Summary of Nader analysis

Kevin Quinn kquinn at cba.bgsu.edu
Fri Nov 10 06:00:16 PST 2000


At 04:00 AM 11/10/00 GMT, Justin wrote:
>
>Conyers has a letter in the current Nation supporting Nader.
>
>No, I don't mind criticism. We might be wrong: that's axiomatic. What I
>don't like is this language of betrayal and the threats that the left will
>be even more savagely sidelined than it has in the past. Nader didn't lose
>the election for Gore, if Gore loses. Gore lost it. He lost it for all the
>reasons that make people like me--former Democratic party activists,
>hardworking precinct door-knockers and caucaus-goers--support Nader and
>third party politics. Quite apart from all his lack of skill or
>attractiveness as a candidate, Gore followed the main line of DP for the
>last period, the DLC shift to the right. He alienated his base and
>tried--unsuccessfully--to appeal to the GOP base. I'd like to see some
>acknowledgement of that, rather than the supposition that all people of good
>will are supposed to close ranks behind a lesser evil tha is incresaingly
>evil.
>
>In any case, I would like recriminations to cease. We do have a common
>program, those of us who have had it with the Dems and those of you who
>stick with them. You sketched that program quite effectively. Rather than
>your blaming us for a possible loss which is your own lesser evil's damn
>fault, and indeed rather than us pretending that the evil isn't lesser for
>all that, why don't we unite on the considerable cnmmon ground that we have
>until the next election?
>
>As for the cop analogy, I was noting the comparison to the closedown of
>freec assembly and speech rights when protest matters. In one case it's
>carried out by cops. In another case, the present one, by less reprehensible
>but still ugly and nasty means. The latter is worse for us because we can do
>something about it directly: we need each other, liberals and radicals, and
>we had better recognize and act upon that. Mostly you recognize this, which
>is why you are normally a constructive critic.
>
>--jks
>
>

Justin's comments are very astute. I would like to apologize for my intemperate comments about Nader the day after the elction.

Kevin


>



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