What is Ralph Nader really like? David Sanford will tell you.

David Sanford, the managing editor of The New Republic, has written a sometimes outraged, frequently witty, and always cogent account of his evolution from a friend and defender of Ralph Nader to one of his sharpest and most devastating critics. Me & Ralph makes no pretense of being a full-length portrait of this “people’s advocate” who has pinwheeled his way from issue to issue. Nor does it systematically analyze Mr. Nader’s writings, charges, and other folklore. It is instead a personal account of Mr. Sanford’s relationship with the man, adorned by the comments of those who once followed in the footsteps of consumerism’s guru and drawing only occasionally on previous books and critiques. That Me & Ralph should have come from the typewriter of the reporter who, by disclosing that General Motors had set detectives on his trail, made Mr. Nader a national figure, is but one of the book’s ironies.

Mr. Sanford’s treatise is subtitled, Is Nader Safe for America?—and by the time you have turned the last page, you will be in little doubt about where the author stands. The point of view can be summed up in one sentence from the introduction: “Some of my sources” —and they include many whose lives were linked with Mr. Nader’s—“have seen him lie, cover up, falsely accuse antagonists, mistreat employees, disown mistakes, and behave contrary to the legend that he has tolerated, indeed nurtured, about himself.” Sanford buttresses these observations by ex-Naderites with stories of his own experiences in Mr. Nader’s gravelly vineyard. His approach is anecdotal, and in the long run his may be a more effective way of dismantling the Nader myth than that of a learned dissertation.

PM

About the Author

Peter Minot

David Sanford, the managing editor of The New Republic, has written a sometimes outraged, frequently witty, and always cogent account of his evolution from a friend and defender of Ralph Nader to one of his sharpest and most devastating critics. Me & Ralph makes no pretense of being a full-length portrait of this “people’s advocate” who has pinwheeled his way from issue to issue. Nor does it systematically analyze Mr. Nader’s writings, charges, and other folklore. It is instead a personal account of Mr. Sanford’s relationship with the man, adorned by the comments of those who once followed in the footsteps of consumerism’s guru and drawing only occasionally on previous books and critiques. That Me & Ralph should have come from the typewriter of the reporter who, by disclosing that General Motors had set detectives on his trail, made Mr. Nader a national figure, is but one of the book’s ironies.

Mr. Sanford’s treatise is subtitled, Is Nader Safe for America?—and by the time you have turned the last page, you will be in little doubt about where the author stands. The point of view can be summed up in one sentence from the introduction: “Some of my sources” —and they include many whose lives were linked with Mr. Nader’s—“have seen him lie, cover up, falsely accuse antagonists, mistreat employees, disown mistakes, and behave contrary to the legend that he has tolerated, indeed nurtured, about himself.” Sanford buttresses these observations by ex-Naderites with stories of his own experiences in Mr. Nader’s gravelly vineyard. His approach is anecdotal, and in the long run his may be a more effective way of dismantling the Nader myth than that of a learned dissertation.