"So the Greens' timing is their problem. But Doug Henwood of the Left Business Observer chides Nader for not building a third party in the intervening years between elections. "Building a new party ... is the task of lifetimes, not months or years, and it isn't a process that can be short-circuited by celebrity presidential runs." Henwood hits the nail on the head here: celebrity runs won't, in the long term, be the winning ticket. But, we must ask, who should build that party? In running, Nader has helped the Greens and might again indirectly if he inspires them to get serious about doing what Henwood suggests, being consistent over lifetimes. Meanwhile, if we want more than celebrity runs, that's not a shortcoming of Nader's. In running against the tide Nader has-once again-done more for this cause than most people. If we are going to heed Henwood, we should look to ourselves to build that party. Maybe we'll ask Nader to run again, if that makes sense to us and to him. But it's wrong to berate an individual for doing something other than building a party in between runs when he puts such a gigantic effort into those runs, pointing out a path for the rest of us. (And he did try to build the Greens after 2000, by helping with dozens of fundraisers.) If you don't want people voting for Nader because you think a Kerry win is important, fine-argue that. But to argue we shouldn't vote Nader because he did something else for four years besides build a party obscures the important issues we face."
from:
Weekend Edition October 30 / 31, 2004
A Question of Character What Makes Ralph Nader Tick? By GREG BATES
http://www.counterpunch.org/bates10302004.html