition of the Willling
October 21,
2004
Ben Tripp
The
Undecided Voter Examined
Joshua Frank
Kerry
and the Environment:
It's Not Easy Pretending to be Green
Stan Cox
What
the Left Doesn't Get About Small Businesses
Bill Martinez
State
Depart and Cuban Visas: Only Anti-Castro Agitators Need Apply
Mark Engler
The War and Globalization
Lina Britto
and Lucia Suarez
Bolivia:
a Year After the October Insurrection
Website of the Day
Two Pampered Children of Wealth
October 20,
2004
Yitzhak Laor
"Did
You Two Squabble?": a Bullet Fired for Every Palestinian
Child
Jason Leopold
Sinclair
Broadcasting's Air War: a Long History of Journalistic Deception
Jesse Sharkey
A
Teacher's Account of How Military Recruiters Prey on High School
Students
Col. Dan Smith
Choking
Free Speech About the Draft
Dr. Teresa Whitehurst
Using My Religion
David Vest
If
Bush Wins, Blame Me
Jack Random
The Jackson 17: Reflections on a Mutiny
Ron Jacobs
Time
to Kick It Up a Notch
James Brittain
Plan Patriota and the FARC: a Change in the Countryside?
Christopher
Dols
Bombing Madison: Michael Moore's Fright Fest
Dave Lindorff
First They Came for the Nurses...
Website of
the Day
Banana Republican Catalogue
October 19,
2004
Jeffrey St.
Clair
Party
Favors: the Political Business of Terry McAuliffe
Jeff Taylor
Confessions
of a Swing State Voter
Matt Vidal
American
Myopia: "More Money in Your Pocket"
Victor Kattan
"It's Not Who You're Against; It's Who You're For":
Palestine Takes Center Stage At Euro Social Forum
William Loren
Katz
What Goes Around Comes Around
Sean Carter
O'Reilly Should Shut Up About Extortion Claiims
CounterPunch Wire
Who's Really in Bed with Republican Funders: Kerry or Nader?
October 18,
2004
Saul Landau
Facts
and Lies; Slogans and Truth
Dave Lindorff
Bulletin
on the Bush Bulge
Diane Christian
Sheep
and Goats: On the Language of Goodness
Greg Bates / Dave Lindorff
Betting on War: a Wager on the Fallout of a Kerry Presidency
Uri Avnery
Ariel
Sharon's Philosophy
Peter LaVenia
Leaving the Greens So Soon? a Response to Josh Frank
Mike Whitney
O'Reilly at the Whipping Post
Elaine Cassel
The Other War: Civil Liberties Three Years After 9/11
October 16
/ 17, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
The
Free Speech Movement and Howard Stern
Leslie Brill
Unmerciful Judge, Merry Executioners: the Death Penalty as the
True Measure of Bush's Character
Jules Rabin
Reckoning Deaths in an Agitated World
Dave Lindorff
About the Bush Bulge: Was There a Pucker in That Jacket or Was
the President Just Glad to be There?
Peter Linebaugh
Judging Judges: a Few Pages from The Mirror of Justices
Gary Leupp
Iran and Syria: How to Effect Regime Change and Expand the Empire
M. Shahid Alam
America, Imagine This!
Ron Jacobs
Trying to Cross Lake Champlain
Fred Gardner
The Flu Vaccine Question: How Bush Blew It
Jenna Orkin
The Toxic Legacy of 9/11
Dave Zirin
Name the DC Baseball Team: Contest Results
David Hamilton
Alone and Exposed: Bush as a Strong Leader?
Ralph Nader
Criticizing Israel is Not Anti-Semitism
Doug Giebel
Thinking the Unthinkable
Mark Engler
Crimes in Freedom's Name: Dick Cheney's El Salvador
Derek Tyner
Blacks Didn't Get the Vote by Voting: an Interview With Clarence
Thomas on the Million Worker March
Evan Jones
Gimme That Ole Time Religion: Cash and "The Mind of the
South"
Poets' Basement
LaMorticella, Klipschutz and Albert
Website of
the Weekend
No More Bush Girls
October 15,
2004
Paul Craig
Roberts
Where
Did These "Conservatives" Come From?: The Brownshirting
of America
Laura Carlsen
Wal-Mart
vs. the Pyramids of the Sun and Moon
Greg Bates
Empire of Insanity: Kerry's Iraq Troop Numbers
Michael Donnelly
News from a Swing State: Does Anyone Here Have a Spine?
