Ralph Nader Should Not Run

Ralph Nader announced another independent candidacy for President today. I am against him running for President. Let me count the ways.

But first let's note that I have no problem with Raph's run in 2000 on the Green Party ticket. He saved the nation from Al Gore. In post-2000 America, Al Gore is the darling of liberals and environmentalists. But up until 2000 Gore could easily have passed for a Republican. He was vice-president for 8 years and did zero about global warming. He pushed the global trade agreements that have been so destructive to the environment and to working people. As a Senator and Vice-President he never saw a military budget appropriation he did not like. We should all be glad he has since done some good work promoting an understanding of global warming, but that does not erase his pre-2000 record.

In 2004 Ralph Nader, revealing his core arrogance, demanded that all independents and third-parties drop to their knees and genuflect before him. Within the Green Party he was challenged by another pubic interest attorney, David Cobb. Rather than running in the Green primaries and going to speak at Green state nominating conventions (most states have laws designed to keep the Green Party off the ballot), Ralph just demanded that the Green Party endorse him and not run a Green Party candidate. David Cobb got the nomination. Even then Nader and his supporters tried to steal Green Party ballot lines at the state level. It was ugly and it revealed how dishonest Mr. Nader and his camp followers can be when they want something. It was a sad end to a long career.

But like General Franco of old, Nader refuses to die. He is nearly 74 years old (See Nader bio at Wikipedia). Maybe he's inspired by John McCain.

Nader said he had held back from announcing yet another run because John Edwards (now out of the race) was saying good things. Yet Ralph is not willing to support Cynthia McKinney, former Congresswoman from Georgia, in her bid for the Green Party nomination. Cynthia McKinney is far closer to Ralph politically than John Edwards.

I think Ralph is a closet sexist and a racist. He demanded seatbelts for cars but he never was a leader for civil rights for blacks, Hispanics, or women. Not that everyone can do every kind of activism, but he sure seems to have missed that one of the Green Party Ten Key Values, feminism, might mean letting there be a female Green Presidential candidate for the first time in U.S. Green Party history. At this point, if Ralph keeps Cythia off the Green Party ballot line, I'll vote for some party that does nominate a woman or non-white candidate. It is way past time.

Ralph's legacy is being flushed down the toilet by his senile egocentric obstinacy. He should have supported Cynthia McKinney.