Review: Ralph Nader's 'Party' unsatisfying

"Crashing the Party"
By Ralph Nader
St. Martin's Press
Nonfiction
352 pages

(CNN) -- Any third-party or independent campaign for President of the United States is an uphill battle. The most successful of them have coalesced around a candidate already well known, like Theodore Roosevelt, or a candidate wealthy enough to make his name known, like Ross Perot. In the 2000 election, the fledgling Green Party offered a candidate who has been a public figure for two generations.

"Crashing the Party: How to Tell the Truth and Still Run for President" is Ralph Nader's first-hand account of his campaign for the presidency. He casts himself as a David battling the Goliath of entrenched interests, political and economic.

Nader had appeared on the ballot before. In 1996, he allowed the Greens to nominate him for President but didn't mount a campaign. In 2000, however, he threw himself into the fray, stumping in all fifty states. From the beginning, his mission was clear. He wanted to highlight the corrosive influence of corporate cash on the political system, to the point that, in his view, there is no difference between the two major parties.

'The Democrats might as well be Republicans'

"Crashing the Party" is largely an indictment of Democrats. Nader charges that the party of Franklin Roosevelt has cut itself off from its roots, ignoring the plight of the poor and working families in its never-ending quest to pocket corporate contributions.

"So long as they continue to reward the very power brokers whose avarice contributed to the destitution and perpetuated social injustice," he writes, "the Democrats might as well be Republicans."

Nader chronicles the difficulties facing any new political party - the lack of media interest, the institutional hurdles erected by the major parties, the chronic lack of money. He makes it clear from the outset that his campaign was an effort to elevate the Green Party to a permanent player in national politics. He brushes off the allegation that he was playing spoiler, siphoning votes from Al Gore in key states and allowing George W. Bush to squeak into the White House.

His protestations ring a bit hollow. Despite his obvious disdain for Republicans, Nader aims his sharpest barbs at the Democratic Party. He acknowledges that the primary targets of his campaign were disaffected liberal Democrats. He admits he was sending a wake-up call to the Democratic leadership.

No fire

Even the title of the book is susceptible to dual interpretations. While the Greens were trying to "crash the party" that is the American political process, Nader was doing his best to cause the Democratic Party to crash.

Nader might be more convincing about his broader purposes if he offered readers a reason to believe he truly wanted to win the election. He lists the policies and programs his campaign supported, but he never explains why he wanted to be President. There's no sense that he has the proverbial "fire in the belly" that propels a candidate into the political fray.

Perhaps it is that, rather than his stands on the issues, that kept voters from casting their ballots for the Green candidate.

"Crashing the Party" allows Nader to couch his complaints about politics, economics and social justice in the context of a campaign memoir. He offers substantial evidence that the political process is in trouble. His argument that the Green Party has the solution is less persuasive.