Katherine Lahey
The Venezuelan "Threat": Why Do Kerry and Bush Fear
Hugo Chavez?
Robert Jensen
/ Pat Youngblood
Election Day Fears
Leah Caldwell
From
Supermax to Abu Ghraib: the Masterminds of Torture and Abuse
Website of
the Day
An Anti-Billionaire Policy? Why That Would Be Economic Racism
October 14,
2004
Darcy Richardson
The
Other Progressive Candidate: the Lonely Crusade of Walt Brown
Willliam A.
Cook
Turning
Myths into Truth
Laura Santina
Water, Women and War
Evelyn Pringle
Free Speech Banned by Big Pharma: What You Can't Say About Drug
Importation
Alan Farago
Lessons
from Nature
Rep. Maxine Waters
A Letter to Colin Powell on Haiti
Nicole Colson
Maimed
for Oil and Empire
October 13,
2004
Bishop Thomas
Gumbleton and Bill Quigley
Aftermath
of a Coup: The Other Disaster in Haiti
Sharon Smith
Barak
O-Bomb-a?: Democrats Target Iran
Christopher Brauchli
God and the Bush Administration
Mike Whitney
The Real Meaning of the Hamdi Case
Paul de Rooij
Amnesty
International: a False Beacon?
Website of
the Day
Operation
Truth
October 12,
2004
Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
"Indian
Country"
Greg Bates
The Year of Voting Dangerously: a Survey Request of Nader Voters
in Swing States
Steven Conn
Progressives as Pawns: Kerry's War on Nader
Jason Leopold
Under Cheney, Halliburton Helped Saddam Siphon Billions from
UN Oil-for-Food Program
Security Scholars
for a Sensible Foreign Policy
Time for a Change of Course
Timothy J. Freeman
Dying for a Mistake
Pierre Tristam
Deconstructing Bush
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
The 2nd Debate: the Blurring of Act and Audience
Bill and Kathleen
Christison
Israel as Sideshow
Website of the Day
John Kerry's Personal Off-Shore Tax Shelters
October 11,
2004
Robert Fisk
Iraq:
Unforgivable Betrayals and Broken Promises
Kevin Pina
The
Untold Story of Aristide's Departure from Haiti
Patrick Gavin
Rethinking
Columbus Day
Chris Floyd
Tribes with Flags in the New Afghanistan
Daniel Wolff
Radioactive Money: Entergy, Political Cash and America's Most
Dangerous Nuclear Plant
Walter Brasch
The Only Ones Who Believe Saddam Had WMDs are Bush, Cheney...and
40% of All Americans
Mike Whitney
The Phony Afghan Elections: Ballot of the Disappearing Ink
Ari Shavit
"He Talks to Condi Rice Every Day": an Interview with
Sharon's Lawyer
Paul Craig
Roberts
The
Debates and the Big Lie
Website of the Day
Dylan's Greatest Recording?
October 9 /
10, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
"There
Are No Innocents"
Paul de Rooij
Northern Ireland is Still the Issue: a Conversation with Gerry
Adams
M. Shahid Alam
Making Sense of Our Times
Laura Carlsen
Protest and Populism in Latin America
Fred Gardner
Pot Shots: ASA Goes to Court
Col. Dan Smith
Bush's Credibility Gap
Paul Craig
Roberts
Faith-Based Economics
Greg Bates
What If Nader Critics Get What They Demand?
Joshua Frank
Cobb, the Greens and the Collapse of the Left
Felice Pace
Wilderness, Politics and the Oligarchy: How the Pew Charitable
Trust is Smothering the Grassroots Environmental Movement
Walter A. Davis
Of Pynchon, Thanatos and Depleted Uranium
William A.
