not easy being green

Ralph Nader, who never registered as a Green, has stated that if he runs in 2004 he will do so independently of the Green Party. Voting for Nader in 2000 was the first time I voted in a national election. That said, I see this as good for the party - the European Greens built up from local/regional bases and now sit on nearly every parliament. Running large presidential campaigns is not the way to build a third party, especially one that prides itself on being grass roots. Nader's running as Green would likely hurt the party because many Greens have already lined up behind Kucinich and Dean, and would thereby cause unecessary internal rifts w/in the party (between the 'Anybody but Bush' crowd and the Naderites). It would be a far more effective strategy for the Greens to prove their strength through building coalitions with other progressive causes (MoveOn, etc.) than to divide the progressive movement by running a large national campaign, which would be a waste of time and money that could much better (&more efficiently) be spent on local and regional positions that can actually be won.