f Ralph Nader had not been in the race, Al Gore would today be preparing to become president. Nader's supporters need to consider whether it would have been better to work inside the Democratic Party rather than allow the Republicans, with their pro-business agenda, to take control of the White House.
Nader's vote was the key to George W. Bush's lead in Florida of fewer than 2,000 votes. Nader got 96,896 votes there, and in his absence, Gore would probably have gained enough of these to defeat Bush unless the latter does extraordinarily well in the recount. Across the nation, Gore could have earned enough of Nader's 2,655,233 votes to win Oregon and New Hampshire and give him a convincing national plurality.
Nader was unrepentant Tuesday night. ''The Republican and Democratic parties take more money from the same sources; they morph into one corporate party with two heads,'' he said. ''Going around the country, you get the feeling that there are millions of people who are really ready for a new progressive political movement.''
Nader got less than 3 percent of the vote, not enough to qualify for federal matching funds and less impressive than Ross Perot in 1992 (18.9 percent) or 1996 (8.4 percent), John Anderson in 1980 (7 percent), or George Wallace in 1968 (13.5 percent). Nader's Green Party has far to go if it wants to have a continuing impact on national affairs.
Nader and his supporters raise serious questions about the environment, clean government, and the power of corporations in American life, but they chose the wrong campaign to make their point. If they truly want to build a new movement, they should start at the grass roots, with local races.
Nader supporters who embrace the Democrats will probably do so without their leader, who seemed to relish his role as a goad to Gore. The vice president was an uncomfortable candidate torn between proclaiming himself a populist champion or the heir to Bill Clinton's New Democrat legacy. Gore had a harder task than Bush, who did not face a significant challenge from the conservative fringes.
Nader fails to grasp that the two-party system has proved durable because it forces political leaders to build coalitions across a huge country. Nader and other outsiders appear appealing because they do not dirty themselves with the compromises that are essential to lead a national coalition to power.
Before Tuesday Nader had earned an honored place in US history as a pioneer in consumer safety. If Bush prevails in Florida, Nader will become a footnote as the willful eccentric who denied Gore the political prize he deserved.
