it's heating up

Jacob Segal jpsegal at rcn.com
Wed Oct 25 13:35:28 PDT 2000


Nathan writes,


>So far, the main accomplishments of the Green Party has been electing a
>Republican Governor and two GOP Congressmen in New Mexico and tipping a
>Senate race in Maine to the GOP. The Greens won one state legislative seat
>in California only to see that legislator abandon the party.
>
>The hard fact is that the Greens have failed to win any real positive races
>at the state or national level and have mostly accomplished the negative
>results of electing rightwing candidates where they have registered on the
>political richter scale. In New Mexico, where the Greens hit their highest
>levels of statewide support, this has failed to translate into any serious
>leftward shift in the state - and many of the Green candidates, including
>their former Gubernatorial candidate Roberto Mondragon, have left the party
>since then.
>
>And if Nader does throw the election to Bush, the backlash against the
>Greens and any third party efforts will probably surprise the advocates.
>Every bad ruling by Bush's Labor Relations Board will be blamed on Nader and
>the Greens; similarly with any bad court rulings. In a sense, Nader and
>the Greens will become an excuse to blame the Left rather than Gore for the
>election loss.
>
>Those who think a Nader "spoiler" role will be an argument for the Dems
>moving left will be sorely mistaken. DLC types in the party will actually
>be able to use the Nader campaign as a handy scapegoat. And a heck of a lot
>of unionists, environmentalists and womens groups will join in the attack.
>My guess is that such a Nader success will probably kill any potential union
>support for the Greens or other third party efforts in a lot of areas.
>
>-- Nathan Newman

Nathan,

Even if all that is correct, in what ways does someone voice opposition to the Clinton-Gore right wing control over the Democratic Party. I don't want Bush to to win, but I sometimes feel that perhaps the only way to rid the party of Clintonism is by the Democratics losing.

Incidenentally, what do you think of Nader's claim that he is bringing in new voters who may help elect a Democratic House of Representatives?

Jacob



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