I really, really wanted to vote for Nader in 2000 because a.) I admire Nader a great deal and b.) while I do like Gore, I had heard (please tell me if I was misinformed) that his running mate Lieberman was not only a leading sex cop during Semengate, but worse he was in favor of privatizing Social Security. But I do live in Florida, and as I loathed Duh-byuh at first sight (not half so much as now though, now that we all know him better) I did the "reasonable" thing and voted Gore.
Was that the best thing for me to have done? Actually no. It hardly matters how many people voted for Gore or Nader here in Florida, as Katherine Harris wiped her ass with our ballots anyway. Have you all forgotten how totally rotten the polling was down here in the banana republic state? the ChoicePoint systematic disenfranchisement fraud, the bundles of fake, undated overseas ballots delivered a week after the deadline, the fabricated riot at the Miami courthouse, finally that amazing unsigned Supreme Court decision?
Had I voted for Nader at least I'd have registered a protest vote; voting for Gore here in Florida, where the fix was in, was just throwing my vote away. I bet I end up holding my nose and voting Dem in 2004 too, and what's more I bet the Repugs in charge of counting Florida votes in 2004 will wad up my ballot and throw it away again.
Yours WDK - WKiernan at concentric.net