what i perceive as a lack of focus
February 15, 2002 01:05 PM

so ralph nader was talking to jon stewart yesterday (or the day before, i suppose, as i tend to watch the rebroadcast of the show). and i have to say.

ralph, i love you, i really do, but even your own mother would have to agree that you undermine your credibility when you start to say things like and they're going to own our genes in that persistent voice you sometimes use.

ralph, you're a smart guy. why not explain these things to your audience instead of sloganeering like that? you suck at that kind of propagandist approach, ralph. and it's not what the people want, anyway. really, it just makes you look creepy.

i voted for nader in 2000, and i've always appreciated his watchdog nature. but i appreciate it much more when he brings us information than when he howls in the middle of the night at leaves blowing in trees. he sometimes encourages the same sort of blind acceptance in progressives that he criticizes in the general population, and that's just not okay.

but then, ralph suffers from what much of the liberal left suffers from: a glut of issues. conservatives tend to have one or two things each that they care passionately about. and will make compromises to get those one or two things done (usually compromises that ultimately benefit them). but progressive politics isn't focused, not at an individual level and not at a leadership level. this was fine during the clinton administration, when we didn't need to be defending things so much, but it's not working for us now.

i'm not sure what to do about it, other than this: pick my issues, and be louder about them.