Nader to students: YOU are the Deciders

You can tell a lot about the priorities of a newspaper by its editorial decisions. Decisions that include not only what stories to run, but where they are run.

For example, a local daily decided that a rare visit by one of the 100 most influential Americans in history merited a less prominent space than a visit by Thomas the Tank Engine.

But at least The Post-Star actually did a story on the recent visit of Ralph Nader as well as some pre-visit coverage.

The fact of the coverage is shocking... even more so that the reporting was actually decent and showed some depth. There was the obligatory question about the 2000 election but there were also some intelligent questions on how the Democrats harassed him trying to get him off the ballot in 2004 in as many states as possible (the same Dems who'd sniveled about disenfranchisement ever since 2000).

The post-visit article focused on his speech to the local high school, where he encouraged students to get involved and make themselves relevant as citizens.

One of the interesting parts of the article was a section entitled: THE STUDENT'S OPINION [sic].

Hopefully the students in question are more familiar with the fundamental rules of grammar as pertaining to apostrophes than The Post-Star's professional reporter and copy editors. But the article was decent so I suppose I should let that go.

In any case, one student implied Nader was a communist, but that he was okay anyway. I could only chuckle at that.

But high school junior Ben Thompson said, "This is the first politician I've ever agreed with."

And with that, the 11th grader demonstrates that he has a better understanding of basic civics that most political scientists and other political 'experts' in this country.

Ralph Nader ran for president not to be a 'vote stealer,' as one student put it to me. This description is not only pompous, but flat out wrong. Even a basic understanding of the English language will lead one to the conclusion that you can't steal something from someone if they don't own it in the first place. No one and no party owns my votes. Nader didn't steal my votes or anyone else's. He earned them.

Nader ran for president for the only reason anyone should run for president: he thought he could do a better job than any of the other candidates. You may not agree with his ideas, but he ran for the right reasons. He ran for president to fill a void in ideas that was not addressed by any of the other candidates. And for this he is condemned for giving people another choice... most vigorously by the so-called freedom of choice crowd.

If it were up to the political elite, Ben Thompson and other Americans would be forced to vote for someone they don't agree with but who was decreed 'viable'? Shouldn't it be up to the voters to decide who's viable rather than the self-appointed gurus of 'conventional wisdom'?

Hopefully Ben Thompson is not the only student who figured that out.