Exit Edwards. Enter Nader.
January 30, 2008
Bummed about Edwards dropping out? You shouldn’t be. Because about twenty minutes after he made his “I quit” announcement, Ralph Nader sent out word that he’s launched an exploratory committee for his own bid for the presidency in 2008. Cool. As a founding member of “Environmentalists Against Gore” in 2000, the thought of another Nader candidacy tickles my fancy. Those of us who truly believe in change need a candidate, you know.
I worked for a Nader group in the late 1980s in New York City and developed a good relationship with him when I went on to run Food & Water. He provided lots of help to our campaigns and provided great advice when we got whacked by John Stossel at ABC’s 20/20.
My favorite Nader story is when he called my house many years ago and my wife, Stacy, was certain it was my brother messing around. “Oh sure, Ralph,” she said, “he’s right here.” But it was Ralph, and he was calling to ask me why Food & Water’s anti-pesticide campaign was targeting Ben & Jerry’s. At the time, we were about to unveil the advertisements that declared “Ben & Jerry’s wants to save the world, but who will save us from Ben & Jerry’s?” You know, the kind of stuff that makes you really, really popular in Vermont.
I got the conversation off on the wrong foot by asking him who put him up to calling me. “No one puts me up to anything,” he tartly declared, before admitting that Ben Cohen was a friend of his and he truly wanted to know why we were picking on the ice cream mavericks.
So I told him about our numerous meetings with Ben & Jerry’s and the company’s ultimate rejection of our call for them to start the transition to organic. Believe it or not, Ben & Jerry’s declared that they had run the numbers and didn’t think they could “maximize profits” by shunning the carcinogenic chemicals like atrazine that are used abundantly on non-organic dairy farms in Vermont. How silly does that statement look today? But Ben & Jerry’s is STILL not organic.
None of us knew at the time that Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield were seriously checking out of the company at this time, even actively shopping it around for its eventual sale to the very socially irresponsible Unilever Corporation. Jerry and Ben are good guys, for sure, but they could have revolutionized Vermont agriculture by helping hundreds of Vermont dairy farms to transition to organic years ago and get ahead of the tremendous growth curve in that sector – not to mention stopping the pesticide pollution.
Ralph listened and, I think, understood what we were doing. But he did stay silent during the campaign, probably in deference to his buddy, Ben. That’s okay. I won’t hold it against him because we all know who was right, don’t we?
Besides, I like Ralph. He’s a fighter. And if you really want to talk about “change and experience,” Hillary and Obama aren’t even in the same stratosphere. Run Ralph, run.
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If you talk to Ralph, please ask him to stop dodging the “spoiler” question, making up explanations for why he wasn’t the key factor, and do something constructive like explain why we need Instant Runoff, Approval or Range Voting so we eliminate “spoilers” once and for all.
I’ve talked to many people associated with him after writing my piece, Instant Runoff Voting Excluded: An Unreasonable Omission from An Unreasonable Man. There is no way I will support Ralph unless he uses his candidacy to push for these election reforms.
Spoiler? No such thing — not if you believe in democracy. People voted for Nader because he got himself on the ballot, ran a campaign, and convinced people to vote for him. To argue against that would seem to be arguing against the very freedoms and liberties that we should be defending. If you insist on name-calling, call Nader (and Gore and Kerry) a “loser.” Because he lost. But to call him a “spoiler” seems to suggest that he needs someone’s — or some party’s — approval to be legitimate. Phooey.
Michael,
This is too funny. You are now deleting my comments! The man who storms the statehouse and recruiting centers is too afraid to have comments on his blog? [Editor's note: If I'm deleting your comments, why are people reading this? Nice try, but there has been no deletion.]
So please explain to your readership why you’ve decided to engage in hypocrisy.
Let’s review what I said earlier. The World Health Organization and the AMA all determine that irradiation is 100% safe. [Editor's note: No one says it's 100% safe. They say the risks are "acceptable." And those risks include cancer, nutritional loss and -- oh yeah -- environmental and worker safety issues revolving around the nuclear facilities required to expose foods to radiaion.] You are so arrogant that you believe you are smarter than trained scientists. [Editor's note: I had a scientific advisory board that included Dr. Donald Louria, Dr. Rosalie Bertell, Dr. Alice Stewart, Dr. George Tritsch, and many, many, many more.] Failure to irradiate meat causes 350 deaths per year in our country as well as countless illnesses.
Weren’t you just criticizing Bush for having policies that result in the death of innocent civilians? Why is Food & Water held to a different standard? [Editor's note: Because I am the director of Food & Water. Dah.]
And by the way… please vote for Nader. Seriously. I mean it. Please vote for him.
Oh, and Howard. You really should reassess your position and vote for Nader.
