2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumA Letter to a Bernie-or-Bust Voter
A Letter to a Bernie-or-Bust VoterI get it. I was just like you once.
In the year 2000, fresh out of college, I cast my second-ever presidential election vote for Ralph Nader. Later that night, I watched in horror as the contest between Al Gore and George W. Bush ended in an unprecedented electoral college toss-up, leading to a messy recount battle and the infamous Supreme Court decision Bush v. Gore. The chosen successor of a popular incumbent administration, Gore should have sailed to victory on the strength of the economy alone, yet he conceded the election to Bush, a candidate initially considered too unserious to be a true contender.
Gore lost Florida by 537 votes. Nader received almost 100,000 votes in Florida. And he actively campaigned in swing states, including Florida, in the lead-up to the election. If Nader had quit the race and thrown his support to the Democrats, we might be reminiscing about a Gore administration right now.
And I share the blame. Now, before you post mean things in the comments, let me clarify: I voted in New York state, which went blue in 2000, so my individual vote did not help swing the election. But I still feel complicit. I jumped on the Nader bandwagon and bought into a set of beliefs that seemed right to me at the time but were proven very wrong over the eight years that followed.
Chief among them, I thought that Gore and Bush were essentially indistinguishable. Carbon copies of each other. Both corporate insider candidates, beholden to big-money interests and out of touch with people struggling at the margins of the economy. Im from the Rust BeltI grew up near Clevelandand I had seen factory closures turn a once-vibrant part of the country into a series of ghost towns. I blamed NAFTA and the Clinton administrations failure to defend unions and stem the tide of outsourcing. In this and on other issueswelfare reform, prison sentencingI thought the Clinton administration had bent so far backward to win over the right that it had lost its progressive conscience. The economy boomed during the Clinton years, but the gulf between the rich and poor, the haves and have-nots, only widened.
Nader voiced the discontent I was feeling. I was young and idealistic and wanted political revolution. It felt good to back a rabble-rouser, not the stiff, robotic Al Gore. I was annoyed with the Democrats for picking a predictable, incremental candidate who played not to the left, but to the mushy middle. I went to a Nader rally in NYC: Bill Murray, Michael Moore, and Susan Sarandon spoke. Eddie Vedder sang. I felt inspired, part of a movement to bring about real change, ready to cast my protest vote.
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2016/05/a_letter_to_a_bernie_or_bust_voter.html
Said it much better than I could...
Matt_in_STL
(1,446 posts)Ralph Nader did not cost Gore the election, and this guy casting a vote for Nader in a blue state certainly had nothing to do with it. There were many other factors, including Gore being a less than proficient campaigner. The guy lost his home state. How the hell do you do that and still expect to win an election?
floriduck
(2,262 posts)But I'm tired of the direction this country has been headed toward. I'm disgusted with how greed has resulted in a loss of common sense. I want to see the poor and sick helped. I was tax havens blown out of the water. I think our young are being forced into poverty as soon as they enroll in college. I support the candidate I think gives us the best chance to gradually move in a more positive direction. That candidate is Bernie Sanders.
You have your core values, I have mine.
Joob
(1,065 posts)Go get people who wouldn't vote, to vote. Bring out voters.
Where's the articles about getting people to vote instead of trying to change my vote?
I am 100% against Hilary. I do not support fracking. I do not trust her judgement.
I do not trust her. Go get someone to vote, half the country doesn't.