Well, Nader was the Green nominee in 2000. Oops! The Green Party drafted him in 1996. The Greens in general have done a truly piss-poor job of founding, organizing and running a party – it isn’t a real political party as much as it is a movement, and they wasted many years running candidates for high office rather than concentrating on local elections.

Libertarians are worthless, and just as disorganized and hapless, and look who they nominated – Bob Barr, while Ron Paul took a lot of people’s money and wasted it. Tell me exactly what of substance McKinney, Barr and Paul have contributed to the common good, and then compare that to Nader’s contributions.

I realize that Nader is a candidate, not a party. But I would rather vote for someone who persists in calling attention to the emperor’s nudity rather than someone who thinks s/he can play the game the way it’s set up and have any impact at all without becoming corrupted.

It’s pointless to continue this argument about the 2000 election and what would have happened if Gore had won – if he had won his own state, if that good Democrat Clinton hadn’t been getting blow jobs in the White House from someone not Hillary, or if New Hampshire had gone Democratic – or if Democratic voters had had the brains to look skeptically at the media version of Gore or to read up on George Bush. And you cannot at all claim with certainty that Gore wouldn’t have created some other kind of fiasco.

The point is that the Democrats and Republicans indisputably feed at the same trough, and when it comes right down to it the only substantial difference – as we’ve seen during eight years of one disaster after another, from war to habeas corpus to banks – is in their table manners. Weldon is just one of many who have commented on that harsh fact over the years. The two-party system is a trap, the fix is permanently in.

Nader’s ego is no more inflated than any person’s who runs for president – I mean, consider the presumption of any person who thinks s/he is qualified to wield the greatest power on the planet. They’re all vanity candidates. And of them all, Nader stands head and shoulders above them when it comes to accomplishment and world view. And at least he seems to be doing this out of some sense of altruism – paltry media attention and sparse audiences are not exactly ego-stokers – since unlike Obama and McCain, he knows he cannot possibly win.

And who are you to mock “some shining example of conscience in the realm of corruption?” You should try voting on principle some time. You might like it.

I’m listening to Steve Earle at the moment, which means I’m having a better time than I usually do.

How useful for the common good.
Compare this to Greens who actually win some local elections. Some like Libertarians have real parties.

Maybe some true blue Dems realize such things when they don’t vote for Nader as some shining example of conscience in the realm of corruption.

BTW, what did Nader do after the election in 2000? Did he do much to defend the rights of Fl. blacks etc. At least Buchanan said he thought the ballots were f-ed up and he didn’t get so many votes in Fl.

The idea that Gore was so like Bush it was pointless to vote for him has been shown to be b.s. But, many Nader supporters promoted it as truth. BTW, when Naderites suggested there wasn’t a dime worth of difference, and given the problems of Clinton, is it such a wonder many Dems voted for Bush?

What is this “surrendered without a fight” stuff? Did Bush v. Gore not happen? In our system, also, popular vote (putting aside FL, where he did fight) is not the end all. We have a EC.

Bare platform doesn’t do it for me; and even if I wanted to vote on principle, I wouldn’t vote Nader.

And before anyone says he gave the 2000 election to Bush, consider this: millions of Democrats voted for Bush. Twice. And despite winning the popular vote, Gore fucking rolled over, surrendered without a fight. Gore and the Democrats, not Nader and his piddly vote total, handed the presidency to Bush and have only themselves to blame.

Nader is the only one, again, I can vote for with any degree of respect for my conscience. My true choice has not won a presidential election since I began voting, but I’m glad I’ve at least had several opportunities to vote my conscience instead of my pragmatism.