Seriously. I mean it. He’s a really good candidate. Please vote for him. And while you are at it, tell all of your friends.
And Michael,
I know that math was never your favorite subject, but Nader was a spoiler. Sorry to have to bring facts into this blog. I know how hard it is to reconcile the truth with your position.
See:
http://www.mikehersh.com/Did_Nader_Help_or_Hurt_Al_Gore.shtml
Yeah, run, Ralph, run.. and keep running till ya hit the Pacific. Been there. Done that. No thanks. He’s his own biggest fan at this point.
“Those of us who truly believe in change need a candidate, you know.”
I agree. Now where do we actually find one that can win? Or at least break into double digits? I’m not being snarky, I’m serious.
I vote — and work — for the candidate I most believe in regardless of the odds. And the last candidate on a presidential level who I worked for and won was Jimmy Carter. I was in seventh grade and I had just moved from Georgia to Iowa so cut me some slack. So I’m clearly not the guy you need to be asking about winning.
Besides, aren’t you on record as stating that you would never vote for Hillary? Well, what are you going to do if she wins the nomination? Nader won’t look so bad, huh?
I also think it’s ridiculous to call Nader’s campaigns an “ego trip.” If anything, these runs must kill his ego. He gets pummeled by the good liberals each time he runs, his truly amazing legacy takes a beating, and his so-called friends turn their back on him. If you’d listen to his speeches, he’s clear about why he runs: No one in the election fights for the issues he has spent his entire life working on. If that’s ego, so be it. But it sure seems like good old democratic involvement to me.
Clinton or Obama could easily make a Nader campaign go away by embracing the issues that Nader believes in: no nukes, no Constitutional protections for corporations, an immediate end to the war, health care for all right now and an end to corporate welfare, etc. But they won’t. And so he’s thinking about filling that void. Seems pretty simple to me.
I don’ t know what I’m going to do if HRC gets the nomination. Heck, I don’t even know if I’ll vote in the primary now that Edwards and Kucinich are both out.
Write in Kucinich–or Gravel. Or Tiger Woods (we need a Prez who knows how to golf his way out of a sandtrap).
Nader… Not a spoiler, but a real choice. Lack of American backbone to vote without fear and an absence of knowledge (along with a rampant ability to NOT put the pieces together) is what keeps Nader in the background.
The only wasted vote is for the “status quo”.
Which neighborhood of the USA’s Armegeddon do you want to be in? …If you don’t seriously look for an alternative candidate, that is the real question you are asking when you ponder who to elect for the next President.
The last one we had was Carter. The rest since him (20 years of Repub and 8 yrs of Dem) have done nothing but destroy our economy and cause us to be sold out to the Federal Reserve and the world banks that run it.
Surprise Sandra, the Fed is not Federal and not a reserve. And our debt is an unholy criminal act allowed and fostered by our own elected representatives, dating back to the Fed’s creation in 1913.
Bernanke has been making some interesting allusions. The Fed’s job, as created in 1913 was to say “NO!!!” to government borrowing every once in a while. To give it the power to say “NO” really loudly, Congress gave the Fed the EXCLUSIVE authority to mint money. Please note on any note in your wallet the prominent words
“FEDERAL RESERVE NOTE”. The US Government cannot mint a dime! Not scared enough? Or just don’t believe me…?
If the Treasury prints or stamps out any paper or coin and the US government gets it’s hands on it then we Americans owe that money to the world banks that ARE the Federal Reserve.
Bernanke is getting ready to say “no”… Listen to what he is saying about government spending.
Bush’s economic plan now is to freeze all spending other than security spending, but he and the Congress will still be borrowing hefty sums of money to meet the budget (but the wealthy tax cuts will remain in place while bush once again tries to make them permanent). Frozen non-security spending will be things like all domestic spending, retirement pay, the entire current Federal payroll (maybe soldier pay will be exempt, but I doubt it), non-defense infrastructure refurbishment (bridges and roads etc), street cleaning, snow removal… where will the cutting stop? It’s about to get bad folks… How about education? I will bet that the recently enacted medicare/medicaid drug money will still be flowing to the pharmaceutical companies… The kids need that poison more than they need safe food!!… apparently…
Nader is needed more than ever, and remember he doesn’t go in alone. He has a staff, a cabinet (along with the people they bring in) and 5000 appointments he gets to make as President, including Chairman of the Fed (and most of those 5000 bring in more people of their own… )
While a good chunk of the debt may actually be a ficticiousness we can eliminate with some legislation, getting back the real booty, over 15 trillion in interest we have already paid, will be another matter.
Let’s start by getting a rebel in the White House… a good old-fashioned colonial terrorist…. Hell I would even settle for a McCain/Obama ticket, but please not the same old crap again… At 54 I am toooo old for this ignorant sh_t…
Michael Polidori