Reply #16: Reflections on the 2004 Election - An Interview with Ralph Nader [View All]

[dzika]

December 30, 2004

Reflections on the 2004 Election
An Interview with Ralph Nader
by Merlin Chowkwanyun
www.dissidentvoice.org

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Nader's run earned harsh scorn from Democrats and many of his former supporters in 2000, such as Medea Benjamin, Norman Solomon, and Jeff Cohen. Yet in light of emerging post-election commentary partially attributing the Democrats' loss to the party's tepid economic policies, many of Nader's campaign arguments now seem utterly prophetic in hindsight. In a recent article blasting John Kerry's hasty election concession, Harper's Magazine publisher Rick MacArthur expressed regret over not voting for Nader.

This is one of Nader's first in-depth interviews since the election. In it, he offers his insights on the election outcome and the future of American politics.

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MC: Can you talk about the recount in Ohio and the Democratic Party's rather tepid support of it?

RN: I've always thought there were always a lot of shenanigans before, during, and after Nov. 2 because you had the perfect environment for it. You had a Republican governor. You had a Republican Secretary of State, who was very partisan, who's like Katherine Harris in 2000 in Tallahassee, Florida. You had a Republican legislature, and they knew it was going to be a swing state, if not the swing state. The stakes were high. There's other evidence that before the election, Kenneth Blackwell, the Secretary of State, was working overtime to try to undermine the minority vote, dealing with voter registration, etc. The ambience, the atmosphere was all there, and the Democrats should have been much more alerted to it. But the ways these laws are written, unless you're seen really with some crude stuff on election day or post-election, you get away with what you did before election day to depress the vote and to minimize the number of voting machines in minority or heavily Democratic areas, which is what was done in Ohio.

However, there is increasing information coming to the forefront. There's litigation, very good lawyers demanding a recount. There will be a recount. But the results will not be in before the electors meet in mid-December and elect a President. It will still be in the courts.


Link:
http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Dec2004/Chowkwanyun1230.htm