Eugene V. Debs ran 5 times as a Socialist for President, the last time from prison.  He didn’t win, but Debs got 1,000,000 votes from his prison cell in Atlanta. His last run was against Warren G. Harding (who commuted Debs’ sentence in 1921).  I wonder how many people wish they could take back their Harding vote. 

We have Ralph Nader.  For those of you who can’t figure out who Ralph Nader is and why anyone cares, in 1965, he published a book, Unsafe at Any Speed: The Designed-In Dangers of the American Automobile.  This book killed the Chevy Corvair, a very cool car but for the fact that it was patently unsafe.

Ralph Nader was the model of the American watchdog, a man unafraid of taking on anyone anywhere when he thought something was wrong.  It didn’t matter that he was always the underdog, always David to corporate Goliaths.  He  formed an organization to challenge government and corporations.  And he is running for President.  Again.

When Ralph Nader ran for President in 2000, it’s said that he siphoned off enough votes from Al Gore to throw the election to George Bush. 

Nader is still loathed by many Democrats who call him a spoiler and claim his candidacy in 2000 cost Democrats the election by siphoning votes away from Al Gore in a razor-thin contest in Florida. Nader has vociferously disputed the spoiler claim, saying only Democrats are to blame for losing the race to George W. Bush.

There are arguments to be made on both sides on this point.  Splitting the liberal vote is a reflection of mainstream Democrats efforts to position themselves for mass appeal to the middle, or to put it differently, abandoning liberal values to win an election.  As the Republicans positioned themselves further to the right to appeal to conservatives, Democrats positioned themselves further to the right to avoid being branded liberals.  That meant the left was available to Nader, since no one else wanted ownership of it.

It’s hard to imagine that Nader believes he has a chance to win, though I’m sure there are some nights when he has pleasant dreams of a presidency.  Instead, I suspect that he believes that he needs to keep traditional liberal values on the table since the Democrats have abandoned them in favor of becoming Republicans Lite.  If not him, who speaks for the individual who, like a lamb to the slaughter, has been manipulated into believing that things are going swell.

Still, the ironic by-product of Nader’s 2000 run cannot be ignored.  George Bush became our President.  Whether this is Nader’s “fault” may be subject to debate, but it is undeniable that this was the outcome under the circumstances. 

It may be that Nader is not unhappy with this outcome.  Only by pushing the nation to negative extremes can one fully appreciate how bad a choice it was.  George W. Bush is now a dirty word, much like liberal was before it.  No one wants the President’s endorsement, as it is viewed as the kiss of death.  Failed policies, lies and deception have made the sacrifices of the past 8 years seem like a sick joke. 

Have we learned anything?  Has Nader learned anything?  Will there be another “Nader Effect” this time around?  And if so, do we deserve it?  Stay tuned.