Remember the eager young Naderites? Although it seems like another lifetime, it was only 15 months ago that supporters of the Green Party were telling us, with a sense of foreboding in their cracking voices, that there was “no difference” between presidential candidates Al Gore and George W. Bush. In the Naderite view, both were shills of corporations who would pursue policies that differed in their despicableness only in degree.
One of these men is not like the other.
It was a laughable argument, even then — one of the stupidest ever made in modern U.S. politics. True, it was mildly amusing to witness people who often couldn’t name their own members of Congress become suddenly seduced by dreams of federal matching funds. (Did nobody else remember John Anderson? Patrick Buchanan?) But the end result has been a near-disaster for the issue that was often most dear to Ralph Nader’s supporters: the environment.
If the past year has shown us anything, it is that the difference between George W. “Big Business” Bush and Al “Earth-in-the-Balance” Gore is significant indeed. Although som... Read more
