They’re bringing in the heavy artillery		by Ed Felien The Gore campaign is starting to sweat. The latest Minnesota poll shows them at 38 percent, with 41 percent for Bush, and 10 percent for Nader. They’re going after the Nader votes with everything they’ve got. They sent Tom Hayden to our offices to try to talk some sense into us. Tom Hayden was one of the Chicago 8, tried for insurrection in Judge Hoffman’s chambers in Chicago along with Bobby Seale, Dave Dellinger, Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin. Mayor Daley wanted someone to blame for the demonstrations at the 1968 Democratic Convention. Hayden was also one of the charter members of SDS (Students for a Democratic Society). The man is a walking legend, and, besides, he was married to Jane Fonda. He said, “My ideal scenario is that Gore wins and Nader getes five percent, enough for him to qualify for $12 million next time.” I said, “If they’re worried about carrying Minnesota, then they’ve already lost it.” He agreed. “And, if Nader’s going to get five percent nationally, then he has to get a lot more than that in Minnesota,” I said. He said he supported the Democratic Party because he had consituencies. He had labor unions, blacks, gays, women who were depending on him to provide basic services, and he couldn’t risk that by campaigning for someone who was trying to wreck the Democratic Party. I said I could respect that, “But not all the people coming through your office are representing people out in the street. Some of them are just representing themselves. They’re poverty pimps, using someone else’s misery to advance their own interests. And that’s what’s wrong with the Democratic Party. It’s shot full of opportunists and party hacks who care only about getting themselves re-elected.” Hayden agreed, “That’s what happens to all political parties eventually.” Hayden said this fight between Gore and Nader is too much like some macho contest, “We have no right to jeopardize the lives of working people just to gratify a couple of male egos.” I said, “I don’t see it like that. I think it’s like my wife described at lunch this afternoon. It’s like a woman who’s been in an abusive relationship for years. She’s packed her bags and she’s standing at the door, and he turns to her and says, ’Is something the matter?’ And she turns to him and says, ’It took you this long to figure out something’s wrong?’” “But isn’t that the time to sit down and negotiate?” asked Hayden. “Why now? Why has it taken this long for the Gore campaign to take take the Nader campaign seriously?” “They got bad advice at the start.” “What about capital punishment, the war on drugs (which you know is a war on young black men and leftists in South America), and sanctions against Iraq that are killing 4,000 children a month?” “Nader didn’t take a position on the war in Vietnam,” Hayden said. “He’s on the right side of those issues now.” “Sometimes it’s just best to leave and shut the door,” I said. “Minnesota hasn’t always had a Democratic Party. In the twenties and thirties the Farmer-Labor Party was the second party against the Republicans, because most people knew the Democratic Party was just made up of professional politicians and lobbyists. We believe the Green Party can someday become a major party in Minnesota.” After 50 minutes of spirited discussion, he had to leave. We shook hands, but we didn’t tell each other, “Hang in there and keep the faith.”