Counterpunch, August 5, 2004
The Dem Plot Against Nader
Florida Comes to California
By TODD CHRETIEN
Having spent the last month helping organize the petition drive to get
Ralph Nader and Peter Camejo on the ballot in California, I'd like to
make two observations and some comments.
1. There are an appalling number of liberals or progressives who are
willing to scream and spit in your face (literally) when you ask them if
they'd like to sign a petition so that people who want to vote for a
candidate who opposes the occupation of Iraq and the Patriot Act will
have that right.
Here's a typical conversation:
Petitioner: Excuse me, are you a registered voter in California?
We're trying to get Ralph Nader on the ballot.
Liberal Yuppie: No, no, no!!! You cost Gore the election! F**k you,
b**tch!
Petitioner: We're not asking you to vote for him, just help us get on
the ballot, so that people who would like to vote for him will have that
right.
Liberal Yuppie: I don't care about your rights. You're going to hell!
Apologies to the faint at heart for the strong language, but for all of
Norman Solomon's conspiracy theories about Nader being a Republican
tool, the reality is that the less than 5% of campaign contributions
Nader has received from individual Republicans (mostly old classmates
and small Arab-American businessmen who voted for Bush in 200, but now
disgusted with Kerry and Bush alike) has absolutely no influence on the
campaign. The real story is that hundreds of left-wing and progressive
people spent the last month collecting tens of thousands of signatures
from ordinary people. We didn't go to Beverly Hills or Point Reyes. We
went to Oakland and San Leandro and Stockton and East LA and Chico and
Sacramento and the Mission in San Franciso and Santa Cruz and Davis and
Butte County and San Diego and everywhere in between. I'd like to send a
warm thanks to everyone here and across the country who has stood their
ground petitioning against the anti-democratic, and often racist and
sexist abuse.
2. There is an inverse relationship between youth, poverty and
oppression on the one hand and hostility to Nader on the other.
Petitioners encountered the MOST hostility in more middle-class areas,
where indignant liberal yuppies felt perfectly comfortable yelling all
sorts of vulgar insults. In neighborhoods that were poorer, more working
class and more multi-racial, petitioners got a much better reception.
Same goes for younger voters. And in the working class areas, even those
who did not want to sign the petitions tended to be more respectful and
support our right to speak our minds.
These are generalizations. There are many better off progressive people
who support Nader and there are many young, poor and people of color who
do not. But the trend is unmistakable.
What can we learn from these facts?
The Democratic Party survives off the passivity and demoralization of
the poorest and most oppressed sections of the working class.
The Democrats do nothing to challenge the indifference of the poorest
people and youth in the United States to the outcomes of elections,
because they benefit from it. The biggest threat to the Democratic
Party's status as an alternating ruling party is an active, confident
and organized working class. The submission of most of the left in the
United States to the mantra of Anybody But Bush is of enormous
importance to maintaining this subjegation.
If we held an election tomorrow in which everyone (whether or not they
are registered to vote) voted on Bush's, Kerry's and Nader's platforms,
Nader would get 20% or 30% of the vote, if not more. Would that cost
Kerry the election? Probably, but it would also terrify Bush and
paralyze the main stream parties' capacity to march lock-step down the
road of war, prisons and corporate power.
Of course, there WON'T be that kind of election this year. Why not?
Because the Democrats and the corporate media are doing their best to
stamp out the challenge from Nader. They are determined to destroy any
left-wing opposition today and effectively cripple it for the future.
Unfortunately, they have enlisted many progressive political people in
this campaign. If they succeed in driving Nader/Camejo from the field,
then the likelihood of an election like that EVER taking place will be
set back tremendously.
In the meantime, the damage being done to the Green Party is
accumulating. I've talked to dozens of Greens who say, I can't believe
David Cobb is encouraging people to vote for Kerry. What's the point of
being a Green. I'm quitting the party, I'm going with Nader. Cobb likes
to talk about growing the Green Party. But prominently displayed on
his website is an essay by Medea Benjamin and others called, An Open
Letter to Progressives: Vote Cobb, Vote Kerry. No doubt, this vote
Kerry line will earn the Green Party thanks from the pro-war forces.
But it will lose something much more valuable. Namely, the respect of
people who are looking for an alternative John
