Spoils

So far the only good news is that Nader is polling under 1%. Once upon a time I would have hated to see myself write a thing like that; but then months ago I heard Ralph responding to The Nation's open letter asking him — asking him, you understand: it was a plea, a grovel, really, among old friends, signed by the entire editorial board (read it here) — and it dawned on me that he'd truly disappeared into the funhouse of personal ambition. He seemed to be accusing them of virtual imprisonment — human rights violations, fascism, hate crimes and whatnot. It was vitriolic. It was hysterical, even. He was talking about The Nation, for god's sake; Stalinism still whispers through their rafters from time to time, like little puffs of stale dust. Nader had shaded past rant into rave. Throughout the whole subsequent process he's been living proof that you can be right and yet still be terribly wrong.