Reply #14: He picks on the Democrats so much because he's a phony. [View All]

[pnwmom]

And because it's the Democratic voters he thinks he has a chance of seducing, not the Rethugs.

Actions speak louder than words. Twenty years ago he was a true progressive, but no longer. Listening to his words, he sounds like a progressive, but in his runs for the Presidency he has consistently worked to defeat the more liberal of the candidates. Why? Because it has become personal for him. He's determined to punish the Dems for imagined wrongs, and he doesn't care what damage he inflicts on the country in the process.


http://soc.qc.cuny.edu/Staff/levine/Ralph-Nader-As-Suicide-Bomber.html

RALPH NADER AS MAD BOMBER
_______________________________________________


Harry G. Levine

Department of Sociology, Queens College, City University of New York
March 2004 / [e-mail]

In the year 2000, Ralph Nader strapped political dynamite onto himself and walked into one of the closest elections in American history hoping to blow it up. He wanted to punish the Clinton-Gore Democrats for having betrayed him and the causes he believes in. His primary campaign mission was defeating Al Gore, but Nader concealed this from his supporters, even as he went after votes in swing states like Florida. On the day after election day, when everyone else was grim, and many Democrats were furious at him, Ralph Nader was a happy man.

The following essay presents evidence for this large claim and describes how I first learned this in the fall of 2000. Since the election, political discussions about Nader's campaign have often focused on its electoral effect. Did Nader's 97,000 votes in Florida defeat Al Gore making George W. Bush president? Most observers seem to agree that they did, but others insist that many factors defeated Gore. However, independent of the effect of the Nader campaign on the election results, one can ask about what Nader wanted to have happen. Now that he has decided to run again, in what promises to be another very close election, it is worth examining what Ralph Nader intended the last time.

SNIP