[Mb-civic] NYTimes.com Article: It's Over, Ralph

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The article below from NYTimes.com 
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It's Over, Ralph

July 18, 2004
 By BARBARA EHRENREICH 



 

All right, Ralph, I always knew we had issues: Me the Led
Zeppelin fan, you the policy monk. Me the fervent feminist,
you who once dismissed gay rights and abortion as "genital
politics." But four years without even a phone call? 

We had something going there once - you can't deny it.
Remember that sultry August night at some exotic venue like
the American Political Science Association's annual
convention? Coming from months campaigning by rental car
from one Motel 6 to another, you looked too frail to ascend
to the podium. But you were brilliant - skewering the
robber barons for 45 minutes with no more notes than fit on
the back of an envelope. 

I voted for you in, yes, Florida. I lost friends on account
of you; I risked death by sporting your bumper sticker well
into the reign of Bush. But you were irresistible - an Old
Testament prophet wandering alone in the desert, thundering
about all the ways we Americans are being sickened and
scammed, deluded and defrauded, by the plutocrats who've
hijacked our country. 

So I will admit I was hurt when you didn't call me to
discuss your plans to run again this year, although none of
the other former Nader loyalists I know got a phone call
either. Maybe you could guess what we'd say. 

Because, Ralph, a lot of sewage has passed under the bridge
since 2000. Back then, Al Gore was campaigning with the
furious energy of an old-growth oak. George W. Bush looked
like a dumbed-down version of Gerald Ford - a man who could
be trusted to while away his presidency on the elliptical
trainer. 

Who could have guessed that within a year and a half, the
genial Bush would morph into a figure invoked worldwide to
scare unruly children? Or that a whole slew of candidates -
Dean, Kucinich, Sharpton, Moseley Braun - would be
preaching your vision of peace and social justice from
within the Democratic Party? 

You've changed too. If the first time was tragedy - and I
will admit now, with hindsight, that it was - the second
time is predictably farce. Maybe those years spent
wandering in the wilderness - disdained by Democrats,
excluded by arcane ballot access rules - have taken their
toll, because there's been something grotesque about your
campaign from the start, when you advised left-wing
critics, in words no one knew your vocabulary included, to
"relax and rejoice" in your run. This while casualties
mounted in Iraq and civil liberties evaporated here. 

In 2000, you could at least claim to be doing it all for
the Green Party. This summer you didn't even bother to drop
by its convention. You were in Portland, Ore., addressing
an audience of 1,100 (you got almost 10 times as many there
four years ago) that was heavily larded with conservatives
eager to get you on the ballot to suck votes from John
Kerry. When Howard Dean confronted you about your
conservative "supporters," you lamely observed that
"Republicans are human beings too." 

Republicans are the least of it. You've been kissing up to
the Reform Party, which ran paleo-right-winger Pat Buchanan
the last time around. You've been caught dallying with the
former New Alliance Party, described by Christopher
Hitchens, with his customary restraint, as a "zombie cult."
I loved you for your principles, not your lean hot bod, and
now you've tossed them for a few more moments in the sun. 

And what about that love fest with Kerry in May? You came
out of your hour of face time "almost effusive" with
praise, according to The Times: He's "very presidential,"
you said of Kerry, and unburdened by a "squeaky voice."
Maybe he is all that - I certainly hope so. But somehow
your star-struck response made you seem more eager to get a
seat at the table than to even out the portions. 

So, Ralph, sit down. Pour yourself a Diet Pepsi and rejoice
in the fact that - post-Enron and post-Iraq war - millions
have absorbed your message. You're entitled to a little
time out now, a few weeks on the beach catching up on back
issues of The Congressional Record. Meanwhile, I've thrown
my mighty weight behind Dennis Kucinich, who, unnoticed by
the media, is still soldiering along on the campaign trail.
In the event that he fails to get the Democratic
nomination, I'll have to consider my options.    

Thomas L. Friedman is on leave until October, writing a
book. 

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/18/opinion/18EHRE.html?ex=1091175717&ei=1&en=1c70403ffa180107


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