Cook
The Agony of Colin Powell
Phyllis Pollack
Twas No Crank Call Love Affair: London Calling, 25 Years Later
Poets' Basement
Klipschutz, Albert, Ford
Website of the Weekend
Abu Ghraib: the Taguba Annexes
October 8,
2004
Jennifer Loewenstein
The
Israeli Invasion of Gaza
Moshe Adler
Edwards' Gambit: He Hoped No One Would Notice the Similarities
David Swanson
Media Blackout: Press Continues to Ignore Labor's Opposition
to Iraq War
Dave Zirin
CounterPunch Contest: Let's Name the New DC Baseball Team!
Rep. Ron Paul
The Draft is a Form of Slavery
William S. Lind
Keeping Our SA Up
Samar Assad
Kerry v. Bush: No Difference When It Comes to Israel / Palestine
Jim Ingalls
and Sonali Kolhatkar
The Elections in Afghanistan
October 7,
2004
Dave Lindorff
All
Out of Volunteers: A Draft is in the Air
Masha Hamilton
Fear in Kandahar
Christopher
Brauchli
Master of Corruption: the Ripening Scandals of Tom Delay
Jason Leopold
Is There Still Time to Impeach Bush?
Bruce K. Gagnon
Bombing the Panhandle: Fighting the Pentagon in Rural Florida
Meredith Kolodner
Where
is the Urgency?: The Anti-War Movement's Election Year Challenge
October 6,
2004
Jeffrey St.
Clair
"Please,
Dude, Can I Take Them Out?": Targeting Civilians in Fallujah
Ron Jacobs
Going
Nuclear: the Ghost of Edward Teller Lives
Michael Colby
The National Flip-Flop: Suddenly Bush is Unfit to Lead?
Tarif Abboushi
More of the Same: Israel Wins the Debates
Matthew Behrens
Canadian Firms Profit from Iraqi Blood
Mike Whitney
Rethinking WMDs
John Pilger
Stealing Diego Garcia
Ben Tripp
Kerry's "Triumph"
Kevin McKiernan
Cheney's Poison Lab: Wrong Time, Wrong Target
Patrick Cockburn
Elections
Will Not End the Fighting in Iraq
Website of the Day
Is There an Islamic Problem?
October 5,
2004
Anthony Loewenstein
Rupert
Murdoch and the Marginals: "Personally Creating Outcomes"
Mark Clinton
and Tony Udell
The
Suicide of an Iraq War Veteran
Greg Bates
Trading
Idiots: an Open Letter to Eric Alterman
Dave Lindorff
What's
the Frequency, Karl?
Norm Dixon
Why Washington Won't Save Darfur Villagers
Larry Kearney
God Talk and Burning Children
Bill Linville
Dirty Politics in the Land of "Clean" Government
Gary Leupp
What
Edwards Should Ask Cheney
Website of
the Day
A Guide to Halliburton for Tonight's Debate
October 4,
2004
Diane Christian
The
Gates of Hell
Joshua Frank
An Interview with David Cobb
Doug Giebel
Incurious George: What If Bush Didn't Lie?
John Chuckman
Strange Victory: Sen. Obvious and the Pathetic Lump
Ramzy Baroud
Reverse the Picture: Anatomy of a Palestinian Outrage
Julia Stein
Remembering Mario Savio and the FSM
Sean Donahue
Outsourcing
Terror: Kerry and Special Forces
Website of
the Day
Mapping
Mt. St. Helens as She Rocks
October 2 /
3. 2004
Paul Wright
John
Kerry on Criminal Justice
Kathleen and Bill Christison
An Exchange with Israeli Historian Bennie Morris
Kathie Helmkamp
My Son Trent: a Marine Who Doesn't Want to Kill
Phillip Cryan
Indigenous Mobilization in Colombia
Lenni Brenner
The First Ex-Catholic Saint: Memories of Mario Savio
Fred Gardner
Pot Shots: In Case You Missed "Montel"
Ron Jacobs
It Did Happen Here: When Neo-Nazis Terrorized Olympia
Ben Tripp
Sticker Shock
William S.
