The Workday Liberal

Let me firstly warn my lefty friends that the following will be a screed, containing inflammatory attacks against Ralph Nader. If you are a fan of his, read at your own risk.

Al Gore winning the Nobel Peace prize for his work on expanding awareness of the science on global warming has given me the urge to launch another broadside against Ralph Nader.

Before Nader became a useful idiot for the Republican party, I used to admire him. He stood for the little guy against corporate fat cats. He was a veritable lion of the left. I will remember the days when I eagerly looked forward to hearing about the next Nader project with bitterness, in light of what followed.

Ralph Nader is directly responsible for the selection of George Bush to be President. I am more than happy to give my reasoning for that assertion if pressed. In my opinion, throwing the Presidency to Bush makes Nader indirectly responsible for the Iraq war. How do you suppose Nader feels every time he hears about the newest civilian massacre or looks at a list of American casualties... all of this needless death simply because Nader had to take the role of a Republican party tool.

Do I sound bitter? Well I freaking am!

Look at what Gore has done when he left Government. Now let's pretend for one blissful moment that Gore had become President, and George Bush had become a private citizen after the 2000 election. Who believes that Bush would have championed causes to further the betterment of the world? Bush would have done one of two things: Further his political career with a run for office as a right wing freakazoid, or gone onto yet another failed business venture.

Now imagine the difference if the last 6.5 years had been overseen by a President Gore. There are four major differences I can think of immediately: President Gore would not have gone tripping into the Iraqi quagmire, we would be light years ahead of where we are now on environmental concerns, our constitution would not be under daily assault by a lawless gang of thugs in the top levels of American government, and the U.S. budgetary debt would be a pittance of what it is now.

So Ralph Nader, once the corporate gadfly who took up the cudgel for the little guy and who big business hated with a passion for good reason, is responsible for bringing untold wealth and power to those very same privileged interests. The corporate fat cats have gone from hating everything about Nader to owing him a tremendous debt of gratitude. Well done Ralph, you freaking moronic tool. Sporting an ego the size of those fat wallets you once raided, you insisted that the two party system must be uprooted for the good of American Democracy... and in it's place you helped bring us a one party plutocracy. Well done!

The Republic will probably survive the disaster Nader helped bring us, but there are dead people numbering in the hundreds of thousands who will not. In a very real sense, Nader has blood on his hands. It is as if he willingly gave the keys to a drunken driver. Maybe Nader wasn't the one driving the vehicle when it plowed into the crowd of innocent bystanders, but he's the one who gave the driver the where with all and thereby commissioned the slaughter.

There is no further proof needed of Nader's destructive role in modern politics than to consider who finances him when he runs for office. It is a veritable who's who of Bush pioneers and Republican interests. Make no mistake about this. These corporate shills and Republican power brokers are not pouring money into Nader campaigns because they suddenly realize how wrong headed they have been all along, or to somehow balance the books by giving equally to the left and the right. They are doing it because Nader is their tool to split the left. The service he provided in the 2000 election was worth every penny multiplied by millions.

Let me wrap this up with heartfelt congratulations to Al Gore for winning the peace prize. I've been holding my fire on picking a Democratic nominee to back with the hopes that Gore would hop into the fray. My hopes in that possibility are waning with each passing day.