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Quote of the Day: Katha Pollitt

By Katha Pollitt
9 March 2000

"Running an anti-NAFTA, pro-environment campaign that resolutely avoided mention of racism, welfare reform, affirmative action, civil liberties, reproductive rights, public education, healthcare, urban decay, poverty or other longtime progressive concerns, and that made little effort to draw in new or disaffected voters, Nader wound up with less than 1 percent of the vote. Look on the bright side, one friend said wanly -- he outpolled Dole in some Bay Area precincts. I'm embarrassed to admit that one of his votes was mine. The idea of progressives cranking up an organization, raising funds, fomenting energy and enthusiasm on behalf of this doomed project -- this time, we're assured, he really means it, at least enough to get the 5 percent of the vote that would win millions in federal funds for the Greens -- well, it's just too depressing.

If working on Nader's campaign is the best way progressives can spend the next eight months, it's time to hire a hearse and lie down in it."

Katha Pollitt
"Cemetery Road"
March 20, 2000