Yo! Ralph! What are you doing, dude?

LA Weekly has a sad, disturbing and a little bit alarming article on Ralph Nader. Mostly sad, because this is a terrible way for him to flame out in his career, which has contributed far more to the public good than most politicians ever came close to achieving: Ralph's Dark Side by Doug Ireland (02/27-03/04/04 edition):

Ireland, previously an admirer of Nader, is concerned about his pulling votes from John Kerry in the Presidential election. But there's also this:

Worse, Nader has now jumped into bed with the ultrasectarian cult-racket formerly known as the New Alliance Party and its guru, Fred Newman: Ralph was the star attraction at a January conference of “independents” that was just a front for the Newmanite crazies. By rejecting the Greens’ ballot line, Nader will have huge difficulties getting his name on the ballot. So he went shopping for help in ballot access from the Newmanites. The New York Times reported Nader says he’ll “link up” with existing “independent” parties in New York and elsewhere — which can only mean the Newmanites (who control New York’s Independence Party and similar remnants of the Reform Party in many states).

This cult is the antithesis of every value Nader holds dear. A Maoist grouplet in the ’70s, the Newmanites morphed into supporters of Pat Buchanan in the Hitler-coddling commentator’s 2000 takeover of the Reform Party. Newman recruits and controls his followers through a brainwashing scheme baptized “social therapy,” designed to create blind allegiance to Newman. He has frequently dipped his rhetoric in the poisonous blood-libel of anti-Semitism, denouncing Jews as “storm troopers of decadent capitalism.” By French-kissing the cultists to get on the ballot, Nader has allowed himself to be used as bait to lure the unsuspecting into the Newmanite orbit, where they risk being sucked into the cult. That’s a betrayal of the many young people to whom Nader is still a hero. And an acid commentary on Nader’s judgment.

Link via David Neiwert at Orcinus, who says that with this alliance, Nader has become "a right-wing tool and a wacko in his own right." Very sad.