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

by Sharon Flesher

19 December 2000 02:08 UTC

Molly wrote:
> 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.

I didn't hear the program, but I've heard similar allegations that Nader
cost Gore the election. The argument is based on exit polls that indicate
2/3 of Nader voters would have voted for Gore had Nader not been in the
election, compared to 1/5 of Nader voters that would have voted for Bush
(these figures are from memory). While it wouldn't have changed the outcome
in other states, in Florida that 2/3 of the Nader votes would have given
Gore a win without a recount.

As for Gore losing Tennessee and Arkansas, that was because voters in those
states perceived him as too liberal rather than barely indistinguishable
from Bush. And in West Virginia, a traditionally Democratic state, Gore's
environmental positions (scorned by some progressives as too compromising)
were seen as too scary by those dependent on the coal industry. What's the
lesson here -- that the next Democratic presidential candidate needs to be
more conservative?

> 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.

House GOP leaders have already indicated that one of their first legislative
priorities is for Bush to sign the partial birth abortion ban that Clinton
vetoed. I don't think the Supreme Court will overturn Roe v. Wade as long as
popular opinion backs it. But the Supreme Court makes lots of other crucial
decisions, as we've just witnessed.

Now a confession. I voted for Gore, but I *almost* wish I had voted for
Nader. If I had known that Gore would lose anyway, I would have voted for
Nader to register my preference for many of the policies he espoused. (Of
course, I didn't know Gore would lose, so I still believe I made the only
decision I could be comfortable with on Election Day). Every time I hear the
political talking heads assert that the election results show Americans want
a centrist government, I cringe knowing that my vote for Gore supports that
opinion.

Of course, if everyone who supported the Green Party platform had voted for
Nader, he still would have ended up with a minority of the vote that would
easily be discounted by the majority of political leaders. They would
probably figure Nader's supporters are balanced out by the extreme right who
backed Bush. Interestingly, if Bush does try to govern from the center, he
may end up with a right-wing challenge of his own in 2004. Hopefully, such a
challenge will come in the general election and not the primary.

Sharon Flesher
CarSharing Traverse, Inc.
Traverse City, Mich.
sflesher@traverse.net

"Be the change you wish to see." M.K. Gandhi