Two Sets of Parents Hear That Ralph Nader May Run Again

deadline poet

By Calvin Trillin

This article appeared in the July 30, 2007 edition of The Nation.

July 12, 2007

In the 2000 presidential campaign, Mr. Nader contended that the Republican and Democratic parties were so similar it would make little difference whether Mr. Bush or Mr. Gore were elected.   --New York Times

You thought your kid might be assigned
To decent schools. Now, never mind.
Because Bush judges tipped the court,
All integration plans abort.
Take comfort hearing Ralph proclaim:
The major parties are the same.

You're worried sick about Iraq--
The war devised by Bush's claque.
Your son is there, and you believe
That he may die 'cause Bush won't leave.
Take comfort hearing Ralph proclaim:
The major parties are the same.

Subscriber Login

4 ISSUES FREE

Subscribe Now!

The only way to read this article and the full contents of each week's issue of The Nation online is by subscribing to the magazine. Subscribe now and read this article -- and every article published since for the past five years -- right now.

There's no obligation -- try The Nation for four weeks free.

.

About Calvin Trillin

Calvin Trillin is The Nation's "deadline poet." He has been a staff writer for The New Yorker since 1963 and has written the syndicated weekly column "Uncivil Liberties" since 1986. He has authored many, many books, including Tepper's Not Going Out and Deadline Poet: My Life as a Doggerelist. more...
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement

Blogs

» The Beat

Another Helping of FDR Please | Obama should follow the New Deal president's example and make his Thanksgiving Proclamation a call for economic justice.
John Nichols

» Editor's Cut

Filibuster Follies | "The filibuster has become a cancer growing inside the world's greatest deliberative body."
Katrina vanden Heuvel
62 Comments

» The Notion

Bad Black Mothers | For African American women, reproduction has never been an entirely private matter.
Melissa Harris-Lacewell
73 Comments

» Act Now!

Coal Country | Stunning film reveals new dimensions to the cost of America's over-reliance on coal.
Peter Rothberg
103 Comments

» The Dreyfuss Report

A Kingdom of Bicycles No Longer | China's ambassador for climate change speaks on the eve of the Copenhagen summit meeting.
Robert Dreyfuss
57 Comments

» Altercation

Slacker Friday | The "Second Amendment" sale; the raving paranoids of the right.
Eric Alterman