On Mon, 11 Nov 2002 at 10:09pm Bradford DeLong wrote:
>
> The electors of Florida went to Bush. Had Nader not put
> his narcissistic candidacy forward, the electors of
> Florida would have gone to Gore.
-from my recall of the numbers, you could say the same of the -SWP, but nobody ever blames them for throwing the election -to Bush.
Only within the micro numbers that pitched the decision into the courts. Without Nader in the race, the Gore totals would have been so decisive that the vote would have never been disputed.
With the SWP or such votes, the totals still would have been close enough to force the case into the whole Florida legal disaster.
One reason I no longer take Green Party arguments seriously is the intellectual denial that Nader mattered in the 2000 election. When a political trend engages in the level of intellectual self-denial and delusion required for these kiinds of arguments, they just can't be taken seriously.
Either the Greens justify long-term political gains from throwing the election to Bush or they aren't making serious arguments. Since the only power of third parties is the threat to play spoiler, they have to justify the gains from pulling the trigger on that threat, as Nader did in 2000.
== Nathan Newman