Nader v. The Nation

[ I hope Nader runs so I can vote in this election. -d ]

> February 18, 2004
>
> "Don't Run, Don't Run, Don't Run, Don't Run..."
>
> Whither The Nation?
>
> By RALPH NADER
>
> The following letter is a response to "An Open Letter
> to Ralph Nader," which appeared in the February 16
> issue of The Nation.
>
> As I reread slowly your open letter, which kindly
> started and closed with your demand "Don't run,"
> memories of past Nation magazine writing, going back
> to the days of Carey McWilliams and earlier, came to
> mind. I share them with you. Long ago The Nation
> stood steadfastly for more voices and choices inside
> the electoral arenas which today are more dominated
> than ever by the two-party duopoly trending toward
> one-party districts:
>
> "Don't run."
>
> The Nation's pages embrace large areas of agreement
> with the undersigned on policy matters and political
> reforms, especially the abusive power of Big Business
> over elections, the government and the economy:
>
> "Don't run."
>
> The Nation has been sharply critical of the
> Democratic Party's stagnation, the corporatist
> Democratic Leadership Council and its domination by
> Big Money. This is the same Party that has just
> ganged up on its insurgents and reasserted its
> established forces:
>
> "Don't run."
>
> The Nation has urgently reported on a tawdry
> electoral system -ridden with fraud and manipulation
> - that discourages earnest people from running clean
> campaigns about authentic necessities of the American
> people and the rest of the world:
>
> "Don't run."
>
> The Nation first informed me as a young man about the
> deliberate barriers - statutory, monetary, media and
> others - to third parties and independent candidates
> for a chance to compete, bring out more votes and
> generate more civic and political energies. This led
> me to write my first article on these exclusions
> against smaller candidacies in the late 1950s:
>
> "Don't run."
>
> The Nation has often encouraged the longer run effect
> of small candidacies (civil rights, economic
> populism, women's suffrage, labor and farmer
> parties), which have pushed the agendas of the major
> parties and sown the seeds for future adoption:
>
> "Don't run."
>
> The Nation has dutifully recorded the hapless state
> of the Democratic Party, which for the past ten years
> has registered more and more losses at the federal,
> state and local levels. The Party even managed to
> "lose" the presidency in 2000, which it actually won,
> even with all other "what ifs" considered, both
> before (Katherine Harris' voter purge), during (the
> deceptive ballots) and afterward (recount blunders
> by the Party):
>
> "Don't run."
>
> The Nation has editorialized about the spineless
> Democrats who could have stopped the two giant tax
> cuts for the wealthy, the unconstitutional war
> resolution, the Patriot(less) Act and John Ashcroft's
> nomination (to mention a few surrenders). Yet you
> have not pointed any external ways to stiffen the
> resolve or jolt the passivity of Jefferson's party,
> which lately has become very good at electing very
> bad Republicans all by itself:
>
> "Don't run."
>
> The Nation believes this cycle is different and that
> the Democrats have aroused themselves. This view is
> not the reality we experience regularly in
> Washington. Witness the latest collapse of the
> party's opposition to the subsidy-ridden wrongheaded
> energy and Medicare drug-benefit legislation - two
> core party issues:
>
> "Don't run."
>
> The Nation's venerable reputation has been anything
> but conceding the practical politics of servility
> which brings us worse servility and weaker democracy
> every four years:
>
> "Don't run."
>
> The Nation has intensely disliked being held hostage
> to antiquated electoral rules, from the Electoral
> College to the winner-take-all system that discounts
> tens of millions of votes. Such a stand would seem to
> call for candidates on the inside to highlight and help
> build the public constituency for change over time:
>
> "Don't run."
>
> It doesn't seem that The Nation would disagree with
> the conclusions of George Scialabba, who wrote last
> year in The Boston Review, "Two-party dominance
> allows disproportionate influence to swing voters,
> single-issue constituencies, and campaign
> contributors; it promotes negative, contentless
> campaigns; it rewards grossly inequitable
> redistricting schemes, and it penalizes those who
> disagree with both parties but fear to 'waste' their
> votes (which is why Nader probably lost many more
> voters to Gore than Gore lost to Nader)":
>
> "Don't run."
>
> The Nation's open letter does not go far enough in
> predicting where my votes would come from, beyond
> correctly inferring that there would be few liberal
> Democratic supporters. The out-of-power party always
> returns to the fold, while the in-power party sees
> its edges looking for alternatives. Much more than
> New Hampshire in 2000, where I received more
> Republican than Democratic votes, any candidacy would
> be directed toward Independents, Greens, third-party
> supporters, true progressives, and conservative and
> liberal Republicans, who are becoming furious with
> George W. Bush's policies, such as massive deficits,
> publicized corporate crimes, subsidies and
> pornography, civil liberties encroachments,
> sovereignty-suppressing trade agreements and outsourcing.
> And, of course, any candidacy would seek to do what
> we all must strive for - getting out more nonvoters
> who are now almost the majority of eligible voters:
>
> "Don't run."
>
> The Nation wants badly to defeat the selected
> President Bush but thinks there is only one pathway
> to doing so. This approach excludes a second front of
> voters against the regime, which could raise fresh
> subjects, motivating language and the vulnerabilities
> of corporate scandals and blocked reforms that the
> Democrats are too cautious, too indentured to their
> paymasters to launch - but are free to adopt if they
> see these succeed:
>
> "Don't run."
>
> The Nation has rarely been a hostage to prevailing
> dogma and electoral straitjackets. Its pages have
> articulated many "minorities of one" over its
> wondrous tenure and has watched many of its
> viewpoints today become the commonplace of tomorrow.
> I have not known The Nation to so walk away from
> those engaging in a difficult struggle it champions
> on the merits, in a climate of conventional
> groupthink - much less with a precipitous prognosis
> of a distant outcome governed by a multitude of
> variables. Discussions and critiques from a distance,
> after all, are a dime a dozen in an election year.
>
> O apotheosis for the exercise of dissent inside and
> outside the electoral commons since 1865:
>
> "Don't walk."
>
> Ralph Nader can be reached through www.naderexplore04.org.

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