Call them the Nader Traitors. Days after perennial candidate/saddle burr Ralph Nader announced that he was running, again, for president, the very people who should have been cheering the loudest — left-wing Brooklynites who voted for him in his last two campaigns — were making a different kind of noise.
The noise of teeth gashing and fists clenching.
Even the only Brooklynite who actually contributed money to Nader’s inept 2004 campaign has cut ties to the twice-failed presidential hopeful.
“No way, not this time,” said Rahman Bacchus, a Crown Heights man who sent Nader $200 four years ago. “His campaign is fruitless this time!”
As opposed to last time?
“At least I thought he’d get his message out,” admitted Bacchus, “This time, there’s no chance.”
So Bacchus has climbed off the broken down bandwagon of lost causes and is supporting Illinois Sen. Barack Obama for his “youthfulness and energy — and he’s more vigorous and liberal than Hillary.”
Call Bacchus what you will for abandoning Nader (the word “reasonable” comes to mind), but if he’s bailed out, it’s no wonder that Brooklynites who funded Nader’s transcendent (I mean “infuriating”) 2000 run are also disenchanted.
“I’m kinda into my own life right now, so I won’t be getting involved this time,” said Sara Cross of Brooklyn Heights. “Actually, I’m not even sure why you’re calling me about Ralph Nader.”
I had to remind Cross that she had donated $400 to Nader’s campaign. (Imagine that! She’d actually blocked it out of her mind after the 2000 debacle.)
None of the other former Nader supporters returned my calls — further evidence that these one-time benefactors are content to leave Nader in the dustbin of history.
Given that apathy — and given how much most Democrats (and when I say “most Democrats,” I mean me) blame him for subjecting us to eight years of inept presidenting — I wondered why anyone would jump on Team Nader now. So I went to “Draft Nader” and scoured the petition for signers from Brooklyn. There were a few, of course, though, curiously, most of their phone numbers were either disconnected or didn’t exist. And one signer was named Travis Bickle, so it’s hard to tell how many real live human beings support Nader.
But there’s good news for “all” you Nader lovers out there (yes, I’m talking to you on 10th Street with the “Kucinich for President” sign still in your window): Three people have posted online they’d be interested in joining a Nader “Meetup” group in Brooklyn.
Alas, no one has set up the group yet.
