Guest Editorial
The Big Stick
by Christian Mitchell

I sent an e-mail to Ralph Nader the other day asking him to withdraw from the presidential race. I was, I believe, straightforward but polite. Here's the text of my e-mail in its entirety:

Dear Mr. Nader,

I have always admired you, and I understand your goals in trying to
establish a viable third party. But I'm asking you -- no, I'm
begging you -- for the good of the country, please withdraw from the
presidential race.

You will not be able to reach the 5% mark that will guarantee you
public funding next time around, and even if you did, that would be
a small consolation if your candidacy swung the election to George
W. Bush.

Please encourage your supporters to vote for Al Gore. Tell them the
truth. You could always be counted on in the past to tell the truth,
Mr. Nader. Tell them that a vote for you IS a vote for Bush.

Your candidacy is now seriously threatening Al Gore in California,
Wisconsin, Oregon and other states -- states he might otherwise be
expected to take this year. If he loses these states to you on
November 7th, Governor Bush will win the presidency.

If that happens, you will be remembered not as a champion for
campaign finance reform or unions or the environment. You will be
remembered as the man who brought us President George W. Bush.

Sincerely, etc. etc....

One hour later, I got the following reply:

Dear Christian,

You will be surprised then, when we reach 5% on election day.
Remember, Nader is the only candidate who can draw 17,000 people to
Madison Square Garden -- at twenty bucks a head. And remember again
that a candidate must earn their own votes. If Gore cannot earn
enough votes to win, that's not ours [sic] fault. The people of the
United States choose a president, not the Ralph Nader campaign. The
problem with democracy is that people have choices (sic). And
that's our job, to provide a choice to those who no longer believe
that the system works. "What is popular is not always right, and
what is right is not always popular."

Sincerely, Joe
[Nader staff]

That's when I got mad.

I found it a little hypocritical that the Nader campaign is running largely on the claim that Ralph Nader is not corrupted by money, and yet the first point Joe chose to make was that Nader was the only candidate to draw a crowd of 17,000 at twenty bucks a head. (Never mind that on that same day, Al Gore had just spoken at a rally attended by 30,000 supporters. And it didn't cost them a penny.) On top of that, Joe HAD to wind up his letter with a pithy quote intended to make me see the error of my ways.

I wrote back to him, telling him that Al Gore HAD earned these votes, and that for Ralph Nader to come along and invent such a word as "Republicrats" is irresponsible at best and at worst casts him as a man who is willing to do exactly what he accuses the major party candidates of doing: using meaningless and untrue hyperbole and saying anything to get a vote.

I also reminded Joe that Margaret Thatcher and the Tories held power in England for so long because the liberal vote was split between 20 splinter liberal parties, giving the one conservative party the majority and handing the Prime Ministership to them again and again and again.

I wound up my letter quoting him right back: "Nations come into this world like bastard children: half improvise and half compromise."

If Joe wanted to play the quote game, I could've given him a couple more. How about: "Some rise by sin, and some by virtue fall." -- Shakespeare. How about: "A house divided against itself cannot stand." -- Abe Lincoln. How about: "We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately." -- Ben Franklin. How about "Little strokes fell great oaks" -- also Franklin, or "Hell is paved with good intentions." -- Samuel Johnson. Or "Don't sink a ship to drown a rat." That one's mine. But I didn't want to go overboard, so I sent the letter as is. This time he didn't reply, and I didn't feel any better.

Now. I told you that story so I could tell you this one.

We've only got a couple of days left before the election. The last national poll I saw yesterday showed George W. Bush polling at 48%, Al Gore at 44%, and Ralph Nader at 6%. Now let's do a little simple math. 48-44 equals 4. That means Bush is ahead of Gore by 4 points. If Bush is ahead of Gore by 4, and Nader is polling 6, that means that with Nader out of the picture, those 6 points would go to Gore, putting Gore at 50% and Bush at 48%. Anybody who still thinks a vote for Nader isn't a vote for Bush, front and center.

We don't have a lot of time left, so all you Naderites out there, listen up. Are you willing to throw the presidency to Bush just to make a point? Are you willing to give up all the ideals that you stand for just so you can say you refused to compromise?

Well, I got news for you. This country was built on compromise. Don't believe me? Okay then.

When my brother and I were kids and acting up, my momma had a little thing she would say to keep us in line: "All right, that's it, get the stick. Not the little stick, get the big stick." She was joking, but I learned a lesson from that

So I'm getting out the big stick for this.

Let's play a little game, shall we? It's called Imagine. Those of you with kids, you play this game with them, you know how it's done. Those of you who were kids once, think back. Remember how you used to do it?

Okay, here we go.

Imagine this land that we all live in. Right now it's called the United States of America. But let's imagine that we're not really a country. Let's imagine ourselves like Bermuda. We all still speak English, but we're not Americans. We're British subjects. Now imagine that flagpole in front of the town hall. Look at the flag that's flying there. That's not the Stars and Stripes, is it? No, that's the Union Jack. Know all those monuments in your town square to George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Ben Franklin, John Adams, and all those guys? Take those down, too. Now put up monuments to King George and Queen Elizabeth. And while you're at it, take your wallet out and put their faces on your money, too.

There is no United States of America. Know why? Because Thomas Jefferson refused to compromise.

