This year, Ralph Nader’s presidential campaign has two trains running that will collide at an unfortunate intersection — the Green Party’s national convention in Milwaukee. The collision course is bad news for all concerned.
Nader, one of the great progressive reformers of the 20th century, has been clear and consistent for months in saying that he will not seek or accept the national Green Party presidential nomination for 2004. Yet he has made it known that he would welcome the party’s “endorsement” — and there’s a move afoot to give it to him at the national convention that begins June 23. Under such a plan, Nader might then try to get his name on the ballot courtesy of the Green Party in some of the two-dozen states where the party has achieved ballot status.
After a high-profile run as the Green Party’s presidential candidate four years ago, Nader has emphasized that this time around he is an “independent” candidate. That’s one train running that is acceptable (though not preferable) for quite a few Greens. But there’s another train running that Green Party activists are just starting to find out about — and it indicates that Nader is heading in another direction.
Americans opposed to undue corporate power correctly fault the mainstream media for going easy on establishment politicians who contradict themselves whenever convenient. But it remains to be seen whether activists on the left — and their media institutions — are willing to be appropriately tough on Nader…
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