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But it is only fair to ask why, if Gore were so vastly superior a candidate, the sniveling public-interest groups didn't do a better job of getting their constituents off the davenport to go vote for him. Election calculus is fuzzy math, to borrow a phrase, but it is possible, as Nader suggests, that fear of his threat to Gore actually got more people out to vote for the Vice President than otherwise would have. And Nader volunteer James Williamson, 49, of Cambridge, Mass., says he is offended by the suggestion that his vote for Nader should have been traded in on Gore the way you might exchange a Christmas sweater. Williamson was inspired by Nader's passion for ending the raffling of public policy. "When I voted for Ralph, I was moved to tears. It was one of the few times in my life I could vote for someone I felt good about voting for."
"Idealism can be very charming," says Nicastro, "but politics is about compromise."
When Nader hears this kind of thing, he starts rattling off such names as Rosa Parks and Thomas Jefferson. What's happened to dissent in this country? he wonders. The issue, he says, is that neither Bush nor Gore will run Washington. "The decisions in this town are made by the Chamber of Commerce, the National Association of Manufacturers, 22,000 corporate lobbyists and 9,000 PACs who have their grip on every department in government. Who do you think is the most powerful force on the auto-safety agency? It's the auto companies. Food and drug, aviation, you name it--they all have their clientele agencies."
Yes, Nader admits a little too reluctantly, there are some differences between Gore and Bush--but not on things that matter most. And spare him the clatter about politics as the art of compromise. "Politics is the art of transforming leadership, and a transforming leader is a person who says, This is the right thing to do, and I'm going to help mobilize the American people to counteract the special interests."
Two thoughts: First, John McCain tried this, and his wagon went off a cliff. Second, with all due respect, 3% of the vote doesn't signal a revolution, nor does it transform leadership. And here is where you wonder why a guy with 40 years of effective cage rattling to his credit would marginalize himself by jumping into the cage.
Nader has never been more noble or more naive. There is no place for uncompromised idealism in politics, or for anyone who knows exactly who he is. Some of his former friends wanted nothing more than for him to admit that Gore and Bush are like night and day in many ways, and Nader might still have their respect if he had. But the fight goes on, with or without them. "If you believe you're right," Nader says before disappearing through a door in the dim light of the quiet house, "you never lose the election."