Imagine an America run by an Independent president Ralph Nader. Life is like Saturday Night Live. It looks like an end to global warming, media bias, poverty and corporate crime. It looks like a beginning for electoral reform and fair taxes for the masses. It’s too bad that if Nader indeed did win the election, Americans would be too busy staring at all of the flying pigs and wondering how Hell froze over to notice any of these improvements.

The truth is, as it was in 2000, that Nader doesn’t stand a chance. The republicans know this, the democrats know this, so why doesn’t he? Maybe wasting your vote is an Independent ideal that not many know about.

In the election of 2000, Nader ran as a member of the Green party, with possible good intentions. One could argue that he was looking out for America’s well-being by making the statement to run. Most likely, by running, he did not expect to win, but expected to force Americans to consider his value system, thereby reviewing their own. This is a stretched, but perhaps fair assumption.

Not surprisingly, the percentage of Americans who voted for Nader in 2000 was not high. Those who did vote for Nader in 2000, however, may realize now that they wasted their votes, and might as well have handed them over to George Bush directly. It is safe to say that those Americans who voted Green in 2000 would have voted for Gore, had Nader not been an option. Thus, these straggling votes would have tipped the scales and we might not be in the war-torn and depressed state of affairs with Bush that we are today. Thanks, Ralph.

As for 2004, Nader has jettisoned his Green party sentiments and decided to run as an Independent Citizen. At this point, good intentions have stopped being a legitimate excuse for his running for president. The road to imperialistic Republicanism is paved with good intentions.

This race was actually taking a positive turn before Nader got involved. An optimist could have found at least a glimmer of hope for a democratic president, (or for any non-Bush president, for that matter) before this political killjoy entered into the equation. That hope, however, has been nullified by Nader’s utterly narcissistic decision to rock the boat.

His motives for running in 2004 are far less noble than they may have been in 2000. His campaign remains weak even this far into the race, and he runs the race with an air of understanding as to the mess he’s making. It’s as if he’s basking in the idea of political importance, even though he’s just causing an unnecessary bureaucratic ruckus.

His efforts are below average and he displays no fervor in his desire to actually become president. He’s merely taking advantage of the system that everyone else is trying so hard to correct.

In fact, if the Bush administration didn’t just hire Nader to run, so as to take away the votes from the Democratic Party. Why else would Nader have come into the race just when the competition was heating up?

Nader could just be a Republican tool. Think about it.