>>[lbo-talk] Booing Manning Marable
>>John Thornton jthorn65 at mchsi.com, Mon Mar 15 21:37:09 PST 2004
><snip>
>>I knew many people last time around who voted Nader in an attempt to help
>>build a third party. They wanted Federal matching funds for the
>>Green party. What has Nader done to further that goal between this
>>election and the last? I don't know of anything. I don't think one can
>>argue in good faith that Nader is interested in building a third party.
>>He had an opportunity and he did not even bother to make token gestures
>>towards that goal. From where I'm sitting Naders run looks more like a
>>peacock spreading his tail feathers than anything else. I wish it were
>>otherwise but see no evidence that supports the claim that Nader is party
>>building. Running for President is not in and of itself a party building
>>exercise.
>
>Party building is not the work of one person, however famous or
>infamous. Party building is the work of masses of party members and
>sympathizers, including yourself (if you are a party member or
>sympathizer, that is).
>
>The last time when the question of party building came up on LBO-talk, it
>turned out that those who complained that Nader had not done party
>building themselves had not done and were unwilling to do party building:
><http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/pipermail/lbo-talk/Week-of-Mon-20040216/subject.html>.
>
>What have you done or are you willing to do to build the Green Party?
>--
>Yoshie
My criticism of Naders lack of interest in building the Green Party is in no way related to my willingness or reticence to work toward that end. I can't recall writing that I felt that the Green Party was a viable third party and that working towards building it as such was a worth while goal. I also don't recall making any statements to the contrary either. Do you mean to say all who criticize Nader on this point oppose party building in general or that they simply didn't work hard enough themselves at building the Green Party?
John Thornton