Lind
The Grand Illusion: Iraqi Security Forces
Dave Zirin
The Swindle of the Century: Baseball Comes to DC
Dave Lindorff
Lies from the Great Debate
Luscon Pierre-Charles
Haiti's Elections: a High-Tech Sham is Underway
Zoe Moskovitz
& Sasha Kramer
Separating Lies from Truth About Haiti
Nelson P. Valdes
Habana Night vs. Latin American Scholars in Vegas: 61 Banned
Cuban Academics
Alan Farago
The "Ownership Society" and the End of the Everglades
Nancy Haley
What is the Historical Jesus Trying to Tell Us?
Alex Billet
Long Live The Clash: London Still Calling After 25 Years
Steve Fesenmaier
Save and Burn: The War on Libraries
Poets' Basement
Smith, Holt, Albert
October 1,
2004
Steve Breyman
Kerry's
Missed Opportunities
Rose Gentle
My
Son Died for a Lie
Lee Sustar
Iran
in the Crosshairs
Ralph Nader
What
We Didn't Hear at the Debate: Where's the Exit Strategy?
Walter Andrews
We Are Less Secure Now Than Ever
Mike Whitney
Pandora's
Government
Mickey Z.
Debate
This
Saul Landau
The
Iraq Invasion: Lessons from the Pinochet Cases
Hot Stories
Alexander Cockburn
Behold,
the Head of a Neo-Con!
Subcomandante
Marcos
The
Death Train of the WTO
Norman Finkelstein
Hitchens
as Model Apostate
Steve Niva
Israel's
Assassination Policy: the Trigger for Suicide Bombings?
Dardagan,
Slobodo and Williams
CounterPunch Exclusive:
20,000 Wounded Iraqi Civilians
Steve
J.B.
Prison Bitch
Sheldon
Rampton and John Stauber
True Lies: the Use of Propaganda
in the Iraq War
Wendell
Berry
Small Destructions Add Up
CounterPunch
Wire
WMD: Who Said What When
Cindy
Corrie
A Mother's Day Talk: the Daughter
I Can't Hear From
Gore Vidal
The
Erosion of the American Dream
Francis Boyle
Impeach
Bush: A Draft Resolution
Click
Here for More Stories.
|
Weekend Edition
October 30 / 31, 2004
A Question
of Character
What
Makes Ralph Nader Tick?
By
GREG BATES
All strategy issues aside, should anyone
really vote for Ralph Nader, the man? Hardly a day goes by when
the guy isn't accused of lying, accepting support from Republicans,
or worse. And those accusations come not only from his opponents
but from people on the left we are accustomed to trusting. I
and others have addressed many of these attacks. But one is worth
careful scrutiny. Many pundits have diagnosed in Ralph Nader
what they see as a debilitating character flaw-a flaw that all
by itself should disqualify him from the race. As they see it,
Nader is a true "megalomaniac," a "Lone Ranger
for Righteousness," a self-centered man with a "tin
ear" motivated by "pure egotism." Or, as Calvin
Trillin so thoughtfully summed it up in The Nation, a "creep."
By reducing Nader to these terms, they seek to disqualify him
as candidate worthy of our vote.
Ironically, this election is
all about ego, but not Ralph Nader's. Remember Howard Dean, impaled
by the media and the Democratic Party on his own ego quirkiness?
Now we are essentially down to three guys. One struts across
the deck of an aircraft carrier in a borrowed flight suit to
remind us that the war in Iraq is really a "mission accomplished."
Another has some differences from the first but does everything
he can to minimize them, while he runs around as the white knight
proclaiming he will save the country from Big Bad Bush.
And then we have Ralph Nader,
running on little support, addressing important issues about
the Bush administration that Kerry is unwilling to confront (like
the need to end the war, not "win the peace"), taking
a stand for what he and many others believe is the right direction
for the country. And all the while, he endures the scorn of his
former allies when, at 70, he could have called it a day.
So who, really, is on an ego
trip? Not the jump suit. Not the white knight shadowing the president.
According to the left press, it's the guy who built this brilliantly
effective group of organizations and has now lost his legacy
on the stupidest strategy to garner accolades ever devised.
