Should Ralph Nader Run in the 2008 Presidential Election?

On the surface, the idea of a third party candidate is a fine one. Judging from information garnered from multiple news sources, Clinton and Obama are tearing the Democratic Party in two while a great many Republicans feel that McCain is little more than a Democrat running on a Republican ticket. A candidate from a third group might just be what we need: a new perspective and a fresh voice.

Ralph Nader has thrown his hat in the ring again. In his last presidential run, he garnered only a handful of votes while earning the animosity of the Democrats. They accused him of stealing votes away from their candidate. Very little noise came from the GOP side of the house. I have theories on why that was, but no evidence to back them up. The idea that Nader siphoned off votes from anyone is the wisdom of a fool. People vote because they feel strongly enough about a person or issue to stand up and be counted. Citizens voted for Gore, Nader or Bush because they felt strongly about those individuals. Votes weren't stolen from anyone. Options were offered and people chose the option they liked best.

As I mentioned earlier, having a third party option is a fine idea. Is the candidate himself a fine idea, though? I've reviewed Mr. Nader's stances on a great many issues and have come to realize that his candidacy would be little more than a fourth Democrat running for office. The only difference between him and Senators Barack and Clinton is that he isn't a member of their party. The stances Ralph Nader takes on many issues are similar enough to those of the Democratic candidates to make him practically interchangeable with them. Couple this with the fact that Nader has made his living complaining about how things should be run but not actually running anything and you have a dangerous mix of idealism and inexperience.

Mr. Nader has many lofty ideas but very little political experience to make them reality. He was once a powerful force in consumer advocacy but he would be a poor choice as Commander-In-Chief. At best he would be a joke in the international community. At worst he would fracture the U.S. beyond repair. Overshadowing all of this is the simple fact that Mr. Nader would stand alone on Capitol Hill. Neither the Republicans nor Democrats would put forth any serious effort to back him or his ideas. Instead, they would hamstring him at every opportunity in order to make an example of him.

While the idea of a third party candidate seems like a fine one on the surface, the hard truth of the matter is that it wouldn't work. There aren't enough independent politicians in Washington to support the works of an outsider. We would simply face four years of vetoes and bickering. That is, unless they just impeached him at the first opportunity. We may never see a third party president take office again because we've let ourselves become too deeply entrenched in a two-party system. No really powerful or useful legislation gets passed unless one party or the other is strong enough to ram it through. Neither party will allow the other to do too much for fear that they may garner too much power. A third party candidate would last only as long as it took for the Democrats and Republicans to squash him and get back to business as usual.