GLORIA
ON THE RUN
Say
what? – Nader a sell-out? How about all those
radio ads being run by the National Abortion Rights Action
League, and the League of Conservation Voters, the statement
by former "Nader's Raiders" that he is helping to elect George
W. Bush and the fulminations of NOW pleading with him to get
out of the race? They've got Gloria
Steinem running up and down the West Coast, lecturing
soccer-moms from San Diego to Seattle on the absolute necessity
of voting the straight Democratic Party line. This flurry
of consternation and liberal hysteria is fun to watch: I love
it how Gore's shills gush over Ralph as an admirable guy,
a principled crusader for liberal values with a track record
second to none – and then try to tell us that it would
be inadvisable to vote for such a man. Very convincing –
not! – and very funny indeed. What is less than
funny, however, is that it seems to be working.
CELEBRITY
BACKFIRE
The
high-profile "celebrities for Nader" campaign – a group
of Hollywood phonies and assorted limousine liberals, including
Susan Sarandon, Phil Donahue, Tim Robbins, and the insufferable
Michael Moore – which has been the real moneybags behind
the Green party presidential campaign has apparently backfired.
Now that Nader is actually beginning to pose a direct threat
to Gore's rapidly dwindling chance at the Oval Office, these
dabblers in third party politics are getting nervous, and
are pulling back. Greg MacArthur – heir to the fortune
behind the MacArthur Foundation, which gives out "genius"
awards that have become the equivalent of the Academy Awards
for politically correct academics and professional do-gooders
– explains
to an Associated Press reporter the decision to pull $320,000
in ads in California's biggest newspapers this way:
"California
didn't appear to be 'the obvious slam-dunk that these other
states were,' he said. . . . 'I still think Gore is going
to win California, but if the perception is such that it's
a tight race, then that's the wrong market for me to be advertising
in."
The
latest polls show Bush only five points behind Gore in the
Sunshine State – and the decision to pull the ads came
only hours after these numbers were announced. MacArthur says
that the money will go, instead, to states like New York where
the outcome of the presidential contest is more certain.
NADER'S
GAMBIT
The
Nader campaign has issued a rather huffy statement, disclaiming
all connection with the decision to pull the ads and declaring
that they intend to "fight for every vote." But since Nader
could have presumably dissuaded his celebrity fan club from
making such a blatantly pro-Gore move, or at least instructed
them to frame their explanations in less obvious terms, the
disclaimer rings a little hollow. What this underscores is
that the Green Party, and the Nader campaign, do not represent
an attempt to build a real third party in this country: This,
of course, is not really news: Nader has himself stated on
more than one occasion that he sees the Green Party as a way
to drag the Democrats back to the Left. But the fraudulence
of the Green campaign goes way beyond that. Aside from the
unwillingness of the Greens (or their leadership) to challenge
the Democratic party in key states, the Nader campaign is
acting in concert with the Democrats to ensure a Democratic
majority in both houses of Congress.
DON'T
WORRY – BE HAPPY
In
California, the Greens have long played a subordinate role
to the Democratic Party bosses, declining in most cases to
run against vulnerable Democrats, or, indeed, against any
Democrats: this year, however, they have taken the unusual
step of running a candidate for US Senate – largely because
Diane Feinstein is, unfortunately, a shoo-in. On the local
level, however, they have continued their longstanding policy
of running practically no one. This in spite of the fact that
localism practically defines the Green sensibility. Now, listen
to the arguments made by Naderite Jim Hightower, the Texas
prophet of poor-white-trash populism, defending his candidate
against the "charge" that the Greens will hurt Gore in a close
race. After enthusing over the pretty impressive crowds at
Nader's rallies on the Lehrer News Hour, Hightower
tells his fellow Democrats not to worry, because:
"These
are people who are not Gore backers. If you want to back Al
Gore, I think that's what you should do. That's an honorable
position. But it's just as honorable to be reaching out to
the 60 percent majority, Gwen, who are not going to vote in
this November 7 election or are going to vote for third party
candidates because they don't believe they have a choice right
now. I believe that it's irresponsible for us, particularly
as progressives, not to be reaching out to that vast majority
of people and offering them a chance to build a new political
channel. I come to you as an old-time Democrat, elected here
in the state of Texas as a Democrat, proud to be so. But now
I look up at my national party, and the Al Gores and the Democratic
Leadership Council; they've taken off the old Sears Roebuck
work boots and strapped on the Guccis and Puccis that the
Republicans strut around in."