Evidence that Nader is on an
ego trip rests on three theories. First, since we know he can't
win, it must be his misguided ego that's got him running. Second,
he's alienated his Green Party base by running as an independent
and damaged his own legacy by showing callous disregard for the
impact of such a run. Third, he ignores even his closest allies
who counsel him not to run. So many supporters of yore plead
"not this time." And he may have received more public
counsel about the dangers of his running to the future of the
country than anyone in history. Shunning it all, Nader forges
ahead.
Isn't that the very definition
of arrogance?
But a look behind this "blindingly
obvious" conclusion suggests there is more to it. The first
reason is bogus. If we can't find an easy explanation for his
campaign, look harder. Don't blame it on his ego. None of the
important political reporters we depend on for so much of our
understanding of politics has put serious effort into analyzing
Nader's candidacy. We see cheap jabs over substance.
The second reason is also false.
Nader made clear that he couldn't wait for the Green Party to
decide if it was going to field a candidate because invaluable
time would be lost. Therefore, if he were to run at all, he had
to do so as an independent. He first stated this in an open letter
to the Green Party and then in response to a question posed at
the National Press Club at the end of February in response to
his announcement to run:
The problem is one of timing.
The Green Party convention is in June, and the decision as to
whether they will have a presidential candidate and under what
conditions will be made then. And that is too late for meeting
the ballot access deadlines of many states.
So we have to pursue our independent
course of action, elicit many volunteers-young, middle-aged,
older people-who will learn if they don't know now how to get
signatures that are verifiable on their clipboards in shopping
centers and street corners in order to meet the deadlines
So the Greens' timing is their problem. But Doug Henwood of the
Left Business Observer chides Nader for not building a third
party in the intervening years between elections. "Building
a new party ... is the task of lifetimes, not months or years,
and it isn't a process that can be short-circuited by celebrity
presidential runs." Henwood hits the nail on the head here:
celebrity runs won't, in the long term, be the winning ticket.
But, we must ask, who should build that party? In running, Nader
has helped the Greens and might again indirectly if he inspires
them to get serious about doing what Henwood suggests, being
consistent over lifetimes. Meanwhile, if we want more than celebrity
runs, that's not a shortcoming of Nader's. In running against
the tide Nader has-once again-done more for this cause than most
people. If we are going to heed Henwood, we should look to ourselves
to build that party. Maybe we'll ask Nader to run again, if that
makes sense to us and to him. But it's wrong to berate an individual
for doing something other than building a party in between runs
when he puts such a gigantic effort into those runs, pointing
out a path for the rest of us. (And he did try to build the Greens
after 2000, by helping with dozens of fundraisers.) If you don't
want people voting for Nader because you think a Kerry win is
important, fine-argue that. But to argue we shouldn't vote Nader
because he did something else for four years besides build a
party obscures the important issues we face.
But why would Nader risk his
legacy? The man has made a mark that, I wager, could well be
felt far into the future. If the human race survives, it's a
solid bet that issues of political power will still be with us
for centuries. And safety-transportation, worker, consumer, and
so on-will almost certainly continue to be a concern, however
we get around. What a legacy.
And what a nasty dent some accuse Nader of putting into it. As
Stephen Power reported in the Wall Street Journal, January 14,
2004 (before Nader's announcement),
"organizations that have
some connection to Nader are still reeling from the backlash
caused by the perception that he threw the election to Bush.
Concerning Public Citizen: The group, which Mr. Nader founded
in 1971, lost 20% of its members after the 2000 election and
saw a decline of nearly $1 million in contributions, or roughly
8% of its overall budget.
"Consider the Aviation
Consumer Action Project, which Mr. Nader founded in the 1970s
to advocate tougher airline-safety and consumer-rights measures.
The group lost some of its biggest donors after the 2000 election,
including a trial lawyers' firm that has given as much as $10,000
a year.
