Several times I have heard Nader confront a Kerry supporter who basically calls him an asshole for running in this election. Nader's simple answer: "then you should vote for Kerry".
The message: let the voters decide each in their own way. I like that.
When the Democratic Leadership Council runs Nader off ballots, the voters don't decide.
The Democratic Party complains of the Republican Party's voter suppression, but the Democratic Party has engaged in its share of voter suppression efforts, the main target of which in this year has been petition circulators for Nader/Camejo ballot access and those who want to vote for Nader/Camejo, and it will do the same in 2008, 2012, ad infinitum.
Here is a tragicomic episode: "Elections workers were removing the
name of independent Ralph Nader from the ballot and inadvertently
struck the name of Kerry instead, placing candidate removed over it.
Nader has been ruled off the ballot by Secretary of State J. Kenneth
Blackwell" ("Kerry's Name Omitted from Some Ballots," October 19,
2004,
<http://www.columbusdispatch.com/election/election-president.php?story=dispatch/2004/10/19/20041019-B2-06.html>).
Actual removal of Kerry from ballots was a rare accident, but it's
symbolic of a potential impact of the Democratic Party's endeavor to
suppress Nader/Camejo voters, which will diminish left-wing voter
turnout, helping the Republican Party (in down-the-ticket races,
ballot initiatives, bond issues, etc.) more than the Democratic Party
overall. The Democratic Party prefers a lose-lose strategy to a
win-win one.At 7:45 PM -0700 10/19/04, Michael Perelman wrote:
I don't see the relevance here. Was this from another list?
It's from Indymedia, meant to illustrate a blowback from "The Iron Discipline of the ABB Camp." -- Yoshie
* Critical Montages: <http://montages.blogspot.com/> * Greens for Nader: <http://greensfornader.net/> * Bring Them Home Now! <http://www.bringthemhomenow.org/> * OSU-GESO: <http://www.osu-geso.org/> * Calendars of Events in Columbus: <http://sif.org.ohio-state.edu/calendar.html>, <http://www.freepress.org/calendar.php>, & <http://www.cpanews.org/> * Student International Forum: <http://sif.org.ohio-state.edu/> * Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osudivest.org/> * Al-Awda-Ohio: <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Al-Awda-Ohio> * Solidarity: <http://www.solidarity-us.org/>
