January 14, 2004

Run Ralph Run!

James D. Miller wants Ralph Nader to run for president. And the Smith College economic professor and prolific writer has good reasons...

Howard Dean, the likely Democratic nominee, represents your supporters' greatest threat: an unprincipled politician who has emotionally captured the far left. True, to maximize his chance of winning the Democratic nomination Dean is currently playing radical to placate his party's activists. But remember, when governing Vermont Dean played at being a fiscally responsible centrist. Obviously, poser Dean is willing to do whatever it takes to win, and to win the general election Dean will need to run right.

This, Citizen Nader, is why you must run. A strong leftwing candidate would deter Dean from moving too far right in the general election because Dean would have to compete with you for the leftwing vote. If Dean stays left, you will probably get few votes, but will still have had a big impact. If Dean ignores your threat and moves right during the general election, you can capture his leftwing base and show to all Democrats the risk of abandoning the loony far left.

As Andrew Sullivan has written, Hillary Clinton is transforming herself into a hawk to better position herself for 2008. The only way you can stop Hillary's rightward drift, Citizen Nader, is to prove in 2004 that Democrats who run right lose the left. If you run and do well, Hillary will devote the next few years to winning over your supporters. If you don't seek the Presidency, Hillary will spend her time trying to win over Middle Americans, the types who drive SUVs and believe in the U.S. unilaterally fighting terrorism.