"Similarly, the Center
for Auto Safety, which Mr. Nader helped found in 1970 to act
as a watchdog for motorists' rights, lost about 5,000 members-roughly
25% of its membership-following the 2000 election. Since then
it has gained 1,500 members, many of them new to the organization,
for a net loss of 3,500"
Powers reports that these cutbacks
have had real political impact, curtailing efforts to fight the
regulatory battles needed to protect consumers. The Center for
Auto Safety, for example, has been forced "to spend less
time filing comments on various issues before the National Traffic
Safety Administration," and allows that government "agency
to 'green flag' proposals that deserve public scrutiny. Because
of the need to recruit more members, the center didn't file comments
when the agency, in response to legislation passed after the
recall of 6.5 million Bridgestone/Firestone tires in 2000, proposed
new tire-testing standards," Powers notes. Worse, adversaries
are delighted by the groups' funding plight:
"I'm happy as can be,"
says Victor Schwartz, general counsel of the American Tort Reform
Association, a business-backed lobbying group in Washington.
"I'm very much better able to reach that undecided voter
and undecided legislator when the trial lawyers are on the other
side than when it's Ralph Nader or one of the other organizations
purporting to represent the ordinary consumer."
His run may be harming his
legacy. But the argument that he must be on an ego trip because
his run will damage it is farcical. Usually, those on ego trips
make extraordinary and sometimes-comical attempts to preserve
what they claim is their legacy. If someone is taking actions
that potentially harm their legacy, I take it as a signal the
person is risking a great deal for principles he stands for.
We may disagree with his tactics, his strategy, and perhaps with
his principles. But we cannot point to actions that harm someone's
own legacy and cry, "he's on an ego trip."
But regardless of concern about
how one is personally viewed in the eyes of history, shouldn't
he at least have some regard for the very institutions he may
be jeopardizing? As the New York Times reported on February 24,
2004, two days after Nader's announcement:
Robert S. McIntyre, director
of Citizens for Tax Justice, first became interested in tax policy
working for Mr. Nader in the early 1970's. Speaking of himself
and other onetime acolytes of Mr. Nader, Mr. McIntyre said: "I
don't think anybody's very happy about it. When everything we've
worked for all our lives is being destroyed, it's not very appealing."
Why can't Ralph Nader care
about those organizations he champions-and the people working
in them? It's a valid question, but a deeper look reveals some
interesting paradoxes. Either these organizations belong to Nader,
live in the shadow of Nader, and will one day die with Nader-or
they are independent groups, having gotten a helping hand from
him or an inspiration, yet surely able to stand on their own
without him. Those institutions will have to survive his gaffes,
his mortality, and his runs for president. If they don't, they
aren't viable as institutions. Public Citizen, most famously
tied to Nader, has talked about taking his name off their letterhead.
This might be a positive step in that direction.
Further, it's important to
delineate responsibility for the groups' plight. Many people
withdrawing support are confusing the groups' efforts with the
man; their disapproval of the candidate should not translate
into hurting the causes. It isn't Nader's responsibility to refrain
from running simply because some supporters can't see the difference
between him and these groups.
Yet the fact remains: groups
face funding challenges by being tarnished, fairly or unfairly,
by his run. But principles have costs. When Martin Luther King
came out against the Vietnam War, funding for civil rights dropped
dramatically. No one today would suggest that his was a bad move.
In the end, though he lost his life, we won. Today, as in '66,
'67, '68, it looks like we are losing. But how will history judge
Nader 30 years from now? Favorably, I suggest because we value
people who take stands that are right-even when they are costly.
But what about that third reason
he's obviously on an ego trip-acting unilaterally and unable
to listen with his "tin ear" to the advice of his closest
friends? Surely that is proof he has lost it. Yet it's easy to
mistake the question, has he heard me, with the very different
question, does he agree with me? From day one it was clear he
heard his opponents. It was also clear he didn't agree. Clarity
that goes against the grain of popular belief is not a character
flaw.
Examples abound. Lincoln ran
for president against the advice of friends. Martin Luther King,
Jr. stood against more moderate voices counseling protestors
to wait. The point is not to equate Nader with the importance
of those individuals. To each their own stature. Rather, the
examples illustrate a simple idea: disagreement with popular
consensus may be a sign of arrogance-or of wisdom. Nader has
taken on scores of battles that few believed at the outset he
could influence. We are lucky that he stood his ground then.
