“Call him Mr. Ego, he’s a Macho Man."

-Song Macho Man by the Village People

I never believed when that song came out that someday I would be using it to describe Ralph Nader.

Ralph Nader was one of my childhood heroes. I read all of his books, stood in line to meet him and tried to get a job with his organization. Ralph Nader was the kind of American I wanted to be.

These days I would have a hard time being in same room with him. Ralph’s need to feed his ego hurt the cause that he spent his life fighting for. His run for President in 2000 was driven by his inner need to be seen as macho, tough and relevant.

I worked for Al Gore’s first presidential campaign in 1988 and wanted him to win in 2000. A lot of factors played into Gore’s loss, but Nader was the deciding factor.

Nader’s push for consumer protection and product safety in the 1960’s came when he was a young man. He received enormous amounts of publicity as his cause took hold. He was considered one of the most admired men in America.

As he got older, Ralph Nader did not make the headlines as often. Part of the reason was a shift in the country’s values, but the main reason was that Ralph had been tremendously successful in what he set out to do. A whole generation of talented trial attorneys grew up doing battle with car manufacturers that compromised safety for quick profits because of Nader’s investigations.

Ralph was not as “hot” as he was in the 1960’s. He did not appear on the talk shows or hosting Saturday Night Live like he used to do.

When Madonna went through a career slump, she put out a book showing pictures of her having sex with Vanilla Ice. Michael Jackson kept the media on him by having plastic surgery and Britney Spears got married.

Plastic surgery, marriage or having sex with Vanilla Ice were all viable options for Ralph, but he chose to run for President instead.

Having high name recognition and some real accomplishments in the distant past, Ralph made an attractive candidate for about two percent of the voters.

In a landslide year, no one would care about Nader or other fringe candidates. In an election where one candidate won the popular vote and the other was given the electoral vote by the Supreme Court, it became obvious a few weeks out that Ralph’s followers might make the difference.

Ralph acted like a teenager on a first date. He shoved his face on every television camera from the networks to the public access channel. Someone was paying attention to Ralph Nader again and he was going to suck up every minute of it.

The Ralph Nader that I always believed in would have recognized that Al Gore held the same ideals that he advocated and could do something about it. He would have understood that the cause was more important than his ego and stepped aside in favor of Gore.

Not this guy. Ralph recognized that the only way to keep the cameras on him was show that he was a macho man and hang in the race, no matter how much pressure was put on him. Ralph was going to recapture his fame once and for all. The country be dammed, Ralph needed his ego stroked.

I’m not sure he got what he wanted. After his flurry of media ended, he went back to being a has been. No one buys his books or listens to his speeches. He made some noise lately about running for President but no one really cares.

Before he got lost in his ego, Ralph was a man with real values. You can’t say that now and it is really sad.

The irony is that the song Macho Man, by the Village People, is probably better known by the public than Ralph Nader is now.

If Ralph had really wanted to get noticed, he should have dressed up like a policeman, construction worker or cowboy and sung with the group.

He would have been happier and the country a lot better off.

Don McNay is President of McNay Settlement Group where is unsafe at any speed for Ralph Nader to visit.