On Mon, 8 Dec 2003, Brad DeLong wrote:
> There's *lots* of blame to go around. But somehow Naderites are
> extremely unwilling to take their share...
>
Of course I'd expect Mr. DeLong to take this position. The problem isn't that 50% of the eligible (and as studies show, inherently left) population doesn't vote, it's that 1-2% of the population dare to vote for a candidate to the left of a typical DLC "new" (but not "new deal") Democrat. From this world view, it's preferable that this rabble of 50% is alienated from politics.
It's quite amusing to see Mr. DeLong, Mr. Henwood and so forth ignoring this entire half of the electorate who are mostly working class (if they can manage to find work), and who are left-leaning, but toinstead over the fact that there are some people out there advocating the repeal of Taft-Hartley, single payer health care and so forth, in a grassroots organization, and that 1-2% of the eligible population might vote for them instead of the Democrats for A Leisure Class's chosen candidate, who will be the recipient of Bob Rubin's Wall Street friends largesse - they can run the economy the same, except for less priority for middle class Chamber of Commerce types and more for Wall Street, and focus on the "important" issue like gay marriage.