Take a look at the total circulations of "the establishment progressive media":
_In These Times_, Total Paid Circulation: 12,000 (international) _The Nation_, Total Paid Circulation: 100,000 (national) _The Progressive_, Total Paid Circulation: 30,359 (international) Source: <http://www.altpress.org/api.html>
Compare them to the number of Nader voters in 2000: 2,882,955 (at <http://www.marxists.org/history/usa/government/elections/president/timeline.htm>).
Barry C. Burden's finding now makes sense: "[A]pparently not many Nader voters regret their decisions. Only 1 in 10 Nader voters say they wish they could change their vote after knowing how close the election was" ("Minor Parties in the 2000 Presidential Election," p. 4, <http://psweb.sbs.ohio-state.edu/faculty/hweisberg/conference/burdosu.pdf>). We may assume that 10% of repentant Nader voters are of the sort who have gotten browbeaten into repentance by "the establishment progressive media," but such fainthearted voters are a tiny minority among the supporters of Nader in particular and the Green Party in general. In the meantime, Nader and the Green Party have attracted many new supporters to outweigh the loss.
>[lbo-talk] Green dropouts, John Halle john.halle at yale.edu, Tue
>Mar 30 14:25:04 PST 2004
<snip>
>Rather, our calculation was that our activism in the Greens would
>not pay dividends at this time given the forces arrayed against us.
>Of course, we might be wrong, and I hope we are wrong. I would love
>to be convinced otherwise.
Despite the bitching and moaning of liberal intellectuals, Nader's stock is trending up -- notice the rise among "Likely Voters":
***** 4A. As of today, do you lean more toward -- [ROTATED: Kerry, the Democrat, Bush, the Republican, (or) Nader, the independent]?
Nader
% Likely Voters 2004 Mar 26-28 4 2004 Mar 5-7 2
Registered Voters 2004 Mar 26-28 5 2004 Mar 5-7 5
National Adults 2004 Mar 26-28 7 2004 Mar 5-7 5
<http://www.gallup.com/content/print.aspx?ci=11167> ****
>[lbo-talk] Re: naderphobia, Shane Mage shmage at pipeline.com, Tue
>Mar 30 13:22:47 PST 2004
<snip>
>>..No one's assassinating Nader's character...
>
>That's odd, I recall more than a few uses of the word "egomaniac"
<snip>
>>...he's being criticized for his history, agenda, and strategy...
>
>Yes, I've seen carping about his past (though the worst that has
>been alleged against him leaves his record still immeasurably
>superior to that of either of his adversaries). And his
>agenda--doing what he can to end the Dumbocrat/Republicon shared
>monopoly of American political life--has indeed been criticized by
>"left-wing" (`a la Browder, Harrington, Schachtman, et. al.)
>Dumbocrats. And, of course his strategy--seeking to force a
>left-wing program into the US presidential election debate--has been
>criticized by the same types for the same reasons. Even his use of
>the term "corporate" as synecdoche for the system of Really-Existing
>Capitalism has been criticized.
>
>But, so far, I've seen no criticism of his *program*, which, as
>anyone can see from his web site, is a pretty damn good (ie., left)
>one. This suggests that pro-Dumbocrat "leftists," despite all their
>tolerance toward liberals, share fully the traditional leftist
>pathology--a compulsion to direct the most vituperative hostility of
>which they are capable against those other leftists closest to them
>in terms of shared program.
Why all the attempts at assassinating Nader's character, etc.? Because "pro-Dumbocrat 'leftists'" can't afford to compare Kerry's program with Nader's. In fact, they can't afford to talk about Kerry's program at all. Any mention of Kerry's program (not to mention comparison of Kerry's and Nader's programs) is liable to cost Kerry many votes. The more you think about Kerry's program, the less likely it is for you to vote for Kerry. -- Yoshie
* Bring Them Home Now! <http://www.bringthemhomenow.org/> * Calendars of Events in Columbus: <http://sif.org.ohio-state.edu/calendar.html>, <http://www.freepress.org/calendar.php>, & <http://www.cpanews.org/> * Student International Forum: <http://sif.org.ohio-state.edu/> * Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osudivest.org/> * Al-Awda-Ohio: <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Al-Awda-Ohio> * Solidarity: <http://www.solidarity-us.org/>