BY KERA ABRAHAM
TODD COOPER
‘And on a personal note, it’s very sad for me, as a
friend of his, to see him take a match to his great
legacy. If Bush gets another four years, the name
Ralph Nader will just go down in history.’
Moore on Nader
‘Ralph, you’re not listening to the people this year.’
D
ocumentary filmmaker and progres-
sive icon Michael Moore, who sup-
ported Ralph Nader’s bid for the
presidency in 2000, is now one of Nader’s
most vocal antagonists.
During Moore’s Oct. 18 visit to Eugene
— the 31st stop on his “Slackers Uprising”
tour — a group of hecklers interrupted his
speech to demand that he debate Nader.
“Let’s talk about Ralph for a second. He’s
not on the ballot in Oregon,” said Moore,
eliciting cheers from the sold-out crowd of
4,000.
“When the primaries were starting, there
were nine Democrats running, and I said,
‘Look, Ralph, look at the nine who are run-
ning. Eight of them — not counting
Lieberman — are more to the left of Al Gore
in 2000. That’s incredible.’”
The Nader supporters heckled louder.
“Nya nya nya nya nya!” mimicked
Moore. The crowd hooted with laughter.
“I said to Ralph, ‘You know Ralph, one of
the traits of a great leader is the ability to lis-
ten’,” Moore continued. “‘Ralph, you’re not
listening to the people this year! You’re not
listening to your own party! The people don’t
want you to run!’” The audience cheered in
agreement.
“I say this as a friend of Ralph’s. I say this
as someone who’s voted for Nader twice!”
shouted Moore. “I know the feeling, my
friends! You go to the voting booth, and you
pull the little curtain, and there you are, all
alone with Ralph.”
His voice became a sarcastic sexual
croon. “Ralph! Ohhhh, Ralph. Oh, you’re so
pure. You’re so good, you’re so pure! Oh,
you’re so pure!”
Then, more seriously, Moore continued:
“Ralph is right! Ralph is right on all the is-
F
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sues! And your point is —?”
He turned from the hecklers to the rest of
the crowd. “For those of you who share the
political end of the spectrum that I’m on, of
course the eight Democrats are not every-
thing we want them to be. But we’re not
being asked to compromise in the way we
were being asked to compromise in 2000,” he
said.
“You know what? As soon as President
Kerry is inaugurated on Jan. 20th, on Jan.
21st, everyone in this room is gonna be on his
ass to make sure he’s doing what’s right for
this country! Aren’t we? Aren’t we?” he
asked pointedly.
Moore’s comments reflected what he told
the press before taking the stage. “We need to
have coalition politics with our Democratic
brothers and sisters if we’re to push this
country in a progressive way. We can’t be
constantly just flipping the bird at them,” he
said.
“And to Ralph, I just say, ‘There’s anger
management classes for this. You don’t need
to work it out on the American people. This is
not the time or the place to do it.’
“And on a personal note, it’s very sad for
me, as a friend of his, to see him take a match
to his great legacy. If Bush gets another four
years, the name Ralph Nader will just go
down in history.”
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