Don't Make Me Ralph

So good old Ralph Nader has decided to run for President. I was a Nader supporter in 2000 - one of the mistakes of my college years I wish I could take back. I look at my relationship with Nader and the Green party as parallel to my personal idealism at the time - a feeling of invulnerability, that the majority of people would do the right thing and therefore allow me to mouth off about what I perceived as a truth in American politics. Incidentally, my support for Nader only went as far as my words - since he wasn't on the ballot in Oklahoma, I attempted to vote for Gore. Note I said attempted to, because my vote was thrown out because my absentee ballot wasn't properly notarized.

This time, though, Nader's running as an independent and I find myself on the other side of the fence. My perception of old Ralph is that most people don't really take him seriously anymore, and that he's pretty much become a pariah to the liberals, many of whom feel the Bush administration really is worse than a Democratic administration (and I count myself among those people). With the American left still pretty much in fragmented little factions that love infighting as much as real political struggles, who knows - maybe Nader's arrogance combined with the need to oust Bush will lead to greater unity among liberals.

Then again, maybe it will cause the left to continue eating itself. I prefer the glass half full, but somehow I doubt it's gonna happen that way.