Reasonable and Unreasonable Men

To Run

The Unreasonable Man is running for office again. I recommend the movie, whatever your point of view about Ralph Nader's decision to run for president.

For those people in our generation who are not familiar with who Nader is and what he could possibly offer, The Village Voice points out what that might be. In a good review of the movie, the author marveled that Nader, the man now reviled as "Benedict Arnold", was "once a hero -- a little guy who brought Big Auto to heel, helped prevent more than 190,000 automotive deaths in 30 years, and was directly responsible for the Environmental Protection Agency, OSHA, the Freedom of Information Act..."

These are the same institutions and scientists marginalized by recent politics. A large, growing group of individuals wants to hold a presidential debate involving the fate of science at some of these very institutions. But some in this group don't want Nader's voice, insight, or history.

Should we mention the Whistleblower Protection Act, the Consumer Product Safety Commission, The Wholesome Meat Act, Mine Health and Safety Act, Medical Devices Safety, Food Labeling, Public Citizen? Not relevant enough? I don't know, maybe he is insufferable. But is this presidential candidate more ego driven than the others? Should the other candidates not run because they've already served their country as senators, or as First Lady, as a prisoner of war during service for the US, or as a civil rights lawyer? Is Nader just too...ancient history...really?

What Nader offers is at least a different, seasoned, knowledgeable perspective to citizens and politicians alike. Why shout for democracy (or have I misunderstood) then confine yourself to two parties? The movie "An Unreasonable Man was balanced, fast-paced and interesting, and offered insight to the party system -- and perhaps contextual information about the current election season. It filled in some questions that the emotive backlash against Nader in 2000 never answered. To be clear, those angry voices are well represented in the movie. But so too is a little history, a few facts and the voices of some very thoughtful critics.

There's also a very well reviewed book on the subject that I haven't read called "Crashing the Party". This from the preface: "people should play active roles in shaping the electoral agenda and ensuring varied, open debates. In short, democracy is not a spectator sport."

During the 2000 campaign a presidential youth conference of the National Youth Platform involving thousands of young adults in their teens and twenties, supported by Pew Charitable Trust, Heinz Family Foundation, Wisenbaker Foundation, the League of Women Voters, the YMCA and the YWCA held a forum after the primary, and invited all the candidates. The students discussed ten topics with Nader for a couple of hours. Ralph Nader attended but Bush and Gore declined since polling showed that young adults have general agendas and don't vote in large numbers. Bush canceled at the last minute saying that the Republican Party had engaged students in other ways, for instance at "conventions young people have led the effort to create hand painted signs." (PR Newswire, August 1, 2000).

Or Not

Lawrence Lessig on the other hand, decided not to run. You didn't know? In a quick turn-around for second thoughts, he called the party off. He had decided last Tuesday night to run for the seat of Rep. Tom Lantos (D-CA), who died earlier this month.