Nader is too intelligent not to know that he's a spoiler, so the only remotely generous thing we can say is that his doctrinaire tendencies and his ego must be blinding him to the disastrous results of his presidential campaigns.
I keep reading comments from people who say, well, if we had a different system . . . But the whole point is that we don't. This isn't a parliamentary system, we don't have national instant run-off, etc. Voting third party just steals votes from the (second) party with the less disciplined voters, which, in this country, is almost always the Democrats because getting the Democratic party to work in a focussed, disciplined effort is like herding cats in a thunderstorm. We saw it in 2000 and we saw it in 2004; never mind the so-far-unproven allegations of vote theft which contributed to installing the current Reactionary administration. No candidate -- not even f**k**g Nader -- is ever perfect, but to vote third-party in a two-party system is just social Molotov-ing and there's no way to wrap it up in self-righteousness with any honesty beyond the delusional sort.
He's knows he's a spoiler and doesn't care. Last time he ran he was making nice with Grover Norquist, for crying out loud, and courting Republican money. Of course they donated -- it was a way to bleed votes from Gore.
For him to say he's giving voters a real choice is rank hypocrisy. We already have a delusional incompetent in the White House. We don't need another one.
Nader is too intelligent not to know that he's a spoiler, so the only remotely generous thing we can say is that his doctrinaire tendencies and his ego must be blinding him to the disastrous results of his presidential campaigns.
ReplyDeleteI keep reading comments from people who say, well, if we had a different system . . . But the whole point is that we don't. This isn't a parliamentary system, we don't have national instant run-off, etc. Voting third party just steals votes from the (second) party with the less disciplined voters, which, in this country, is almost always the Democrats because getting the Democratic party to work in a focussed, disciplined effort is like herding cats in a thunderstorm. We saw it in 2000 and we saw it in 2004; never mind the so-far-unproven allegations of vote theft which contributed to installing the current Reactionary administration. No candidate -- not even f**k**g Nader -- is ever perfect, but to vote third-party in a two-party system is just social Molotov-ing and there's no way to wrap it up in self-righteousness with any honesty beyond the delusional sort.
I pray daily that Nader will not run.
He's knows he's a spoiler and doesn't care. Last time he ran he was making nice with Grover Norquist, for crying out loud, and courting Republican money. Of course they donated -- it was a way to bleed votes from Gore.
ReplyDeleteFor him to say he's giving voters a real choice is rank hypocrisy. We already have a delusional incompetent in the White House. We don't need another one.