We should not ascribe arrogance when he is steadfast now.
If not ego, then what kind
of trip is he on? One of the clearest indications is simply his
own record. He presents himself as a passionately clear fighter
for justice. Confidence and clarity are important attributes
for accomplishing anything meaningful. In all the accusations
of ego-tripping, not a single pundit that I have read has turned
to Nader's own record as a source to reveal the alleged flaw.
It isn't that his many books and organizations don't provide
a substantive record for determining the issue. It's just that
there isn't anything there to suggest the guy is warped. Focused?
Sure. Determined? Absolutely. A penchant for taking on the big
fight as well as the good fight? Unerringly. But success does
not an ego trip make.
dded to this is a lifestyle
so frugal it has made Nader famous for wearing understated suits,
a characteristic that has endeared him to many. And he is a man
who praises others and puts them in the limelight, for example
honoring Dennis Kucinich's run as that of an authentic activist
who has fought for justice for decades. Hardly the signs of egotism.
Meanwhile, against the backdrop
of the unjustified criticism of Nader, Kerry's character is left
largely unchallenged by progressives. I believe this is a serious
mistake.
Let's for a moment take Kerry
at his word as an honest man who sometimes changes his mind.
He has:
o Voted for Bush's No Child
Left Behind act and then turned around and blamed Bush for under
funding the program;
o Voted for Scalia and then
later said that was a mistake;
o Voted for war against Iraq
and then said he was misled;
o Argued for subsidizing tuition
and then reversed that plank in his platform.
o Posted liberal platform planks
on his website and then claimed he wasn't a liberal.
Even if there is no malfeasance
here, no intent to mislead or score political gain, at some point
there is a question of judgment. Does Kerry have the wisdom to
lead the country? A year into the Kerry presidency, if we are
deeper in Iraq, if he appoints right wing anti-abortion judges,
if he privatizes Social Security and "reforms" other
programs, if he passes a Patriot Act II, if he imposes austere
fiscal measures, we will look back and say well, the signs were
all there before his election; how did we miss them?
Returning to Nader, what makes
him run?
I never got the chance to ask
Nader just what does make him tick-by the time I started writing,
he was off and running, and for most of the time out of reach.
Pundits like Robert Scheer have alluded to a Don Quixote complex.
But for an answer I would eschew the surface similarities to
Cervantes' famous knight and instead look to a contemporary with
whom Nader appears to have virtually nothing in common: the investor
Warren Buffett.
The two men could not be more
different. Buffett, an amoral investor, selects his companies
based on calculations of financial value and prospects, without
regard to the political consequences of their actions. It matters
not whether it is a company like Coke spreading tooth decay throughout
the world, or defense contractors spreading sudden death on a
mass scale. Nader, on the other hand, has spent a lifetime crusading
to regulate these very rogues.
Yet these differences disguise a profound similarity-they have
each racked up nearly half a century of outstanding success in
their fields that reveals an underlying lesson: know-how and
persistence pay. Buffett's success is easily measured-he has
achieved an average annual return on his investments topping
22%, over nearly 40 years, far outstripping that of any competitor.
At the heart is elementary math: invest wisely for the long term
and compound earnings will make you a fortune. According to calculations
reported in BusinessWeek, February 5, 2004, if you had invested
$10,000 in January 1968 through him, by the spring of 2004 your
investment would have topped $35 million.
Though Nader's principal focus
is different-consumer advocacy and taking on industry titans-the
principle is the same: 40 years of focus can turn what began
as a hopelessly quixotic project into a major force. Precisely
that principle of slow and steady is outlined in Nader's book
on his 2000 campaign, Crashing the Party: Taking on the Corporate
Government in the Age of Surrender: "Small political starts
start small, as did the Green Party. In a big country it is not
easy to start small unless the starters are willing to start
incrementally."
There is one other instructive
parallel between Buffett and Nader. Both are not only persistent,
but also persistent in the face of adversity. Mocked in the late
1990s for eschewing technology stocks, Buffett missed out on
the boom, steadfastly maintaining the principle that he would
invest only in businesses he understood, at prices he felt were
low enough to provide a margin of safety in case things went
wrong. Financial "analysts" and columnists ridiculed
him, wondering if this aging knight of investing had lost his
touch or had simply been left behind by fast changing times.
