1996 Ad

Progressive, The, Dec, 1996 by Matthew Rothschild

On the morning of November 5, I took my youngest son, William, to the polling place with me. We stood in line in the basement of Blessed Sacrament church in Madison (where's the ACLU when you need it?), visiting with neighbors, until we got to the registration table. I gave the clerk my name, took the paper ballot, and William and I went into the booth.

I didn't hesitate for a second. I grabbed the marker, and cast my vote for Ralph Nader, who was on the ballot here. It felt great.

I had my differences with Nader this campaign, but I never doubted his integrity or his commitment to peace and social justice. Since I couldn't say the same about Clinton--who could?--I felt no compunction about bolting the two-party system. William and I skipped out of the church, confident we'd committed no sin.

There were many such free spirits here in Madison. In fact, in the section of town where our office is located, Nader actually outpolled Bob Dole.

And the enthusiasm for Nader here was unlike that for any of the other Presidential candidates. Driving home on election eve, I saw Nader supporters with homemade placards at major intersections. It was electioneering of the old school, before soundbites, soft money, and the Lippo Group.

The odd thing about living in a place like Madison, and hanging around leftwingers all day long, is that I get a distorted view of the nation. Most of my colleagues. many of my friends, some of my neighbors, and even a few family members voted for Nader.

Here in Dane County, Nader received more votes than he picked up in some entire states, including Iowa, Arkansas, Vermont, Rhode Island, and Alaska, our veteran political reporter John Nichols wrote in The Capital Times. One district in Madison gave Nader more votes than the entire state of Louisiana.

Other leftwingers had similar experiences. Barbara Ehrenreich wrote to say all her friends had voted for Nader, too. "We should demand a recount," she joked.

Of course, Nader didn't win. He barely made it to asterisk status. But at least he stuck his neck out and said no to Clinton's sell-outs, no to corporate power, and yes to grassroots democracy.

I'm glad someone on the national stage said that. And I'm glad that as an intellectual proposition, the lesser-of-two-evils argument has taken a beating. Some of the left's leading writers, including Alexander Cockburn, Christopher Hitchens, and Katha Pollitt, exposed the moral vacuousness of that position this election year.

Where we go from here is another dilemma. But back to the caverns of Clintonism is surely not the way.

I got a scolding e-mail message from someone who identified himself as MBrewster@ something or other.

"I've just spent more than an hour looking for The Progressive magazine's web site," MBrewster wrote. "While presence on the worldwide web might have been optional as recently as six months ago, it no longer is. You MUST [who is this guy? Dave Barry?] acquire a web site. It will pay for itself in new subscriptions."

MBrewster went on to make a pledge he might regret. "Just to underline this point: I will subscribe to The Progressive, and I will encourage thirty-five friends of mine to subscribe," if you get on the web.

As a horse-and-buggy guy, I'd hoped the internet would just vanish.

I get irritated by strings of letters that don't amount to words.

I'm not much for the cliquish attitudes of those who use the web a lot.

And I don't have a crying need for more information in my life, since I'm overwhelmed as it is.

But while I'm technologically hidebound, I've come to recognize the virtues of a web page for The Progressive.

It enables us to reach a potential audience of millions of people who have never even heard of us.

And it allows us to respond instantaneously to events, instead of once a month, which has long been a handicap. Now we update the web page several times a week with fresh commentaries and stabs at political humor. It's a great relief to be able to express ourselves promptly instead of having to hold our tongues for thirty days at a time.

In addition, our web page lets us flag what's in the latest issue and display our various wares: radio interviews, T-shirts, calendars--the virtual Progressive marketplace.

Credit for our web page goes to Scot Vee Gamble, our longtime Circulation Coordinator, who volunteered to guide us down the path and to take on the task of translating what we do here into the foreign language the web requires.

For those of you who dwell in the virtual world, here's our address: www.progressive.org. Check us out.

And MBrewster, I await your list of thirty-five subscribers.