A friend and colleague of mine at the UW, Trevor Griffey, wrote a brilliant piece in the most recent issue of the
Seattle Weekly on how Nader undercut local Green Party organizing, and he offers excellent, broader thoughts like this:
"NADER CAN'T BE blamed for the incompetence of local Green parties, in Seattle or elsewhere. But he can't entirely be let off the hook, either. He provided crucial sparks for fires but refused to fan the resulting flames. He seemed to expect untrained volunteers to morph into devoted citizen activists overnight, without any of his guidance, money, or leadership. And with his move this year toward independent status, he seems even more likely than ever to pursue a similar path of grandstanding without organizing.
It's no consolation to say that Nader is not the person to lead a grassroots electoral movement to revitalize our democracy, because there are few alternatives among Democrats or third-party leaders.
Progressive thinking is vibrant in our nation's radical activist groups, nonprofits, universities, lefty press, and what remains of the labor movement. But as long as progressives like Nader eschew party building, progressives will remain disorganized-- just a bunch of idealistic independents stepping all over each other, consequences be damned, trying to get their individual voices heard as the radical right picks them off one by one."
See the link above for the full article.
Trevor's absolutely right, though. At some point you have to stop tilting at windmills and start building a party. This is why Dean has done it right, and why Nader needs to be kicked to the curb. Lone wolves will get picked off by the bigger predators every time.
