Prior to 1999, Nader’s reputation was about as positive as any left-leaning national figure could hope for. Defining his worldview as “moral empiricism,” he spent most of his public life as the nation’s highest-profile consumer activist, particularly focused on government transparency, the environment, and automobile safety. His 1965 book, Unsafe at Any Speed, was the catalyst for the widespread adoption of seat belt laws. Nader’s expressed view on almost everything was heartfelt, intransigent, and nonsymbolic. “Every time I see something terrible,” he said as a forty-nine-year-old in 1983, “I
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