Liberal or Democrat

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I wouldn't vote for Ralph Nader if he were the last candidate on earth. It's thanks to his arrogance in continuing his pointless presidential run that we have Bush and all his minions ruining the country and the world at large. If he'd backed out, no amount of finnagling by the first brother here in Florida would have made any difference. Gore would be president. Here's a bit of political wisdom...never vote for a third-party candidate in a close election. (Note to you Republicans---feel free to vote for a third party candidate in any close election...we're still grateful for Ross Perot. Hee-hee.)

-Mary from Florida

I’ll have to beg to differ with you on Nader. I voted for him, secure in the knowledge that California was voting for Gore, so I could afford to send a message. I use to get fund raising packets from the Democratic party, until I finally scrawled “I’m not a Democrat; I’m a liberal” on one and mailed it back to them. The “left” party on our U.S. political spectrum would qualify as conservative in a great many countries in our world, and it’s been getting steadily worse. As a point of reference, going by their voting records in office, Gerald Ford, a Republican, was to the left of Bill Clinton, a Democrat. It made me feel a lot better to cast a vote for someone I actually liked, instead of someone I could tolerate. I would also submit to you that it mischaracterizes the election to blame Bush on us Green Party voters; if Gore had just carried his home state of Tennessee, he would’ve won, and how hard is it to carry the state you’re from? His mistake was obvious: in an effort to distance himself from Bill Clinton, he lost the chance to get credit-by-association for any of Clinton’s victories. Gore is a very smart man, and apparently, a bad politician.

Ray from California

It's not often we disagree so we may as well develop the issue and let the conservatives in our group enjoy the debate. As I said, never vote for a third party in a close election. Voting for Nader in California wasn't like voting for Nader in Florida. Yet inexplicably, the Green Party were among the people demonstrating at the county hall after the debacle in November 2000, passing out fliers telling people to vote Green even at that juncture. Needless to say, they caught some flack from the more pissed off Democrats. (Not me, I was polite, I just snubbed their offer of fliers.)

I fully agree with you that the Democratic Party is not as liberal as I would like them to be, or as they should be considering how conservative the Republicans have become. It has become increasingly centrist in the mistaken belief that what the country needs is a "light" version of the Republican Party. And yes, Bill Clinton epitomized that wing of the party, as did Gore. But any discussion of the Democratic Party has to be put in context of the realistic alternative.

I believe the solution lies not in long-run (hey, in my lifetime?) and most likely hopeless quests by third parties but rather by a reclaiming of the Democratic party by the presently disenfranchised true Democrats, the liberals. If we leave the party to the centrists, we will have two conservative parties and an also-ran party.

To me, this issue is not theoretical. Please don't be offended, but I was outraged at the arrogance of the Green Party in Florida voters for Nader when Gore and Bush were neck and neck. The Green Party folks I've met are not the people to whom Bush's election makes a real difference. I've never met a poor person who was a Green partisan. The Naderites are not the people who are on food stamps, live in housing projects, earn minimum wage, and depend on government to eke out some small measure of fairness from life in an America run by corporations. The Green Party people I've met are from exactly the socioeconomic group that benefits from Republican policies (although admittedly, some of them have had to endure plumetting 401k's, perhaps tempering their smugness a bit). To them, doing a symbolic vote that runs the risk of casting people already impoverished into absolute misery is just an exercise in political expression. To the people at the bottom of our society, 4 years of Republicans is an absolute disaster and the Naderites ignored this.

I still get mailings from Common Cause and some of Nader's other orgs. I treat them exactly as you treat mailings from the Democrats but they still send them. I'm primarily furious with the Republicans for stealing the election, but the Naderites were knowing accomplices and have yet to apologize for the misery they helped to bring about. To me, that is not liberal, that's so lacking in empathy for the truly needy that it borders on the sociopathic.

I don't know what to tell you about Tennessee...it's a pretty conservative state overall...I don't think you can blame Gore for that and his senatorial reelections had been close anyway. However, you’re utterly correct in your assessment that Gore's insistence on separating himself from Bill Clinton cost him votes. He was a coward to do that, and unattractively disloyal as well. But he would still have been better than Bush.

My husband and I do our part at the polls...we vote for the leftists of the candidates in the Democratic Party primaries, and we have the Jesse Jackson for President buttons from two primaries to prove it. I draw the line at Al Sharpton but Carol Moseley-Braun looks pretty good to me. I'm beginning to have second thoughts about Howard Dean but I'm not sure if I'm reacting to a Republican disinformation campaign. I did see him on tv recently and he's losing his appeal, starting to sound like a politician. Maybe Michael Moore is right, the Democrats should possibly run a movie star for President...hey, it's not like Reagan or Bush were qualified.

Look forward to more later...if I have time...I have to check the internet for instructions on putting up closet shelving for when my husband gets home. If it's any comfort, he's more sympathetic to the notion of a third party but he wants a Labor party. I tell him the same thing I'm telling you...don't branch off from the Democratic Party, reclaim it!

-Mary from Florida

You didn’t offend me. As always, your points were concise, compassionate, smart, and well-written. I think we’re actually pretty darn close on the kind of left-wing party we’d like to see in America. After writing to you this morning, I was thinking to myself, “I don’t want a ‘New’ Democrat; I want a good, old-fashioned Democrat, the kind that cares about the disadvantaged and the underprivileged. The kind that saves peoples’ lives.”
Which brings me, briefly, back to Ralph Nader. I understand and can empathize with your anger; I think we both agree that what happened to this country in the last, highly-questionable (at best) Presidential election was one of the worst, most damaging things to happen to us in a long time. I think that if you compared their accomplishments, however, you’d find that Ralph Nader had more to do directly with saving peoples’ lives than any other candidate running. My mother was in a near-fatal car accident many years ago, and if she hadn’t been wearing her seat belt, I would’ve lost her considerably earlier than I did. She was wearing that seat belt because of Ralph Nader. I’d wager we all know someone, whether we know it or not, who has benefited from his tireless consumer advocacy in similar ways. He was working to make the world safer and fairer for Americans, more or less under the radar, for many decades before he entered politics. I think he has been a strong force for good in this world, much, I imagine, as you and Gary feel about labor unions.
And I never miss a chance to point out that what happened in Florida had a lot more to do with shady dealings, questionable practices and the Supreme Court than it did with the Green Party.
That said, you are absolutely correct when you say that voting Green in California was not like voting Green in Florida; and I probably would not have done the same thing in a close state. I am actually really hoping the Democrats give me an option this year. I guess I’m a little like the woman who stops dating altogether because the men she meets are always such jerks; I’d love to have my faith restored. In any case, I think saving the world has got to be Job One for us this time around, regardless of any other differences we may have.
I’d love to hear your thoughts on Howard Dean, when you get a chance. He’s the one I’m most hopeful about at present, and if you have concerns about him, I’d like to hear what they are.

Ray from California

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