Pride & Politics: The Tale of a Big Story in a Small Town

Book Excerpt
Red states, blue states, Green village 
Award-winning journalist's new book looks at New Paltz and the media
Pride & Politics: The Tale of a Big Story in a Small Town
By Erin Quinn, 2005, 302 pp., published by Mix Multimedia, Inc.

By Erin Quinn
Green Party of New York State

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My cell phone rang. It was Steve [Greenfield, then-secretary of the New Paltz Greens].

"Erin, Ralph is waiting for you. He's on his cell phone, in a car, driving toward Ithaca. They're giving you five minutes. Good luck. Here's the number."

I wanted to die. How could I interview this man without any preparation, without a pen or paper and with three screaming kids in the car? The cell phone had woken up Zofia who was now crying, very loudly. The two boys were fighting about who had crossed the invisible line in the back seat and I didn't know what to do or where to go. Kazik was working, my mother was working, my father was in Florida golfing, and I had five minutes, just five minutes to get this interview.

I pulled into our driveway and decided to plead with our oldest. ...I went into the house, grabbed a notebook, leaned it on the front window sill so I could keep an eye on the kids and dialed the number. Ralph answered. I had no idea what in the hell to ask him.

	Erin Quinn, author Pride & Politics.

"Why did you decide to come to New Paltz this close to the elections?" I asked nervously, with one eye on my steno pad and the other on the minivan.

"Because I wanted to come to Green Country," he said, and immediately, I was put at ease. "New Paltz is a university town where members of the Green Party hold elected office and have made great strides both environmentally and for civil rights," he said. "I expect great voter turnout in New York for our campaign."

I knew I had to get to the "spoiler" question, but I wanted to pay him more respect first and at least for four minutes talk about his platform. It was so odd to hear his voice on the other end of my phone, a voice so familiar to me from PBS or National Public Radio or "Nightline." The voice was talking directly to me. It made me sweat a bit.

"What do you believe your campaign is doing to improve Democracy?" I asked.

"Everything has to start somewhere," he said, sounding tired, and I have to admit, a bit defeated, as if the road he had traveled was long and bumpy and full of disappointments. I had been reading daily about democratically funded law firms taking the Nader campaign to court, state after state, trying to get him kicked off the ballot, challenging his petitions, harassing petitioners themselves. I had also been reading numerous editorials on the Nader question, old lefty buddies of his criticizing his decision to run again, pleading with him not to, calling him arrogant, claiming he had lost touch. I had even witnessed comedian Bill Maher and documentary filmmaker Michael Moore begging him on national TV, literally, on their hands and knees, not to run this time around.

But there was no deterring Ralph Nader. His political convictions on democracy, or his arrogant stubbornness, or some mixture of the two, would not let him quit. Even if the majority of the Left was trying to convince him, or in some cases, strong-arm him out of running.

We talked about his platform in slightly more depth and I could feel my time running out. "What is your response to those people, mostly Democrats and self-proclaimed liberals, who say you played a 'spoiler' role in the last presidential election and might very well do so again in the upcoming election?" 

I hated to do it, but I had to. And what I would learn about Nader is that he didn't mind this question at all. In fact, I think he welcomed it, because he was so skilled at turning it around and using it to advocate for his own platform.

"You can't spoil a system that is already spoiled to the core by electoral dictatorship and corporate-sponsored campaigns," he said defiantly. "In this race, Democrats have committed constitutional crimes to keep us off the ballot. They've used dirty, disgraceful, criminal tactics to silence us. In Oregon they've threatened our volunteers, stolen our petitions, harassed, intimidated our staff and slandered us all over the country with lies that we are being funded by Republican coffers. I do not believe that there is a better display of a fascist government than how my opponents have treated our third-party candidacy this year. It's a war of attrition."

"Thank you for taking the time to talk with me, Mr. Nader, and I look forward to meeting you when you visit New Paltz. Good luck with your campaign."

I hung up the phone, and quickly scribbled down some more notes, as Nader, a seasoned politician at this point, could talk much faster than I could write. I ran out to the car, anticipating the screams and tears of my children, only to discover that the two little ones were sound asleep, and Seamus was still singing, "We're off to see the Wizard, the wonderful Wizard of Oz." I was so proud of Seamus and so full of adrenaline from talking to Nader that I didn't know what to do with myself. I put Tadeusz and Zofia to sleep in their rooms and decided that sit-ups might be the only thing that could calm me down.

Only fifteen minutes later, my phone rang again. Seamus was lying next to me on our wooden floor, as I panted and tried to touch my elbows to me knees. He was watching a video of Cats, as it appeared that we needed a multi-media experience of the production.

"I heard you just got off the phone with Ralph Nader." It was Jason [West].

"Word travels fast around here," I said, very out of breath. I rolled over on to my side and asked Seamus to hand me my notepad. Might as well get it all done in one shot, I thought. "Do you want to give me some quotes for the article?"

"Sure. Fire away." I could tell that Jason was proud, certainly more proud than he was about the People magazine article or the Conan appearance or even the Mario Savio award. His hero was coming to town and he would be the one to introduce him.

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Excerpt of Pride & Politics: The Tale of a Big Story in a Small Town reprinted with permission from Mix Multimedia, Inc. 

Quinn received the New York State Press Association award for "Best News Story in 2004" for her coverage of the historic events in the New Paltz Times.

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