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Fringe candidate Ralph Nader would have you believe that he has a chance and deserves a place at the table, let alone a second look. There are two main reasons why voting for Mr. Nader is not only futile but counterproductive to the environmental movement. Allow me to explain.
A vote for Mr. Nader is a vote for President Bush/Speaker DeLay
Texas Governor George Bush lacks substantive policy experience both in the domestic and international arenas. He is anti-gay, anti-environment, anti-labor, and most of all beholden to the far right of Bob Jones. How can he be up in the polls? He has two things in his favor this year: money and Ralph Nader. Mr. Bush’s fundraising extravagance is legendary. Let’s talk about Mr. Nader.
I am personally an admirer of Mr. Nader and certainly his cause; however, I question his political acumen. Mr. Nader has not polled over 10 percent in any state. Most states he is bringing in a marginal 2-3 percent.
I challenge Mr. Nader’s claim that increased turnout will help the Democrats in the taking control of the House of Representatives. Nearly everywhere a Green Congressional candidate is running well in the polls, you will find an extremely close race between a Democrat and a Republican. Democrats are just six seats short of a majority. A majority would mean Speaker Gephardt and committee chairmanships by men like Congressmen John Conyers of Michigan and Charlie Rengel of New York. These certainly aren’t the corporate Democrats Mr. Nader likes to rant on about.
Even more important than the impact on the Congressional races is Mr. Nader’s negative affect on the race for the White House. The Greens seem to run strongest in all the battleground states. While never getting above 4-5 percent in the polls, Mr. Nader’s effort could just be the difference that Mr. Bush is looking for in states like Ohio, Oregon, and Washington. Each of these went for President Clinton the last two elections and is vital for Mr. Gore.
Mr. Nader may very well elect George W. Bush. I wonder how much we environmentalists will get under a Bush Administration. What role will we have? Will the Department of Energy and the Army Corps of Engineers continue to dedicate billions of dollars to environmental cleanup? What about the future of the Clean Water Act and the Clean Air Act? The Kyoto Accords? And just imagine who will run the EPA, if there even is one?
I can’t help but think this campaign is merely an ego trip for Mr. Nader rather than a crusade to save mother Earth.
Al Gore is the true environmentalist in this election
Mr. Nader wants to claim that he is the choice for environmentalists this year. He has written a lot of books, talked on a lot of shows, and organized a bunch of groups.
Make no mistake; Al Gore is the only candidate who has proven results in preserving our environment. Only the Vice President has protected the environment by holding the Republicans feet to the fire while at the same time growing the economy.
I don’t recall one word Mr. Nader uttered when the Vice President was getting attacked by the far right for his leadership at the Kyoto Climate Change Conference. While Mr. Gore was hammering away at polluting nations and getting ridiculed and pilloried by the Republican Congress, Mr. Nader was no where to be found.
Mr. Gore has been hampered by the burden of leadership. While he must work to protect the environment while growing the economy he takes unfair potshots from those who talk about protecting the environment (like Mr. Nader) and those who claim they can grow the economy (like Mr. Bush). There is an old saying that if the far right and far left don’t like you, you must be doing something correctly. Al Gore has been doing this his entire life.
Where was Ralph Nader when Al Gore was talking about the dangers of climate change and global warming in the 1980’s before either term was in our daily vocabulary? Perhaps if Mr. Nader had taken the time to read Earth in The Balance, the Vice President’s treatise on the environment, he would have realized that the Al Gore has been light years ahead of anything he or the Green Party has ever claimed to promote.
When you think about voting this fall, remember there are three choices and two results. The only way to elect an environmentalist is to vote for Al Gore. The other two options are both George W. Bush. The place for environmentalists is where we always have belonged: with the Democrats and Al Gore.
Doug Babcock
Mr. Babcock is a current law student at Ohio State University and a former member of Vice President Gore’s White House staff