Nader's foolish campaign

RALPH NADER MADE official on Sunday a move that even a lot of his staunchest supporters were dreading: He's running an independent campaign for president. The only word for it is sad.

Nader was and is an icon, someone who over the past four decades built and led the consumer and environmental movements in the United States. When he ran as the Green Party standard-bearer four years ago, he won more than two million votes, a huge accomplishment that helped build the party and created a platform for a wide range of progressive issues that the Democratic and Republican candidates were ducking.

But the Bush administration's unilateral war, wholesale attack on the Constitution, tax cuts for the rich, frightening budget deficit, cronyism, and ongoing recession put the lie to Nader's argument that there's no difference between the Republicans and Democrats. And while we happily endorsed Nader in 2000, this is a different situation, and most people in the country know it. In fact, while it might not be entirely fair, a lot of people still blame Nader for Bush's election – and that alone makes him a very bad choice to carry the progressive flag in 2004.

Howard Dean, Dennis Kucinich, and Al Sharpton have all played an important role in the national debate and have, to at least some extent, forced the front-running Democrats to deal with issues like the war and the administration's assault on civil liberties. Nader's campaign will do very little to help any cause, and if he pulls enough votes to once again swing what could be another very close election, he will have damaged everything he has spent his life fighting for. He should abandon this pointless campaign.