Today, after he skipped the Internet's boom and bust, no one
regards this sage of capitalism as quixotic.
Buffett's actions contain another important lesson for those
in politics: while many investors have focused on short-term
gains as measured by quarterly reports of companies (or worse,
as measured by daily movements in stock price), Buffett has focused
on the long term. Not, "will I win this time," but
"will I win in the next 20 years?"
Turning to politics, as long
as we are focused only on whether we can win this year, we cannot
hope to build a powerful presidential campaign. That will take
years. As history shows, many successes start out as what are
seen at the time as quixotic quests. For years Nader has also
followed his own formula, incurring the wrath of enemies with
whom he has done battle. Now he is accused of having lost his
way, and his persistence in the face of adversity is called "arrogance."
It will be interesting to see how history evaluates his efforts
after the reign of King George has passed.
This persistence points to
an obvious question that I have raised before. Where could we
get to if we decided to field a progressive candidate every presidential
election for the next 50-plus years? That's about the same length
of time Nader has been a consumer advocate. In 13 straight runs
we might get there. At the very least we could alter the political
landscape, forcing the Democratic Party to pay heed to the left
flank, and electing third party members to lower offices, shifting
the political spectrum. In these fearful times it is hard to
see the value of long-term persistence. But what if his run sparks
a new party or invigorates an existing one dedicated to winning
the highest office and the Congress for the values he and so
many Americans espouse? That spark could be his most important
contribution to the presidency. And what a cap to a legacy!
Critics of Nader's candidacy
argue that we live in a two-party system-and we have to accept
that reality. But, just as a close look at the "fact"
that the sun goes around the earth yielded a different answer
about our place in the world, I cannot resist a quick look at
that two-party-system maxim. We don't live in a two-party system.
We live in a system dominated by two parties. There is more than
a semantic difference here. Despite access hurdles to getting
on the ballot, despite media focus on the two parties, despite
the lack of capital to finance a new party's effort, there is
nothing immutable about the number of parties this country has.
We have a right and the ability to shift the spectrum. Whether
we do it is not a question of the nature of an unchangeable reality
but of political will-do we have the persistence to change it?
Barring a biotech miracle,
Nader won't run for the next 50 years. Yet his actions provide
a clue as to a possible direction out of our predicament. The
point is not to provide a definitive formula: work for 50 years
and things will be golden. The future is uncertain. But this
whole principle of persistence lies outside the current debate
over the value of his run.
Next: What Makes Swing State
Nader Voters Tick(ed)?: Selected Survey Results
Greg Bates is the founding publisher at Common
Courage Press and author of Ralph's
Revolt: The Case For Joining Nader's Rebellion. He can be
reached at gbates@commoncouragepress.com.
Weekend
Edition Features for October 22 / 14, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
You
Can't Blame Nader for This
Rev. William Alberts
On Bended Knee: Faith-Based Deceptions
Willliam A.
Cook
Killing for Christ
Saul Landau
George W. Bush: a Man of His Words?
Bill Quigley
I Held the Bullet in My Palm: Masked Haitian Police Shoot Children
While Arresting Priest
Christopher Brauchli
Seal It With a Frown: What Compassionate Conservativism Really
Means
William S.
Lind
Fallujah and the Moral Level of War
Sharon Smith
Guilt Trippers for Kerry
Greg Bates
Kerrynomics: "Hurt the Ones Who Vote for Us"
Justin E.H. Smith
Is Lesser Evilism a Compromise with Evil?
Rebecca Evans
Tarnished Legacy: Pinochet and the Chilean Military
Mike Whitney
Al Hurra TV: the Second Invasion
M. Junaid Alam
Purchasing Individuality in America
David Krieger
Nuclear Non-Proliferation: Examining the Policies of Bush and
Kerry
David J. Ledermann
The Emperor's New Crumbs
Lawrence Reichard
Same Old FBI Story
Website of
the Weekend
Lie Girls: the Real Coalition of the Willling
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