 |
Sticking with Ralph Feeling Righteous, Feeling GoodBy Rick Horowitz
In the place where heroes live, where the pure of heart meet the firm of purpose, these are the glory days. The light of truth -- that clear, cleansing flame of honor -- burns brightly through these final hours. The dedicated and the devoted, having long ago offered themselves to the cause, find that now, at last, their words have the impact they've always dreamed of. Now, at last, their every effort bursts with the significance they've only imagined. These are the great times, in this place where heroes live. Welcome to the Naderhood. Ralph Nader: legend to generations, scourge of the craven and the corrupt. Scourge, too, of the sellout and the fraud, of the weak-willed and the hesitant, of the ineffective, the calculating, the compromising, the pragmatic. Scourge of those who don't measure up. In the Naderhood, there is no shortage of targets these days. In fact, business has never been better. If Ralph Nader and his merry band feel especially merry -- even ecstatic -- at this moment, can you blame them? "Nader defies Democrats," the headline screams. After all these years laboring in the quiet places, he's Page One, a major player. He holds the balance in his hands. He -- or to be more precise about it, his legion of supporters -- may well decide who gets to be the next president of the United States. His supporters aren't the most numerous; the Republican candidate has millions more, as does his Democratic rival. But Ralph Nader's supporters may be the most influential: just enough of them in just enough of the right places to make all the difference. They're also the most enthusiastic. And if they're devoted to their candidate in a way that the other candidates' supporters simply aren't, can you blame them? Ralph Nader stands for things. You'd worry -- and you'd be right to worry -- about a college student whose skin tingled at an Al Gore or a George W. Bush. If only excitement were the one thing that mattered. A vote that goes to Nader, the pollsters say, is a vote that otherwise would almost certainly have gone to Al Gore. The more votes Nader attracts in Oregon and Washington, in Minnesota and Maine, in New Mexico and Wisconsin -- the more votes he attracts in these and other closely contested states, the more likely it is that Al Gore will lose these states, states he desperately needs to defeat George W. Bush. Ralph Nader couldn't care less. Al Gore's problems are Al Gore's fault, Nader insists. "If Gore cannot defeat the bumbling Texas governor with that horrific record," he tells the Sunday talk shows, "what good is he?" (This would be the same Texas governor Nader frequently, and memorably, describes as "a giant corporation running for president disguised as a person.") One would think that Nader would do all he could to ensure the defeat of this bumbling governor with this horrific record and the prospect of more of the same should the governor capture the White House just days from now. One would be so wrong. Nader is just as vitriolic -- no, more vitriolic -- about Al Gore. George W. Bush may have a horrific record, but Nader never expected otherwise. Al Gore, though -- Al Gore is a different story. Al Gore let Ralph Nader down. On issues that matter to Ralph Nader, Al Gore didn't measure up to Nader's standards. He trimmed his principles, moved to the squishy center. And he took the Naderhood for granted. For these betrayals, he must be taught a lesson. Even if teaching that lesson throws the election, and all that goes with it -- the national megaphone, the legislative agenda, the environment, the Supreme Court(!) -- to the other candidate. Even if electing that other candidate puts the goals of Nader's supporters even farther out of reach. Better the open enemy, some of them have decided, than the inconstant friend, the disappointer, the betrayer. In the place where heroes live, the flame of honor burns brightly -- or is it self-immolation? There goes the Naderhood. Posted 10/31/00.
However the election turns out, you can be sure of one thing: It'll
mean plenty of fresh material for Rick!
|
  |
Rick Horowitz