A BOSTON GLOBE EDITORIAL Nader's Nadir
If Ralph Nader had not been in the race, Al Gore would today be preparing to become president. Nader's supporters need to consider whether it would have been better to work inside the Democratic Party rather than allow the Republicans, with their pro-business agenda, to take control of the White House.
...and so on. I especially love the hypocritical tut-tutting about "their [the Repubicans'] pro-business agenda." Full editorial at:
http://boston.com/dailyglobe2/314/editorials/Nader_s_Nadir+.shtml
Unlike their numerous opportunities to attack the Right, which they avoid, the DLCers-Dem party tops will here be able to do something they do well (because it's one thing they really believe in)--attack the Left. They will rally the prog-libs who represent the despised and betrayed constituencies who actually vote for the Dems--labor, blacks, women, gays--to attack the Greens and drive them from the scene as illegitimate. It will be ugly. The white elitists who control the national Democratic party will drum up the Greens as white elitists who are out to destroy minorities and women. And the Democratic Party "left" will be the public face of the attack (no, not because they're "manipulated," but because they've picked the bed they're going to lie in). And the media will happily relay the attacks. And it will work. I don't think the Greens will know what hit them.
Did anyone see John Conyers's (pre-election) letter in the latest Nation? Conyers has been one of the few people I respect in Congress. His letter was truly frightening. He attacked Nader not as some spoiler, but as someone whose life's work has been less progressive and of less help to people than--Al Gore's. He insists that Gore has spent his whole life on the front lines for civil rights. And I do mean whole life: "While Nader was fighting for a safer bus, Gore was fighting so that Rosa Parks could get a seat -on- the bus." Gore was fighting for -Rosa Parks-? While wearing his Davy Crockett hat, perhaps? He says that Al was the "go to" guy on civil rights legislation in the White House! Oh ho! And what a lovely time it's been. Welfare gutted. Affordable housing slashed. And enough "tough on crime" legislation to insure that there are so many black men in jail that, should the prisons be reduced to 1970s levels, unemployment among blacks would jump up to 1970s levels.
This sort of public attack on the Naderite deviationists by Dem progressives in support of their Great Leader--totally at odds with historical fact and common sense, self-degrading, crudely propagandistic--reminds me of ritualized CP-Stalinoid proofs of party loyalty. No election can be worth this kind of moral and intellectual degradation.
----Original Message Follows---- From: brettk at unicacorp.com Reply-To: lbo-talk at lists.panix.com To: lbo-talk at lists.panix.com Subject: Re: election demographics Date: Thu, 9 Nov 2000 10:24:44 -0500
Carrol,
>> Let's assume the worst - that Nader's candidacy threw the election to Bush.
>
>Why is that the worst?
I was simply granting Brad's position. I don't see it as the worst at all.
>> Nader is right about one thing - Gore only has himself to blame for his
>> defeat. To focus on Nader and claim that he is THE reason Gore lost (if
>> indeed he does lose) is baffling to me.
>
>Let's not argue or apologize. Let's accept the credit. The left defeated Gore.
>Hurrah! Whatever Nader wants to claim, I think quite a few of his active
>supporters had mostly in mind punishing the Democrats. And they succeeded.
I would take the credit, only I don't think we deserve it. I would have preferred a 5-7% vote for Nader, sizeable enough to throw a bunch of states to Bush. I think this really would have been a scenario where Nader "threw" the election to Bush, but also a scenario which would have energized the left more than the actual result, which is really what I was hoping for. The 3% he actually got was disappointing. The only reason to argue that Nader "threw" the election to Bush was the ridiculously close vote in Florida. But if 900 Bush voters had pulled the lever for Gore, Republicans could be bemoaning the fact that Buchanan threw the election to Gore. And that would be absurd. Nader simply didn't factor that heavily in the election, and Buchanan didn't factor at all.
>Doesn't it give you a warm feeling to imagine what the likes of Gitlin &
>Alterman and Steinem are feeling now.
Yes, it does. :-)
Brett, rooting for a bunch of college football upsets this weekend
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