Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Academic Blogs -> Essentially Contested America

OR PHONE (866) 635-1838 for Bankruptcy Help, (866) 635-6190 for Divorce,
(866) 635-2689 for Personal Injury or (866) 635-9402 for Criminal Defense

Find a Local Lawyer

Bankruptcy (866) 635-1838
Divorce (866) 635-6190
Personal Injury (866) 635-2689
Criminal Defense (866) 635-9402

Academic

: Essentially Contested America

Lord Ralph Will Again Try to Play the Spoiler

By Robert Justin Lipkin

ADVERTISEMENTS

Ralph Nader has announced that he intends to run again for president. ECA has already opined on his role, as spoiler, in the 2000 election. (Click here if interested.) Nader has, of course, contributed to consumer safety and other progressive causes. He claims he's running to inform people that corporations are straggling American democracy. Well, he's certainly right about that. But how will his campaign inform anyone who isn't already informed? The ordinary person who needs to know doesn't listen to Nader. Does he actually believe that his candidacy does anything to support that cause? So what's his plan? Of course, Nader comes all decked out in his usual chutzpah: "Yesterday he said he felt compelled to run once more because both Republicans and Democrats had failed to tackle the corporate domination of business in Washington or pay attention to the needs of ordinary Americans. He remained determined, he said, to 'shift the power from the few to the many . . . You take that framework of people feeling locked out, shut out, marginalized and disrespected. You go from

Iraq, to Palestine, to Israel, from Enron to Wall Street, from Katrina to the bumbling of the Bush administration, to the complicity of the Democrats in not stopping him on the war, stopping him on the tax cuts ... in that context I have decided to run for president,' he said on NBC television." Nader once was complicit in helping to bring to power one of the greatest disasters to befall American democracy. Today's circumstances are different. The candidacy of Obama has inspired millions of nonvoters to become involved in electoral politics. The Illinois Senator is a phenomenon; indeed, he and the new voters he's attracting constitute "The Obama Phenomena." Depending on how strong this movement turns out to be, Nader's entry into the race may have at most only a marginal effect. Not even Lord Ralph will be able to disrupt this historical force. As Senator Obama puts it: "I think the job of the Democratic Party is to be so compelling that a few percentage [points] of the vote going to another candidate is not going to make any difference." The Obama Phenomena is inspiring. The problem with inspiration is that it requires savvy craftspersons to authenticate it. More important, inspiration typically loses against entrenched malevolence, and that, to be sure, is the nature of the corporate cooption of American democracy. Of course, if Senator Clinton wins the nomination some progressives might turn to Nader.

Credit for Image

Full post as published by Essentially Contested America on February 27, 2008 (boomark / email).