Nader Helped Democracy

by
Ralph Lopez

November 08, 2000

What an election! Like the making of sausage, the public witnessed what many would prefer not to know. As an unrepentant Nader Raider, yes, I had a hand in this. I worked for and cast my vote for Ralph Nader when I could have cast it for Al Gore. Furthermore, I would do it again.

Nader has already suffered the most scathing attacks the wise old men of the liberal party can dish out, men like Congressman Barney Frank. A mischievous candidacy. Ill-conceived. Even selfish. Selfish, for goodness sake, about a man who has selflessly devoted his entire life to the environment, public safety, and consumer causes. But politics ain’t bean bag, and no one knows this better than Ralph Nader. If you can’t stand the heat…

Nader’s Raiders are an unrepentant bunch. Why shouldn’t they be? Let’s take a look at what they have accomplished:

-Politics is fun again, as we watched the two candidates less qualified for the job battle it out with puerile tactics on either side. A contest between two egomaniacs. One didn’t want overseas military votes to count, the other didn’t want to count, period. Contrast this to the dignity and humility of Ralph Nader, who allowed himself to be thuggishly escorted from a presidential debate for which he had a valid ticket, rather than call on his supporters to cause a scene. True statesman-like behavior. 

-Saturday Night Live will be hilarious for 4 years, because Bush is going to be president. This guy’s foot is tailor-made for his mouth.

-Most importantly, the direction of the Democratic party has been nudged from center-right to center-left, as Gore’s rhetoric showed during the last stages of the campaign. The ship of state turns slowly. Mission accomplished.

Let’s not forget that Ralph Nader did not suddenly materialize from nowhere just to spoil it for Al Little Lord Fauntleroy Gore. John McCain wreaked havoc of a similar sort in the bloodbath Republican primaries. McCain’s message resonated with an unlikely cross-section of people. He won primaries by margins which took the pundits by surprise. At the sight of $60 million in campaign contributions, Dubya had already been proclaimed emperor.

That message was campaign finance reform, something which Bill Clinton and Al Gore gleefully walked away from too many times to count. Something bigger than Nader is happening here. Lots of people are unhappy, are not buying the rosy picture of widespread prosperity. Are not happy that access to the public treasury goes to the highest bidder, in a Gomorrah-like orgy of sumptuously catered political fundraisers, obscure legislation that turns out to benefit a few corporations, and strings of uncontested mergers that make the old Standard Oil Trust look like a mom-and-pop store. As the song goes, all the likker and wimin money can bah.

Nader likewise criticized the campaign finance system and its results, and added more. That folks should have health insurance. That if you work full-time you should not be homeless. Radical ideas.

The differences between George Bush and Al Gore are marginal. One is simply the pro-choice version of the other. On NAFTA, GATT, military budget, the death penalty and, yes, the environment, there is no choice at all. Al Gore cannot claim to be an environmentalist just because he wrote a book. What you do while you are in office counts too. What the Clinton/Gore administration did was sell federal grazing rights at below market value to cattle ranchers, caved in to Big Timber, to the mining industry, and dragged its feet on the Kyoto Protocols when other nations were ready to make a real commitment to reducing global warming. David Brower, founder of the Sierra Club, renounced Gore for Nader and said: "They've (Clinton/Gore) caused more damage the past three years than Reagan and Bush caused in 12."

Labor was betrayed by vice president Al Gore in a more conspicuous way, when he fought for a NAFTA deal that was clearly against labor's interests, assuring job loss to a country where labor has no real rights. Labor roared then, but swallowed the insult, and campaigned for Gore anyway. Because as bad as Gore is on labor, he is better than Bush? That is the kind of choice we are trying to leave behind.

You leave it behind by party-building, participation, and grassroots recruiting, hopefully of many of the half the people in this country who don’t vote. You do it with hard work. At no time do you do it by accepting that it is anyone’s God-given right to be president, not Al Gore’s, not anyone’s. The women’s right-to-choose issue is a Gore bogeyman, because the political calculus of packing the Supreme Court with anti-choice justices does not come out favorably for Republicans. Most Americans who do not vote are pro-choice, and that just might get them to vote.

We live in a time when the big issues are not being addressed by the two main parties. Global warming is not coming. It is here. The gap between rich and poor in America is widening. In a recent article on the difficulty middle-class and working-class children face in affording selective colleges, former U.S. Labor Secretary Robert Reich notes: "the economic stakes of getting a degree from a reputable four-year college or university have become much higher, as disparities in income and wealth have widened nationwide." He says: "The danger is that the increasing competition -- to be selected and to be selective -- will exacerbate the widening inequalities that are raising the stakes in the first place." Reich laments that the kids who are awarded scarce scholarship resources often "already have every chance of succeeding in life," while kids who could benefit most but are poorer are locked out.

These are worrisome trends. Why not a nationwide, need-blind college admissions policy? If you get into a school academically, you can go. Meanwhile unnecessary weapons systems like the B-2 bomber get big bucks from both major parties. Nader’s running mate, Native American activist Winona LaDuke says: "If they came and asked me for another B-2 bomber I would say, why don’t we hire 450,000 new teachers?" Join us. What we are doing is called: democracy.

Ralph Lopez is a former Democratic candidate for state senator in Massachusetts. He graduated from Yale University and is now a free-lance writer. 

Ralph Lopez