Neutralizing Nader 

Neutralizing Nader

Since November 2000 the powers in the Democratic party have been whining about how Nader cost them the election, and in so doing ignored the lesson and missed the opportunity that third party presidential runs traditionally have presented to the two major parties. When concerned about a threat to your political flank you can either co-opt the message and positions of that threat or, as the Democrats have been doing for four years, you can whine about the threat and wish he would go away. There is still time for Kerry to pursue the first option, in fact, Nader has all but invited him to do so. I'm not too hopeful that Kerry will do so. Much could have been accomplished by Kerry had he, upon locking up the nomination, approached Kucinich, who has primarily the same constituency as Nader, and invited him into the fold. Having failed to do so he faces the certain prospect of Kucinich continuing his campaign through the convention, to ensure that the progressive wing, no matter how marginalized by the Democratic party as a whole, be heard. And it is right that Kucinich should do so. If Kerry hasn't embraced that part of the party by the end of the convention, he will have exposed the party as a dedicated centrist party.

I have little doubt that despite that, the progressives will vote for Kerry anyway in November, because they (we), more than anybody, want Bush gone. It was we, after all, who opposed the war with our mouths, fingers, and feet in the winter of 02/03 while the mainstream, including Kerry, followed Bush merrily off to war. But once the imminent threat of Bush has been removed, these people will still find themselves cut off from the Democratic party. As long as they continue to feel that way, there will be the opportunity for Greens and other progressives to run candidates on the left margin.

Bush's presidency, and the lock-step support he has drawn from a Republican Congress, has established that there is a significant difference between the Republicans and the Democrats. The Democrats, who meekly bowed before Bush for three years and then nominated as nearly a centrist candidate as they had available in the fourth year, have not demonstrated that they offer a worthwhile alternative. The Greens, in particular, will be able to exploit that in the future, at the expense of the Democratic party.