Cart and the horse.

• Author: Rothschild, Matthew
• Position: A progressive third-party presidential bid in 1996 - Editorial

In 1991 and 1992, I squandered much of my time in a quixotic effort to draft Ralph Nader for President. I thought it was crucial to use the Presidential contest - the one time when most Americans tune in to politics - to articulate a vision and spell out a program of fundamental progressive change. I had already despaired of Bill Clinton and the traditional Democratic candidates, and Jesse Jackson was not in the running, so I thought Nader was as good a candidate as any: He had the track record and the national reputation to command attention and support, or so I argued. Since a friend of mine and I had worked for Ralph in the early 1980s, we tried to use what little entree we had to goose him into running.

Alas, he wouldn't be goosed, but I haven't abandoned hope in the possibility of an independent Presidential challenge. I had to laugh recently, however, when Paul Tsongas, perhaps the whiniest former politician in the country (a contest, to be sure), floated the idea of forming a third party with Colin Powell at the head of the ticket. Tsongas wants to split the difference between the Democrats and the Republicans, and that's cutting the baloney pretty thin.

The Democrats under Clinton have moved so close to the Republicans on so many issues that it'd be like building a party on the gap in MacNeil/Lehrer.

There is room, though, and plenty of it, on the left. As the Republicans wage all-out war on the welfare state, Clinton is barely putting up any defense. And on economic issues, he's been indistinguishable from Republicans; corporations couldn't have found a President more willing and able to carry their water.

So where does that leave us? As Adolph Reed suggests in this issue, we could try to prevail on the old horses of liberalism, like Ted Kennedy or Tom Harkin, to challenge Clinton from within the Democratic Party. But we've done this already, and not only with Ted Kennedy in 1980 but with Tom Harkin in 1992. What good did it do us? To shake hands after the primaries and work for the re-election of Clinton - who has been such a disaster, who in fact has paved the road for Newt Gingrich - does not make much sense to me.

I'm chastened, however, by Reed's admonishment that we not succumb to the "politics of wish-fulfillment." I'm prone to wishes, and I'm impatient. (Erwin Knoll bet me $50 and gave me 100-to-1 odds that Nader would not win the Presidency, and I was foolish enough to take him up on it.) And Reed has a point when he says...