Gore Vidal and Ralph Nader

The headline was startling, to say the least:

RALPH NADER CAN BE THE NEXT PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES
by Gore Vidal

The article, I was relieved to learn, was not new. It was published in a 1972 issue of Esquire (alas, I neglected to scribble down the precise date on my photocopy), which my ladyfriend stumbled across in the library. The article seems pretty humorous today. Lecture audiences, we read, invariably cooed with delight whenever Vidal brought up the prospect of a Nader run. Of course, the type of people who would show up to hear Vidal speak (in either 1972 or 2004) might not represent the average voter.

Here's the most interesting paragraph:

Not long ago, an executive of the New Party discussed the presidential matter with Nader. Nader said he did not want to be a candidate. For one thing, he would lose all usefulness as a consumerist. For another, he would probably split the "liberal" vote and so reelect Nixon.

At that time, Nader was either a wiser man than he is today or (as I tend to suspect) freer from compromise. And Vidal was more foolish.

I'm presuming that Vidal has finally outgrown his foolishness of yore. Perhaps he hasn't. Perhaps there's no fool like an old fool. That adjective, should he see these words, may make him wince, but I don't care.

I'm still rankled by his continued support of Nader in 2000, and by the inane things he spouted about his relative Al Gore. That election disproved once and for all the proposition that only a dime's worth of difference separates the two major parties. Vidalian cynicism helped bring us to our present mess: Massive deficits, war and rumor of war, the increased threat of terrorism, alienation of our allies, a miserable economy, closure of hospital emergency rooms, the growth of the "working homeless," a press so stridently conservative it must repulse even the shade of Edouard Drumont, and a populace of Jesus-junkies happy to see our schools peddle Creationism.

Vidal once believed in Nader's honesty. If he still does, he's an idiot. Any affluent person who skoffs at the IRS opens himself up to blackmail and manipulation -- and Nader, according to at least one former close associate, is a man who does not like to pay his taxes. Once I learned that basic fact, I stopped wondering why he remains in the race.