So it is with partisan Democrats. Why wasn’t this a slam-dunk for Gore? Surely not because the party abandoned its traditional base. Not because it had a lackluster presidential candidate.

It’s Ralph Nader. Yeah, that’s the problem. Mike Dukakis wants to “wring his neck.” Senator-elect Hillary Rodham Clinton wants to kill him. Politics as usual? Maybe. But when the shrill hysteria escalates into defamation of a 20th century American hero, a modest response is necessary.

•  No one in political life is less driven by self-aggrandizement than Ralph Nader.

• The points Nader makes describe the national Democratic Party’s problems.

• Virtually all Democratic votes drawn from Gore went to Bush, not Nader.

• Third parties have worked for both Democrats and Republicans in the past when moneyed interests were rotting democracy’s core.

Many urged him to run in the 1970s when he was one of the most respected Americans. Everybody knew his name and reputation. Instead, he stayed in the trenches, living simply, funding others’ organizations and causing more legislation to be enacted for you and me than any senator.

His motive is what he says. Genuine concern about corporate millions corrupting politics and government. Paybacks to those donors in the billions we pay in higher product costs and taxes.

A third party is his last strategy, not his first. Thirty years of lobbying for campaign finance reform have failed.

Self-interest dictates those earning over $75,000 vote for Bush, and 54 percent did. But they’re the top 20 percent.

That leaves 80 percent for Gore. What happened? The New York Times reports Bush got 43 percent of first-time voters, Nader 4 percent. Bush got 37 percent of union households, Nader 3 percent. Bush attracted 15 percent of those who had formerly voted Democratic to Nader’s 2 percent. He received 12 percent of Democratic men – six times Nader’s draw. Bush pulled 49 percent of high school graduates, 19 percent of Jewish voters and 11 percent of African-Americans in the West. Nader got 1 percent of each.

Get real, Democrats. You have a problem. And it’s not Ralph Nader. Your traditional base has abandoned you because you abandoned them. Half the electorate stays home. You ignore Nader’s message at your peril. Slandering his supporters is no solution.

Gore, not Nader, cost Gore his home state. This election is about America, not Florida. Virtually every state’s electoral vote is unchanged with or without Nader. That’s even assuming every Nader voter would otherwise have voted for Gore. But CNN reports less than half Nader’s voters would have done so. Between 20 and 40 percent would have voted for Bush. A large number would have stayed home.

Third parties are a proud and appropriate response to big money domination. Disaffected Democrats, led by Iowans, used that strategy after the Civil War. Rebellious Republicans used it in 1912. Nader and the Greens are using it today.

David Broder, dean of political reporters, says Nader “put on the best campaign.”  Mike Wallace chose Nader’s commercials as the campaign’s best. Iowa’s David Yepsen concluded, “there are plenty of reasons to vote for Ralph Nader.” None a Nader supporter. All rational and respected professionals.

Democrats have much work to do. And continuing the venomous slander of Nader and his supporters won't make it easier.

Nicholas Johnson of Iowa City is a life-long Democrat who wants his Party to recapture its soul.