Retro Cool? Ralph Nader's Campaign

By Matthew Cooper

He buckles his seat belt, of course. Ralph Nader gets into the car at Washington's Reagan National Airport. It's 10:30 p.m. and it's a safe bet that his fellow passengers are heading home or at least out for a nightcap. At 66, though, Nader is going to the office. On the ride he talks about the IMF and other global economic bodies: "How can we sign on to something that subordinates democracy to corporate power?"

Nader's crusade against "corporate abuse" isn't new. For two generations, the Harvard-trained lawyer turned activist has been an American icon. There are children's books about him. His 1965 polemic on auto safety, Unsafe at Any Speed, led to taken-for-granted items like seat belts in every car and shatter-resistant glass. Since then, he's toiled on unglamorous issues like electric-utility rates. And he's inveighed against global-trade deals. It was Nader-founded groups that helped lead the Seattle WTO protests and who are shaping the IMF protests. "This is what a robust democracy should be about," he says.

Throughout his career, Nader has robustly worked democracy as a gadfly--a public activist infamous for his dated suits and worn shoes, lampooned for wanting to put airbags on tricycles. Now Nader is a politician. After two half-hearted campaigns for President, he is running hard. Why? The big money in politics, he says, is stymieing the process. "We cannot get through today what we remotely got through in the '60s and '70s," Nader declares. He'll almost certainly get the Green Party nod. His strongest rival is Jello Biafra, once lead singer of the Dead Kennedys.

It's an understatement to say Nader's not likely to sit in the Oval Office, but his campaign could be important. Last week a poll showed Nader getting 5.7%--versus 3.6% for likely Reform Party nominee Pat Buchanan. Nader scored close to 10% in the West--an omen for Democrats who fear that he could siphon California votes from Al Gore and throw the state to George W. Bush. Nader plays especially well with the elderly over 70--worried about prescription-drug benefits--and with the young. "He's retro cool," says John Zogby, who conducted the poll. "The same way my kids like Led Zeppelin and Cream."

For his part, Nader's not worried about handing the election to Bush. He's down on Gore: "He's plastic man. He used to be the man you went to on civil justice and biotech. Now he's just corporate power." Even though he's in competition with Buchanan, Nader says the racist rap against his opponent is unfair. Indeed, the icon of liberalism vows to reach out to conservatives. A Lebanese-American from small-town Connecticut, he rails like a Puritan. Childhood, he says, is being "corporatized by video games, junk food, undermining parental authority...Bill Bennett stuff."

Vowing to run differently, Nader says he'll hold "time raisers" instead of fund raisers, where citizens offer effort, not cash. Can an itinerant senior citizen create a movement? The answer lies with trade. Bush and Gore have similar pro-trade views; the public is wary of a one-world economy. For now, the big boys aren't sweating Nader. But they may want to buckle up.

--By Matthew Cooper