Ralph Nader: The GOP's secret weapon

Ralph Nader's back – and Hillary must be wishing he weren't.

Nader's third-party candidacy peeled votes from Democrat Al Gore and helped put George W. Bush in the White house in 2000. Nader could be the GOP's secret weapon in 2016.

This time his contribution will be cynicism and apathy. Which we don't need.

In an op-ed in Los Angeles Times, Nader laments both the large number of 2016 presidential candidates and the low level of real differences between them.

It's his same old song about how the major party candidates are tools of the corporate elite. After dismissing the GOP field, he turns to Hillary.

He writes: "Clinton, the Democratic flag-bearer, spouts thinly veiled progressive rhetoric while keeping intact her core credentials as a corporatist and militarist."

Nader wants us to remember the contributions of third-party candidates.

Eight years of W? Thanks, again, Ralph.

Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders, once seen as a potential third-party threat to the Democrats' chances, decided to run as a Democrat. It was a gift to Hillary.

Nader says Sanders "may be the only major-party candidate who actually advances Main Street over Wall Street. The others do little more than replicate their party's line, albeit garnished with different slogans and labels."

Yadda. Yadda.

Sorry Ralph, I liked you better as a consumer advocate.

That routine about how the Dems and GOP are all the same is worse than bunk. It gets used as an excuse by the lazy, civic-mindless idiots who ask why they should bother to vote. It fosters cynicism and apathy. Which we don't need.

The differences between the GOP and the Democrats are real, stark and meaningful.

Both parties recognize that free enterprise is how this country works. Well, duh.

But it's the Democrats who understand the need for the government to exert regulatory pressure for the sake of the commons.

It's the Democrats who want to fund public education. It's the Democrats who value public land. It's the Democrats who want to invest in infrastructure. It's the Democrats who support women's reproductive choices. It's the Democrats who want immigration reform. It's the Democrats who support workers' rights.

These are major differences.

Nader's arguments to the contrary only help Republicans.