A take-off from the Anonymous v. Scientology story from last week.

Nader (my fellow Princetionian from the class of 1955) can go to Hell. I almost bought half a dozen different anti-Nader web URLs (dieinafireralph.com, retireralph.com and nothanksralph.com were my top candidates) but decided I did not need another project on which to work. There's not a whole lot of difference between Nader and Dennis Kucinich on policy and even Nader himself has praised the now dropped-out John Edwards. But Nader is peeved and wants a do-over, as if his constituents were refusing to participate in Democratic Party politics this past year.

Were Nader to run explicitly as a Green, I would have more respect for him, on the grounds that he might be helping down-ballot Greens gain ballot access and media access. But no, this is about Ralph's enormous ego and lack of hobbies. Golf, Ralph - golf! Birdwatching! Philately! Philandery!? Please Ralph, retire from presidential politics, do something else politically. At lease figure out how to win a House seat in your district first; might be nice to see you more often than once every four years doing your best to draw off enough votes from Democrats to screw the Democratic nominee for the crime of failing to agree with your entire agenda (whatever it is this week.)

If there were some meaningful philosophical difference between Nader and a hard-left Democrat or Green, I would have more respect for him. If he represented a philosophical or political movement substantially bigger and more enduring than his own ego, I would have more respect. The Libertarians are profoundly different from the Democrats and Republicans; while some Libertarians do lean more left or right (myself having been a left-leaning Libertarian until I leaned into the Democratic Party), their center of gravity is quite different from those of the Dems or the GOP. When the LP nominated Harry Browne in two successive presidential election years, that was somewhat controversial, because Libertarians are philosophically (in theory) very disinclined towards cults of personality or even the hint thereof, and because libertarianism is a political philosophy, not a metropolitan expansion of one candidate's ego. Libertarians are also quite organized and active within their resource base at the local level in years that are not divisible by four.

UPDATE: Aravosis:

What has Nader been doing the past four years? You haven't heard about a lot of consumer advocacy from Nader once he decided to be the herpes of presidential candidates.