> Please stop the moronic Nader-bashing.
[snipped: indictment of anal spelunking]
> If the progressive Left ever gains the courage of its
> convictions and turns its back on the bipartisan
> political regime once and for all, without ever looking
> back, and builds an active, independent politial party
> of its own, year after year, election after election, it
> will then also have a shot of at least a minority of the
> 40-50% who don't vote at all. And more, since at last
> we will have an objective existence.
For as long as I've heard "lesser evil" pitches, I've heard calls for a alternative party. But the most recent attempt was a failure, and not because of the familiar spoiler arguments.
Some of us do not consider ourselves Democrats and find nothing unfamiliar in what you said, but want to block Lieberman and other objectionable Democrats from taking the party nomination if possible. That has nothing to do with illusions of reclaiming a hijacked Democratic Party; it has everything to do with the fact that the United States remains a two-party state.
I not only voted for Nader but also helped through a petition drive to surmount the ballot access obstacles here in TX. He never was a Green (literally, as in not a member of the party), didn't get the target 5% of the vote, did little to nothing to build the party after his campaign, and then disappeared - and with him went the party's national exposure. A bit of "bashing" is warranted here. Since then, the Green party has lost ballot access in various major states, did the supremely asinine and ran a campaign against Wellstone, and is generally disorganized with no palpable national presence.
The non-voting electorate won't deliver us of bipartisanship without a massive voter registration/get out the vote campaign. That takes organization on a level the Greens do not have, and at this time they're the most likely candidate for the job.
Taking over a Democratic Party that is a hollow shell in many parts of the nation, build a viable alternative, or go anarchist - those are the progressive options. You rule out the first one. Okay, now what? Some of us got sick of defending Nader for the sake of a challenge to the Democrats when the challenge evaporated. There are major difficulties in building a third party and forming a progressive constituency that are unanswered by dismissing the "lesser evil".
-- Shane
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