"...I'm not making a big case for the revolutionary gains from voting Democratic. All I'm arguing is there is no revolutionary gain from voting alternatives and there are non-revolutionary losses in the marginal reforms progressive Dems are able to pass on occasion..."
The point you consistently miss is that "revolutionary gains," if the phrase has any meaning, has a *historical* meaning. The historical prerequisite for a proletarian revolutionary movement anywhere is the emergence of an independent workingclass political movement. Independent leftist political campaigns, even minuscule ones but certainly the Nader/Green presidential campaign (by far the largest leftist presidential vote since LaFollette in 1924), are constructive steps toward this intermediate-term objective. In view of the outcome of the election (the Democrats surrendering a presidency *that they had won* in order to safeguard the "stability and legitimacy" of the U.S. governmental structure), how can you deny that your vote for Gore, and every other vote for Gore from someone whose political outlook was better represented by Nader, was a totally wasted vote. Gore was thus the spoiler candidate, whose only accomplishment (apart from his own disgrace) was to divert progressive votes away from the leftist candidate, Nader.
Even in terms of "marginal" legislative gains, your argument falls flat. What puts pressure on the Democrats, especially the "centrist" majority of them, is fear of losing their seats through a leftist voter revolt against their collaboration with the rightists. I feel totally confident in thinking that if the "leftists" (In These Times, The Nation, et. al.) who sabotaged the Nader campaign by flacking for Gore had instead strongly supported Nader, the present Congress (through increased voter turnout) would probably have a Democrat, not a Republican majority and would certainly have a much more aggressive Democrat opposition to the unspeakable Bush camarilla.
Shane Mage
"Thunderbolt steers all things."
Herakleitos of Ephesos, fr. 64