Foiled again

Nader needs to garner 5 percent of the vote on Election Day for the Green Party to be eligible for federal funding in 2004. And that's a goal he seems to care about. He's learned to deliver a punch line, even if the delivery is a little too windy. "They're just money machines. And after the elections are over they'll wait a few months, and then they start shaking down the special interests," he said. "It's mutual-interest extortion." The crowd went wild.

It was a typical Nader crowd in that it was difficult to pinpoint a key set of interests, other than a general feeling of being disenfranchised with the political system. The crowd included Food Not Bombs, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, and a group holding a huge banner reading "Independent Palestinian State." And there were plenty of kooks; representatives from the Mars Society had driven in from Cincinnati, not even because they endorse Nader. ("We're not for any candidate," said member Jerry Black. What are they for? "First, robotic exploration of Mars, followed, eventually, by human exploration of some sort.")

There were plenty there, though, fully behind Nader even if they couldn't fully explain why. Julian Morris, a 28-year-old part-time student from Tulsa, Okla., said he and a friend came to St. Louis after having just started the northern chapter of the Oklahoma Green Party. A month ago, Morris says, he wasn't much interested in politics. "Then I saw Nader on TV, C-Span, I think, and I was just curious. I did some research," he says. "He makes it seem like it matters at the grass roots, that you don't have to have a lot of money to make a difference."

After the rally, Nader and his staff piled into a nearby van and pulled out, leaving a crew of reporters scrambling for hints about where he might go. We'd all heard that he would try to bust into the debates -- as indeed he did. But the question was where and when.

Soon, there was a small herd of reporters jogging through the charming little gated Washington University. As about three reporters and three cameramen ran through one quad, derisive chants of "Me-dia, me-dia, me-dia," erupted from the windows and from students sitting and sipping sodas on benches. We ran faster, though it was a little unclear where we were going.

The campus police had no clue. One wasn't even sure he'd stop Nader. "Why won't they let the man in!" he said. "He should be allowed to speak!" He wouldn't give me his name.

After Nader's brief appearance at the university's entrance, the supporters who had gathered quickly rejoined the much larger, angrier group from the earlier rally, which had taken over the portion of a street just behind the university. "We heard the Secret Service wanted to keep this street clear," explained Bill Ramsey, a local activist and one of the organizers of 017, a coalition of several dozen St. Louis interest groups. "We're prepared to stay here until something happens."

The state police showed up in full riot gear, and about 100 of them lined up shoulder-to-shoulder to block the street. At one point, Ramsey, on a bullhorn, split the group into two, urging a crowd that wanted to march around the university to leave, while the others would stay and participate in an "action."

About half the 1,000 or so left. Those who stayed seemed primed for a melee. At one point, Ramsey, back on his bullhorn, urged the crowds to participate "again on Oct. 22, for the National Day of Protest Against Police Brutality." The crowd jeered at the riot police. Several people started chanting "fuck the police."

The spectators in the crowd braced for the worst. Abbe Sudvarg, an event organizer who said she worked for a group called St. Louis Economic Conversion Project, started passing out vinegar-soaked kerchiefs for protection against tear gas. A few kids hoisted a large, upside-down American flag with a dollar sign stenciled out of the stripes. Then they lit the distressed flag on fire.

But somehow, nothing happened, and this tense moment also passed. The crowd split in two again, with a large portion moving toward the front of the university. Nader long gone, their thoughts finally turned to the other two candidates, and they wanted them to at least see that they were there.

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