>>So is it the party line of third party folks not to care when tens of
>>thousands of African American votes are being stolen?
Well when I went to the rallies in Tallahassee I didn't see actually a whole lot of the Democratic party faithful from my town boarding the busses. What I saw was a bunch of pissed off radicals--including the co-chairs of the Green party here--most of whom probably voted for Nader, along with leading black activists and civil rights campaigners, a few die-hard union activists, and a bunch of feminists, many of whom probably voted for Nader, too. The line was obvious and clear to all but the Democratic Executive Committee types, who were home crying in their beer about Nader.
Just as an example, two big rallies in Tallahassee--neither Gore nor Lieberman showed up! Who was the worse no-show in the days after the election, Nader, or Gore? Jesse Jackson, Patricia Ireland & John Sweeney and a lot of black congressmembers managed to find time in their schedules.
This may be aside from the thread, but I think the problem in the on-the-ground fight following the vote was *caused* by Gore's lackluster politics. Why was there no civil disobedience? Who was going to get arrested sitting in for Gore--let's be real. The rads who would've led this up had mixed feelings just because the beneficiary of more vigorous action would be the corporate logo-covered Gore (and Lieberman, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the insurance industry). This dynamic duo were clearly not leading the fight for the vote even when it appeared to be in their direct self-interest. It was uninspiring, to say the least, to put our bodies on the line when it might benefit those who seemed to have so little interest in protecting our elective franchise. So the demonstrations were tame, and relatively small, considering the issues.
As long as the Democrats are of the DLC & Gore type, they're not going to get the kind of passionate support from the people they'll need to match the newly bold Republican thuggery and criminality. You can exhort us to support them anyway, and some of us dutifully will, but in the long run don't we want to encourage people to raise the standards for politics? Not lower them 'just this once,' over and over, till we get disgusted and/or numb.
Jenny Brown