Re: [pf] Nader on The Connection today (NPR)

by Molly Williams

18 December 2000 23:33 UTC

Betsy,

The pro-Nader forces addressed every one of your responses -- the math
(why Gore lost), Gore's loss of his home state and others where Nader
was not a deciding factor, similiarities between Dems and Republicans,
etc. 

But the callers /were/ the rank-and-file -- And they were mad -- Mad
enough to call into this talk show. One woman was furious bec. she
thought Nader brushed off concerns about Bush putting judges on the S.C.
who would decrease women's access to reproductive choice. She has a
12-yr-old daughter whose future reprod. rights she's concerned about.
Her point was "how dare" Nader say that the differences between Dems and
Repubs aren't significant. Nader went through about 6 points as to why
he doesn't consider it likely that Roe v. Wade will be overturned or
diminished (and why he didn't think so during the campaign) and why
birth control will always be available. 

Other Dem callers (just plain old people, as far as I know, with no
party ranking) said that only middle- and upper-class liberal whites
could afford to "waste their vote" for Nader, because blacks, the poor,
women, etc., couldn't afford to, based on what they stood to lose. Those
folks would rather vote for Gore and a likely $.50 or $.75 increase in
min. wage than Nader and the unfulfilled promise of a $10 min. wage. 

(Nader told him, among other things, that his best showing was with
people whose annual incomes are $15K or under.)

And so on.

I would like to believe, Betsy, that it is just the "party hacks" who
are ranting on about Nader. But in my own experience, it's the
rank-and-file who are still really angry about Nader. In my town,
long-time Democratic liberals are furious at people like me who voted
for Nader -- even though Maine was fairly easily won by Gore. For them,
it's the principle of it, that someone would choose to try to affect
change  in the system from outside the Dem party rather than from within
it; that someone would risk a Bush presidency for a loser like Nader, as
I've had it put to me; that someone would "ignore" all that Clinton and
Gore have done for the U.S. during the past 8 years -- a friend's
husband went on for 6-8 paragraphs detailing every positive thing about
the C-G administration and what it meant tangibly for his family. (I
wish I had copied parts of that message and asked for responses here
before I deleted it!)

I had a Vote Nader bumper sticker on my car in 1996 but I never got
around to getting one this year and I am a little glad. I would
seriously worry for my car's cosmetic health if I had one on there now.
I know that's cowardly; but the letters to the editor in the Portland
(ME) paper -- from regular people (or at least, they claim no official
party association) -- and the private e-mails and comments I have
received from people I thought I had a lot in common with convince me
that there is a lot of anger among regular Democrats about Gore's loss
and a lot of blame of the loss on Nader. 

~ Molly