Ralph Nader, Suicide Bomber-You too can punish hurt & wound the Democrats

http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0418/levine.php

How the Great Crusader used the Green Party to get his revenge
Ralph Nader, Suicide Bomber
by Harry G. Levine May 3rd, 2004 1:20 PM


n Friday, October 13, 2000, at Madison Square Garden, the largest of Ralph Nader's "super rallies" kicked his campaign into high gear. It was a great event in many ways. Fifteen thousand ticket buyers cheered songs, jokes, skits, and pep talks delivering timeless radical truths about wealth and power in America. Nader's speech was actually the low point, circulating randomly through riffs about corporate power, health insurance, the environment, and what Ralph Nader had accomplished.

But Nader also served up disturbing untruths. Most notable was his insistence that Al Gore and George W. Bush were "Tweedledee and Tweedledum"—they look and act the same, so it doesn't matter which you get. I went home angry. But it took me a while to understand that my progressive hero had turned suicide bomber—that Ralph Nader had strapped political dynamite onto himself and walked into one of the closest elections in American history hoping to blow it up.

The next day I was invited to a fundraising party in Greenwich Village. There I approached Michael Moore and described how the campaign could use the Web to provide the latest data on battleground states like Florida, where Nader supporters should hold their noses and vote for Gore. When Moore realized what I was suggesting, he puffed up like one of those fish that expand when threatened, leaned into me, poked his finger into my face, and yelled: "You can't say that! You can't say that! You can't say that!"

Later I was introduced to Nader's closest adviser, his handsome, piercingly intelligent 30-year-old nephew, Tarek Milleron. Although Milleron argued that environmentalists and other activists would find fundraising easier under Bush, he acknowledged that a Bush presidency would be worse for poor and working-class people, for blacks, for most Americans. As Moore had, he claimed that Nader's campaign would encourage Web-based vote-swapping between progressives in safe and contested states. But when I suggested that Nader could gain substantial influence in a Democratic administration by focusing his campaign on the 40 safe states and encouraging his supporters elsewhere to vote Gore, Milleron leaned coolly toward me with extra steel in his voice and body. He did not disagree. He simply said, "We're not going to do that."

"Why not?" I said.

With just a flicker of smile, he answered, "Because we want to punish the Democrats, we want to hurt them, wound them."

There was a long silence and the conversation was over. <snip>


In 2004, as in 2000, Nader's real campaign slogan is: "Vote for Ralph Nader. You too can punish, hurt, and wound the Democrats."

...Americans, Iraqis, and people anywhere else George W. Bush* decides to attack.

Now the Village Voice gets around to stating this?

This makes my blood boil, but it is not constructive, and does nothing to help defeat Bush in November.

I don't care about the Green's it's the Republicans I want to punish.

to help defeat Bush. Anything that tells the truth about Nader, and possibly persuades votes from him to Kerry, helps defeat Bush.

The choice is between the "Shrub" and a "Bush Lite." I do not like it at all!! There is not much of a choice.

Given the situation, I want Nader to run to remind the power ?leaders? that "the People" do not support either money organizations (political parties). I believe the money organizations don't support nor care about "the People" either.

Bush Lied, People Died

There is a familiar odor wafting around.

from the archives about Nader. The situation is much more complex than that. There is way too much at stake this time around to support Nader just to "send a message".

Bush lied, people died. That is true. And Bush won because Nader ran.

No difference in handling the war in Iraq? No difference in future U.S. policy regarding security?

No difference in taxes, deficits, jobs?

No difference on health care issues, including prescription drugs for medicare?

No difference in judicial appointments? No difference on the women's choice issue?

No difference in occupational safety issues?

No difference in environmental issues?

No difference in what role religion should play in government?

And on and on.

Kerry is not Bush* lite to begin with, but if you're going to be a Naderite, the relation still makes sense. This is no time to fuck around. If there are issues you want the parties to address, get people to support your position on them and the parties can't ignore them. Don't get Bush* elected just because you haven't done your homework.

Nader Lied, Bush* Lied, People Died

...you lose a ton of credibility when you fuck up everyone else's issues because of yours. It's like, if the Naderites are the only people who feel strongly about certain issues, and they're willing to act like they're batshit nuts, the rest of everyone won't give you the time to listen to your issue because they probably figure it's planks have their roots in the same squirelliness. These people - some of whom openly admit that they believe it's better to get Bush* elected because that way the nation will collapse and they can rebuild it (sounds like what we're trying to do in Iraq) - will get relegated to the same bin as the Larouchians.

but it does not mean I am for Kerry. I like the issues that Nader takes about and how he talks about them.

In the end I will vote to defeat the "shrub" but I am not happy with the lack of choice offered by the money organizations.

Bush Lied, People Died

is a lot wider than they (apparently) realize. They really need to get a serious clue.

Just as Levine said in the article, Nader doesn't give a shit about "the people," he just wants revenge.

But he wants more than that. He doesn't just want Kerry to lose. HE WANTS BUSH TO WIN, just as he wanted Bush to win in 2000.

Nader is a stealth NeoCon--fer chrissake, Grover F***ing Norquist is a good friend of his--and just as in 2000, he's joined with his NeoCon pals deliberately to defeat the Democrat.

It wouldn't matter which Democrat it was, either. All his blather about not running if Dean (or was it Kucinich?) got the nomination was just another smokescreen.

I wish the Green leadership would publicly denounce this NeoCon stalking horse for what he is. It might actually register with some of the "conscience" voters who buy the BS that there's no significant difference between Bush and "Bushlite."

Nader is an ego-maniac and maybe has messianic visions as well.

but since Kerry has more or less adopted Bush's foreign policy I am also convinced we need more powerful, but smart, third parties.

Megalomaniac spoilers? No. The stakes are just too goddamn high this time.

Ralph Nader is NOT a political party

and should have gone for broke until it became clear he would play spoiler, then he should have adopted strategic voting or dropped. We do have to shake entrenched intrerests in both parties. The primaries failed to do so. I am also for creating a greendog liberal coalition in the dems. Anything I can do to shake off neoliberals and neocons is worth it.

not seeing where I said he was one...

it's possible I missed it

a few Nader supporters I know--and even they are coming around. More than 3/4 of the Naderites I've run into say they will vote Kerry this time. They now realize what the rest of us understood back in 2000--that Nader's campaign was based on the horrifyingly cynical and opportunistic belief that by enabling Chimp Nader would help make things so bad that the resulting backlash would later sweep him into power--something he could never achieve by explaining his agenda.

2 million lost jobs, thousands of corpses, and deficits as far as the eye can see later, there is no Nader enabling backlash. So Union Busting Ralph is going to try again.

This time, though, many of his supporters have wised up. The only people who will vote Nader are either one-percenters who would never vote for Kerry in a zillion years (and who share Nader's costs be damned approach to gaining power) or the few thousand uber dim bulbs who, unlike the Village Voice, will not, can not, ever get a clue. My worry is that there are just enough of them walking around the planet to get it close enough for Diebold or Rove to steal.