The Great Work

I am impressed with Ralph Nader’s lifelong service to society, but as someone who sees climate change as a top priority, I find his good work pales in comparison to the harm he caused in the 2000 presidential election.

Two points are undeniable: he had no chance of winning the election, and in a razor-thin race between a Texas oilman and one of the first major-party politicians to recognize the urgency of climate change, Nader swung the election to the former. This set the planet back considerably, which will cause the death and displacement of millions of people and the loss of thousands of species.

I appreciate Nader’s work on auto safety and many other things, but on balance, his reckless foray into presidential politics makes him an unmitigated disaster for humanity.

Aaron Belmont, New Hampshire

Ralph Nader responds:

Thomas Shostak and Aaron blame the Green Party for having delusions of power in the 2000 election. But exercising our First Amendment right to speak, assemble, and petition is in the tradition of America’s progressive third parties that first opposed slavery and demanded women’s right to vote, farmer and worker protections, and so on.

No, they say, shut up let the two parties drive our country deeper into militarism, imperialism, corporatism, and gerrymandering districts to favor one party. Gore, who won the popular vote, did not become president for a few reasons: the antiquated Electoral College; vote theft in Florida; 300,000 Florida Democrats voting for Bush; and the Supreme Court coup d’état by Scalia that stopped the recount. Absent any one of these, Gore would have been in the White House.

Moreover, was anything stopping the Democrats from adopting the Green Party’s proposals — living wage, full Medicare, fairer taxation, being tough on corporate crime — and thereby shrinking the small Green vote to a trickle? What prevented Congressional Democrats from blocking the Iraq War and the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy, or taking vigorous action against climate disruption?

The two-party system should not be allowed to own all the voters. Those who want to stop the Democratic Party’s chronic scapegoating should work to revamp our voting system and abolish the Electoral College.

I heartily agree with Ralph Nader that every time people say, “I can’t be bothered,” they contribute to the erosion of democratic society [“The Great Work,” interview by David Barsamian, May 2019].

I work in a public library. Though small, we offer extensive programming. Our patrons enjoy eating good food at cookbook club and discussing important issues in book club. Our children’s programs are well attended. I worked for months to present an Earth Day program. I wanted to teach how our choices have a huge impact: from the food we eat to the environment in which we raise our children. Though we received many “likes” and hundreds of shares on our Facebook page, only one person came to the program.

Jackie Allison Johnstown, Pennsylvania

It was difficult to read David Barsamian’s interview with Ralph Nader, not because of what was said but because of who said it. Though I agree with Nader, I couldn’t help but remember that he was instrumental in helping George W. Bush get elected president: had Nader not been on the ballot in Florida, Al Gore would have won the state, taken office, and most likely never ordered the invasion of Iraq. Gore would also have led in the battle against climate change.

Yet Nader states he has no regrets. I take this to mean that, knowing what we know now, he would have run anyway. Rather than put a presidential spoiler on the ballot every four years, a viable third party should focus on local or statewide elections.

Unfortunately we saw key states go to Donald Trump in 2016 because of a third-party candidate. I wonder how a man who says the things Nader says can support third-party politics upending elections.

Thomas Shostak Columbus, Ohio

I was saddened to see two of your readers, whom I expect to be perceptive folk, say that those of us who voted Green in 2000 and 2016 cost the Democrats those elections [Correspondence, August 2019]. We did not.

In the 2000 presidential election, half of all eligible voters chose not to choose. If the Democrats, with their huge advertising budget and publicity machine, were unable to motivate more of the electorate to vote, that’s not the Green Party’s fault.

The same is true of 2016, when voter turnout was in the 60 percent range. The Democrats lost that presidential election because they failed to offer anything exciting to nonvoters.

The Green Party is not a group of disaffected Democrats. We offer a vision quite different from the Democrats’ kinder, gentler corporatism: a vision of an America where people have the power to govern, and a society in which the well-being of the planet is more important than corporate profits.

Martin Holsinger Nashville, Tennessee

Last night I made the mistake of reading David Barsamian’s interview with Ralph Nader [“The Great Work,” May 2019] right before going to bed. His words shook me so hard that I lay awake, staring at the ceiling. I am the millennial who cannot name all the Supreme Court justices or my elected officials, who is easily offended by verbal slurs but not political misdeeds. When I finally fell asleep, I dreamt I was standing in front of hundreds of my classmates, inciting them to resist our oppressive power structures. I awoke emboldened to engage with my civic duties as the antidote to the powerlessness and apathy I usually feel.

Elli Webber Eugene, Oregon

I wish those who blame Ralph Nader for “spoiling” the presidential election of Al Gore in 2000 would consider what actually occurred during the Clinton-Gore years. If you watched C-SPAN then, you saw Gore espousing the usual globalization practices that devastate the environment to increase stock markets. On Gore’s watch the Democratic Party moved to the right on several major issues. Clinton reversed the Glass-Steagall Act, for instance, which led to the 2008 subprime mortgage disaster. Given the stranglehold corporations have, it’s unlikely Gore’s views on the environment would have prevailed if he had become president.

After Gore lost the election, he dove deeper into environmentalism and created the film An Inconvenient Truth. I’ll bet his documentary did more to further environmental education than his becoming president would have.

Let’s please consider entire contexts before casting blame — especially on people who devote their lives to social uplift.

Julianne Maurseth Vallejo, California