Jefferson's original draft of the Declaration of Independence contained the following passage: "He (King George of England) has waged cruel war against human nature itself, violating its most sacred rights of life and liberty in the persons of a distant people who never offended him, captivating and carrying them into slavery in another hemisphere, or to incur miserable death in their transportation thither. This piratical warfare, the opprobrium of infidel powers, is the warfare of the Christian king of Great Britain. Determined to keep open a market where men should be bought and sold, he has prostituted his negative for suppressing every legislative attempt to prohibit or to restrain this execrable commerce..."

This is what Jefferson WANTED the Declaration of Independence to say. But when the Continental Congress got together to debate it, Edward Rutledge of South Carolina insisted that the passage be removed. If not, he would refuse to vote for independence, and as went Rutledge, so went the entire south. If the slavery clause remained, the southern delegates would bury forever the dream of a United States of America.

Jefferson had a dilemma. He could refuse to remove the passage and stand on principle, thereby sacrificing the young nation about to be born and ensure that slavery would continue under King George's rule. Or he could strike the passage and create a new nation where hopefully one day all men WOULD be created equal.

Jefferson chose to compromise. He struck the passage and, as we all know, the United States was born.

Now imagine that it's 1861. Abraham Lincoln has just been elected President. The south is outraged, even though he has proclaimed in his Inaugural Address what he has previously stated, that he will not outlaw slavery: "I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the States where it exists. I believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so." He also warned, however, that the south could not lawfully secede from the Union: "...no state upon its own mere motion can lawfully get out of the Union; that resolves and ordinances to that effect are legally void, and that acts of violence within any state or states against the authority of the United States are insurrectionary or revolutionary, according to circumstances." Well, the south wasn't having any of that.

The south had two choices. They could compromise and remain in the Union, secure in the notion that their "peculiar institution" of slavery would not be threatened, or they could secede, insisting on their further desire to be a separate country, and risk a long and bloody war.

They seceded. Abraham Lincoln forced a showdown at Fort Sumter, and the Civil War was underway. Four years later, 650,000 Americans -- and Abraham Lincoln himself -- were dead.

Now let's think back on the Cuban Missile Crisis.

On August 29, 1962, American U-2 spy photos showed nuclear launch pads in Cuba. President Kennedy issued a warning to Nikita Kruschev: Remove those missiles or we will act.

What did "We will act" mean? Everybody knew. It meant nuclear war.

Kruschev sent Soviet ships steaming toward Cuba with missiles for those launch pads. Kennedy dispatched American warships to intercept them. Averell Harriman burst into the White House insisting to Kennedy that Kruschev needed more time and assured him that if he gave him a little breathing space and a way to save face with the Politburo, Kruschev would back down. If the President would recall the American warships closer to the Cuban shore, Harriman reasoned, this would give Kruschev more time to make his decision and retain credibility with his politburo.

Kennedy had a choice to make. He could be intractable and keep his ships on course for the Soviet warships, or he could back off and give Kruschev a little more time.

Kennedy compromised. He pulled our ships closer to the Cuban border, and after a tense waiting period, the Soviet ships turned around and headed home, avoiding what might well have been the end of the world.

Okay, that's the past. Now let's imagine the future.

It's January 20, 2001. George W. Bush stands before Chief Justice William Rehnquist, his right hand raised in oath, and says, "I, George Walker Bush, do solemnly swear..."

This is not fantasy. THIS COULD HAPPEN. We're THIS CLOSE.

All you women out there, imagine you're pregnant. You're not ready to have a baby. You're too young or you don't have the money to support a child or you're not ready to be a single parent. Are you prepared to vote for Nader even if it means losing your right to choose when you're ready to be a parent?

And for all you men who are reading this right now and asking, "Well, I'm not a woman. What does this have to do with me?" I have a question for you: Are you ready to be a daddy? Well, you goddamn well better be, because thanks to your vote, you won't have any choice. Bush will appoint Supreme Court justices who will overturn Roe v. Wade, and when you get your girlfriend pregnant, she's either going to die of peritonitis from a botched illegal abortion or she's going to have to have that baby. And with Bush promising to enforce existing laws, your local District Attorney's office will be slapping a warrant on your sorry ass the second you miss a child support payment.

Still not convinced? Okay.

Then let's imagine that Ralph Nader said, "Even if Roe v. Wade is reversed, that doesn't end it. It just reverts back to the states." Oh wait, that's right. We don't have to imagine. He DID say that.

Okay, then. Let's imagine that he said something like, "Let's not turn this guy into a Ghengis Khan. First of all, he doesn't know much. Secondly, he's lazy. And third, he avoids conflict. Those are all assets." Oh, wait. He said that, too.

Imagine the Alaskan Wildlife Refuge awash in drilling rigs. Imagine African Americans across America being pulled over by cops for no goddamn reason except the offense of Driving While Black. Imagine two Federal executions a week. Imagine unemployment up to 8%, imagine another $3 trillion deficit.

Imagine your grandma eating dog food because President Bush gambled away her social security check on the stock market.

Am I trying to scare you? Damn right I am. But am I exaggerating the consequences? No, I'm not.

Is voting for Nader that important to you? Is a vote for Al Gore that big an offense to your ideals in light of what President Bush would do? Is a little compromise really that bad?

Ralph Nader is holding the six percent of the vote that Al Gore needs to win this election. On Tuesday, if you don't pick your battle and vote for Al Gore, you'll be electing President George W. Bush.

Do you remember what President Bush Sr. did to this country? I do. I don't know about you, but I don't want to find out how far this apple fell from the tree.