Nader's supporters.

I would like to thank Ruth Conniff for her article on the Nader campaign in Madison ("Nader's Students," November issue). It was very fair overall. There are, however, a couple of quotes that need to be given more context.

Matt Goins's quote comparing the Democrats to "the mafia without the killings" referred to the Democratic Party and their supporters' harassment of petition circulators. We were all threatened at one point. Goins was once told that he would be "put on a blacklist" while he was petitioning.

My quote, "I'm glad America is hated. I think the U.S. should shut down all its military bases abroad," was in the context of Conniff's laments about the U.S.'s standing in the world. I was simply making the point that regardless of whether Bush or Kerry was in office, we would be doing things that people should hate us for.

John Kerry was perhaps more proIsrael than Bush and would have continued to crush the Palestinians. He also would have continued the war on Iraq and kept the military in more than 100 different countries.

Bill Linville

Madison, Wisconsin 

Wisconsin Field Coordinator

Nader-Camejo 2004

Ruth Conniff's article "Nader's Students" could have been more persuasive without her repeated and obviously dismissive references to the pro-Nader subjects of her interviews.

Was it really necessary to keep describing their T-shirts, how they "giggle" and "snort," etc.? Conniff's peevishness detracted from her article's serious anti-Nader message and could actually have alienated undecided young readers. She sounds like a cranky senior citizen, offended by "these young people" who just won't listen to her.

By contrast, her faint praise for their (apparently misguided) idealism seems like an afterthought, tacked on after Howard Zinn's more levelheaded concluding comments.

This was a very rare low for The Progressive's journalism. Outside of your humor columns, I don't recall past articles, even those on rightwing sleaze bags, focusing so much derisive attention on trivial details.

Roger Lindsay

Minneapolis, Minnesota

Nader and his student supporters missed the point. They refused to acknowledge progressive pragmatism in favor of progressive idealism; they substituted conviction for efficacy.

Progressives who supported Senator Kerry were neither selling out nor ignoring the future. The future was our main consideration. We were not acquiescing to the Democratic Party line. On the contrary, we were building a challenge to it from the inside.

Christopher Dalzell

El Paso, Texas