-California was not a swing state. Gore had a wide margin here. -marta
Which proves my point that even Nader supporters in safe states were alienated by his campaigning in swing states and his dismissal of concerns over Roe v. Wade.
Nader supporters act as if voters are all a bunch of mindless pawns - Dem supporters being stupid masochists and now even potential Nader supporters mindless victims of "liberal Dem" propaganda.
Nader screwed up in his last weeks of campaigning. He alienated not only Democratic allies but alienated his own base of potential supporters. And the result was he lost his chance to get the 5% of the vote.
I agree Gore blew his campaign by being a bad candidate. Nader didn't make Gore such an obnoxious and weak candidate. Absolutely true.
But Nader supporters have got to recognize that Gore and liberal Dems didn't "steal" Nader votes either. Nader lost those votes by ignoring their concerns and alienating them by campaigning in swing states.
-- Nathan Newman
Nathan Newman wrote:
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Marta Russell" <ap888 at lafn.org>
> To: <lbo-talk at lists.panix.com>
>
> >Nader would have gotten more votes if those intending to vote for him had
> >been "freed" to do so by the Democratic party liberals who have been
guilt
> >tripping every Dem who wanted to vote Nader for weeks. For instance in
CA
> >Nader was up to 7-8 percent in the polls but when people actually voted
the
> >support dropped to 4 percent.
> >I think people who where coerced into voting for Gore made a big mistake
by
> >caving -- they cost the Greens the loss of federal funds.
>
> I know a lot of folks, like myself, who would have voted Nader if the
Nader
> supporters were not attacking other progressives and if Nader had not
> campaigned in the swing states the week before the election. If Nader had
> chosen to campaign hard in "free states" a la the Molly Ivins strategy, he
> would have done two things - increased votes in those states and not
> alienated folks in those states. On election day, here in safe
Connecticut,
> I had meant to vote for David McReynolds but found that he was not
certified
> for write-in, so I almost voted for Nader but was pissed off about the
swing
> state campaigning, so voted for Gore. Since then, I have talked to a
bunch
> of others who were planning to vote for Nader, but ended up voting for
Gore
> for the same reasons.
>
> There was a large panel today with students discussing the election.
These
> were overwhelmingly liberal students, most of whom would normally love
> Nader. But when Nader's name was mentioned in the introduction,
spontaneous
> hissing broke out from around the room.
>
> Nader made the choice to campaign in the last week in swing states rather
> than in states like Texas or Connecticut. Yes, the voters in the swing
> states collapsed for fear of Bush, but what is remarkable is how poorly
> Nader did in safe states like Connecticut. That collapse is Nader's own
> fault, not the fault of the liberal Dems.
>
> Nader cost himself federal funds by alienating voters in safe states.
>
> -- Nathan Newman