Well whaddaya know? The Saint Paul Pioneer Press finally picked up the vote-swap story. It’s only one of the most important political stories of the year, and it only took them a week to stumble upon it. Actually, it’s doubtful they would have stumbled upon it at all if the California and Minnesota Secretaries of State hadn’t declared the effort illegal.
Predictably, the story in the Pioneer Press carried a typically mainstream spin. (The Pioneer Press, a Knight-Ridder paper, must not be able to afford a decent content management system for its website, so that link will probably be dead in a day or so.) Rick Stafford, chairman of Gore’s campaign in Minnesota, was quoted in the piece as saying, “If (the Nader traders) can’t compromise a little bit…. they shouldn’t be playing games and trading their votes with other people in other states.”
This quote is representative of the attitude of the Democratic Party: We Nader supporters are to blame if Bush beats Gore. Here’s a virtual nickel, you arrogant prick; buy a clue.
For the rest of us, let’s review….
We Nader supporters haven’t left the Democratic Party. You left us.
You left us when you abandoned us in favor of NAFTA. More jobs have been lost under the Clinton-Gore regime than under the whole 12 Reagan-Bush years. More people were laid off last year than in the last decade. More personal bankruptcies were filed last year than ever, and as a country we’re carrying more personal debt than any time since the Great Depression.
You left us when your candidate voted in favor of Antonin Scalia’s confirmation to the U.S. Supreme Court. And again when your candidate (and 10 other Democrats) voted to confirm Clarence Thomas. In a Democrat-controlled Congress, no less.
You left us when your candidate didn’t wipe the shit-eating grin off the face of Dubya during the presidential debates when the question of capital punishment was raised. Instead of vehemently disagreeing, your candidate sat there, stoic and impassive, in quiet agreement.
You left us when your candidate had to consider the political implications of softball questions like “Do you like indoor or outdoor baseball?” and “Is that your favorite flavor of ice cream?”
Meanwhile, all Ralph Nader has done is work to give us the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Occupational Health and Safety Administration, the Freedom of Information Act, and automobile seatbelts and airbags.
And you have the audacity to tell us that we’re taking your votes? Sorry, but you’re going to have to earn those votes. Lucky for you, we’re willing to talk about anything that includes Ralph Nader receiving 5% of the vote.
Spoiled? Your sell-by date has come and gone and you’re history as soon as the deep-pocketed special interests figure that out.
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