Nader’s In
The SOB has made it official. For what reasons, I have no idea.
P.S. Did I call it or what?
P.P.S. Dave Winer pushes back on the conventional wisdom:
If Nader is going to win the election for Dubya, then now’s the time to fix the bug in the process. Kerry isn’t nominated yet. Think. What’s the problem that Nader exploits? What’s so fixed about our political system that a minority independent candidate, who likely won’t be able to register in many states, is going to spoil it for.. who exactly is he going to spoil it for? Think. Is this the America you imagined when you were a kid? Why can’t we make it better? Why can’t we have a dozen people running for President?
Good questions all. Now would certainly seem to be a good moment for big thinking about how our democracy should work.
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Comments
Sandy
February 22, 2004
8:56 pm
It’s unfair, but I have to quote from the later part of the Winer quote:
“Give him a medal. And think instead of being part of the herd.”
…by voting for one of the Big Two candidates, like everybody else!
Seriously, Ralph is a symptom that there’s a significant minority of Democratic voters that’s being underserved–the one that can’t get the irony of Mr. Consumer “I Force Corporations To Increase Packaging Through Lawsuits” Protection being the candidate of the Green “Excessive Packaging is the Result of Unregulated Capitalism” Party.
So the question for them is one that libertarians (small-L) have been dealing with for a while–do we vote for the Beast that is likely to be elected and toss us a bone or two (for the Greens it’s requiring the top 5% to pay for more than 55% of the taxes, I guess) or vote our conscience. They’ll probably respond like libertarians as well–this year, the opponent is so odious and the outcome so uncertain as to make voting for the lesser evil more fun than voting for Ralph “Cthulu” Nader.
But if it looks like Bush will win handily, figure Ralph’s vote to increase, not decrease.
Jason Lefkowitz
February 22, 2004
9:54 pm
At least this time around, Nader is running as an Independent, not a Green:
http://www.gp.org/press/pr_02_22_04.html