No one does more damage to their own self proclaimed values than third party voters.
How much environmental legislation might have been passed by a President Gore, in comparison to President Bush’s real life terms? Great job, Ralph Nader–you handed anti-environmentalist Republicans two presidential terms and set the fight against climate change back by a decade.
How much do you want to bet that Jill Stein and Ralph Nader both received extensive financial and legal support from the Republican Party?
No bet. I know I’d lose.
You will not see any political posts on my blog except this one most likely.
Fuck Ralph Nader. Fuck him and his bullshit and fuck Jill Stein.
I’m old. I voted for Al Gore. I sat up all night watching the tallies for each state come in on TV and seeing how Ralph Nader had given George W. Bush juuuuuuust enough of a margin to be able to twist our stupid Electoral College in his favor and take the election.
And then we had to wait for Florida and their goddamn “hanging chads” which is a debacle of its time that will make anyone of a certain age groan and roll their eyes. Because Florida.
George W. Bush received fewer votes than Al Gore. Period. More Americans voted for Al Gore. By all rights he should have been our president. The man who was pushing for climate change science 20+ years ago while everyone openly mocked him in the media.
But Ralph Nader just kept running for president!! 1972, 1980, 1992, 1996… and nobody ever really took him all that seriously. He never had a real political “party” until the Green Party formed in 2000. But the thing is. Ralph Nader purposefully fucked the election. He wasn’t trying to win. He knew he could at best, hope for 5% of the popular vote. Towards the end of the campaign time, the “run up”, the candidates should be focused on states that will matter most. Him being a small, supposedly environmentally focused independent candidate, should have been campaigning to get tons of votes in big liberal states like California and New York where he had the most appeal.
What did he do instead?? He spent all his time in swing states like Florida and Pennsylvania, attacking Al Gore. He knew he was pulling Democratic votes away from Gore in states where it would matter. He was purposefully trying to run as a spoiler. And he spoke often about his support for Bush. Fuck Ralph Nader. Thanks to him we got George W. Bush and watched our civil liberty erode for decades. (Reminder, Bush INVENTED the Dept of Homeland Security. And it was supposed to be temporary after 9/11. Now they treat it like our very own secret police. But I digress.)
Now we’ve got Nader 2 Electric Boogaloo with Jill Stein in the 2016 election. The Green Party strikes again. Using the same old playbook. It’s the exact same story. Hillary Clinton wins the popular vote, more Americans voted for her. But the Electoral College says the other guy is president because Jill Stein and the Green Party did such a good job siphoning off liberal votes. Nice work!! Hope you all enjoyed the fruits of your labor with the state of the world you ushered in.
And now in 2024 they’re looking for a repeat. Fuck off. Just fuck all the way off.
The Electoral College needs to be abolished. But until that time comes, third party candidates are not feasible and voting for them as a liberal is naive. You are not helping anyone. You are not “sending a message”. You are not changing anything. You are wasting your vote on a candidate who will not win instead of voting for someone who actually has a chance of doing some good. I’m very sorry if the Democratic candidate is not perfectly aligned to your particular beliefs. Please think of everyone else and practice harm reduction and vote for them anyway. One of two people is going to win. Would you rather it be the person you disagree with, or the openly fascist racist rapist dictator who wants to turn this country into the evangelical third Reich? Choose wisely.
amhrancas 