Ralph Nader must be blacker than black

Otherwise, how could I explain his pronouncements on Obama’s “blackness?”

Independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader accused Sen. Barack Obama, the presumed Democratic Party nominee, of downplaying poverty issues, trying to “talk white” and appealing to “white guilt” during his run for the White House.

Nader, a thorn in the Democratic Party’s side since the 2000 presidential election, has taken various shots at Obama in recent days while ramping up his latest independent run for president.

In a wide-ranging interview with the Rocky Mountain News on Monday, he said he is running because he believes Democrats, like Republicans, are too closely aligned with corporate interests. [...]

“There’s only one thing different about Barack Obama when it comes to being a Democratic presidential candidate. He’s half African-American,” Nader said. “Whether that will make any difference, I don’t know. I haven’t heard him have a strong crackdown on economic exploitation in the ghettos. Payday loans, predatory lending, asbestos, lead. What’s keeping him from doing that? Is it because he wants to talk white? He doesn’t want to appear like Jesse Jackson? We’ll see all that play out in the next few months and if he gets elected afterwards.”

Let’s get this straight.  Not only must a black politician only focus on poverty (since apparently, only black people are poor), but unless a black politician sounds like Al Sharpton or 50 Cent, then well, they aren’t really black.  I wonder if it’s ever occurred* to Ralph Nader that Barack Obama, in addition to being a black person, is also an individual, and has his own interests, his own agenda, and doesn’t necessarily speak for all black people.  That said, Nader should probably do a bit more of his homework; Obama has spoken out against economic exploitation, predatory lending, and lead paint in schools. Indeed, the Obama for America website is chock full of proposals aiming to tackle urban and rural poverty. 

In fact, Obama has done more about preventing economic exploitation than Nader has ever done (Nader’s website doesn’t say a damned thing about anything he mentioned) .  Part of the reason why I can’t take Nader seriously (besides the fact that he is partly responsible for George W. Bush) is that it’s clear that he is nothing more than a vanity candidate.  If Nader were actually concerned about the issues he criticizes Democrats (sometimes rightfully) for ignoring, then he would be out in the streets trying to build an actual movement around reform and change.  Nader is a charismatic guy.  He is able to attract the support of a fair number of people (granted, most of them are idealistic, white college students, but it doesn’t have to be that way).  He could have pushed the Green Party to begin building party infrastructure, running candidates in local elections, and making a real effort to build a truly national reform movement.  A movement which, if Obama’s success is any indication, could have made serious gains.

But to do that requires a leader, and Nader isn’t a leader.  No, Nader is nothing more than a deeply narcissistic and unserious man, with little concern for either his supporters or his country.  Whatever goodwill and influence he once had, he squandered to run his useless vanity campaigns.  Well, I take that back.  They weren’t useless.  After all, Nader was able to successfully prove that there is a difference between the Democrats and the Republicans.  All it took was four thousand dead Americans, a half-million dead Iraqis, and one shredded Constitution.  Thanks. 

*And can we please end this nonsense about “sounding white.”  By Nader’s measure, because I sound like I grew up in a middle class suburbia, I can’t actually be black.  Which you know, comes as a surprise to me.

(photo courtesy of Nader’s flickr stream)

(h/t to Steve M.)