THE
HILLARY FACTOR
These
people weren't going to vote anyway, according to Hightower:
but Nader's going to bring them out to vote, many of them
for the first time. Kind of like MTV's "Rock the Vote" campaign,
clearly part of the Democratic Party's get-out-the-vote drive.
For more is at stake this campaign season than the election
of a President: when all these new voters get into the voting
booth, after they cast their ballots for Nader how will they
vote for Congress and on down the line? Surely they won't
be voting Republican. The decision to put a lot of Nader's
resources into New York that would have otherwise gone to
California may have much to do with Hillary Rodham Clinton's
tough fight against Rick Lazio for the Senate seat. Hillary
is down in the polls, and some have even shown Rick pulling
ahead by a hair – the infusion of a few hundred thousand
Naderites, who might not otherwise turn up could well put
Hillary over the top.
THE
REAL THING?
I
hate to tell you lefties this, especially the sincere ones
who want so much for Nader to be the Real Thing, but the Green
Party presidential campaign is nothing more than a get-out-the
vote effort on behalf of the Democratic congressional campaign
committee – with not a few of the key personnel having
strong links to both groups. Ralph Nader is an articulate,
if occasionally wrongheaded, opponent of globalism, mercantilism,
and the two-party monopoly, but he has either been duped,
or is willfully blind to the sellout that is taking place
before his eyes. Nader is no doubt sincere in his contempt
for Gore's laughable stance as the populist man of the people,
and he deserves credit for standing up to the arrogance of
liberal mandarins, such as the editorial board of the New
York Times, who insist that he is "stealing" votes that
somehow rightfully belong to Gore. But the actions of his
own supporters belie his rhetorical effusions: if you say
you want to build a new party, why not challenge Gore
in California, and indeed all along the Pacific coast, where
the ecotopian crankery of the Greens has a cultural advantage
as well as political appeal?
NO
TRESPASSING: VIOLATORS WILL BE PERSECUTED!
The
answer is all too clear: this is Democratic territory, and,
not so surprisingly, the "No Trespassing" sign has gone up
in the final weeks of the campaign. While Nader himself may
disdain this admonition, clearly his most prominent supporters
– and financial backers – are taking it very seriously
indeed. Ralph's s Hollywood friends were quick to jump on
the Green Party bandwagon, eager to have a sandbox in which
to play third party politics, assert their "independence"
– and even their radicalism – provided no one took
them too seriously.
TRUTH
IN POLITICAL LABELING
The
Nader campaign is not only selling out its supporters on the
national level – their pulling back in the West could
easily prevent the Greens from achieving the 5% necessary
for federal matching funds in 2004 – but is also actively
engaged in a gambit to help the Democrats wrest control of
Congress from the Republicans. By failing to run candidates
for Congress in any significant numbers, and doing "outreach"
to non-voters, the Green strategy is to establish not a genuine
third party but a quasi-independent "Green" auxiliary of the
Democratic Party. If there were such a thing as a Political
Truth in Labeling Act – and who can doubt that Nader,
our foremost Public Citizen, has at one time proposed such
legislation? – Nader and the Greens would be in clear
violation. And I, for one, would be all in favor of prosecuting
them – in the court of public opinion, at any rate.
CONSOLATION
PRIZE
Think
about the real implications of the Nader Gambit, and the mindset
of those who probably set it in motion: Gore was unelectable,
in any case, and would have fallen on his own demerits –
this is not a very hard case to make. In any event, the consolation
prizes this election year may be worth as much, if not more
than the big one. Without a Republican Congress, President
Dubya's "compassionate conservatism" is going to merge, effortlessly,
with the New Democrats' tough-minded liberalism. The Bush
administration will then have the perfect out when confronted
by conservatives outraged that Republican principles are being
sold down the river: after all, the moderates will moan, it
was the conservatives who lost control of Congress.
WINNERS
AND LOSERS
Progressives
who imagine that Nader is building an independent movement,
and conservative Republicans who cheer him on for entirely
different reasons, had better ask themselves: who benefits
from the Nader Gambit? Congressional Democrats, first and
foremost, as we have seen; the Hollywood Left, which has a
new platform to ply its tired act on; and the putative Bush
administration, which will come into office with a built-in
protection against conservative dissent. The only losers are
conservatives – who will be told that their legislative
initiatives are impractical and "extremist," and who will
be consigned to watching the GOP drift inexorably leftward
(along with the rest of the country).
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