>The Nader voters
>didn't think such nominees would matter, >so why moan about which
>corporate-picked President is making >such decisions?
I wasn't calling it fascism, though it is starting to take on aspects that are pretty unstoppable. Nor was I discussing court decisions very much.The point was Gore won the popular vote--the opposite of the pollsters scenario--yet still lost, but it wasn't a clear-cut electoral loss at all.
I didn't vote for Nader (for one thing I think the Corvair is one of the best cars GM ever produced, which is not saying much for either). I voted Gore knowing full well he was a wild card who might swing either way. Since he might be held accountable on the environment, I thought he might direct US economic efforts toward things like energy efficiency (which Japanese industries are light-years ahead on) or ecological restoration (and field of business and technology that have tremendous potential).
I think it's quite serious the fuck-fuck games the Dem. and Rep. parties play with the US political system. For one thing, Gore couldn't challenge the Reps on misuse of absentee ballots because he knows the Dems will just get accused of the same thing or something worse somewhere else. Ultimately the Dems would benefit the most from cleaning up the system and going for high registration, but they haven't got their act together. They are losers who can't set priorities and come up with a consistently coherent strategy for the fact that 'Bubba' in the deunionized, right to work US votes for Republicans (there might even be something to the thesis that old labor knows its interests coincide most with old business in preserving things like US automobiles and steel).
The US's Japan and Asia policy started going wrong under Bush 1. It went very, very wrong under Clinton, and it's hard to see a difference between the interests Rubin represented and now the Bush clan. They are all American firsters and they all have diversified portfolios which they seem to confuse
with public service.
Still the direct connections between all the crony capitalism and the way the Bush administration is engaging the world are breathtaking. These guys will try to get away with just about anything that pumps up their bottom line and say it benefits the US.
Charles Jannuzi