RE: Nader votes

["Stephen Cooke" <scooke@uidaho.edu>]

Dear Visionaries,
	I rather like and respect Ralph Nader for what he did. He took a position
he believe in and brought it to the people. I personally don't agree w/ him
but I do respect him for what he did. He made a good case for an important
point, i.e., the major parties are too beholden to corporate interests and
the status quo. Clinton did turn his back on liberals in his party in order
to get elected. Nader took the opportunity to point that out. Gore is not
the worlds most exciting candidate. A lot of people find W an attractive
candidate. (Why that is escapes me.) Clinton did embarrass the office of the
presidency. Let's not make Nader, a man who has stood up for consumer rights
his whole professional career. a scapegoat. The Green party is not the
liberal branch of the Democratic Party. It is a separate movement.
Historically third parties have moved the major parties to incorporate their
issues.

Steve Cooke

 -----Original Message-----
From: 	Duncan Palmatier [mailto:dpalm@earthlink.net]
Sent:	Thursday, November 09, 2000 11:04 AM
To:	Vision2020
Subject:	Re: Nader votes

> Sharon Sullivan wrote:
> ... That exceeds the 5% Nader was hoping for
> nationwide.  If only the rest of the nation would have also voted
> their conscience and not corporate economics.

Dear Vision2020:

Thanks Nader and the Green Party for wasting your votes, spoiling the
election, and giving us an anti-environment, anti-people,
pro-corporation presidency and legislature. I hope you feel all good and
warm about yourselves.

Sorry, this Democrat is feeling a wee bit angry.

But, whatever respect I may once have had for Nader is now entirely
evaporated. His egomaniacal, empty, mean, issueless, entirely negative
campaign ("Bush/Gore bad, Nader good"), failed even to advance the cause
of the Green Party, the stated objective. In the end, he was just a
spoiler, nothing more.

I would like to see the Green Party advance, but not by
high-profile/zero-success presidential campaigns. Nader was no better
than Ross Perot, or any of the other myriad wealthy political dalliers
who believe themselves too good for a low-level elected office they
might actually win. Like most self-righteous politicians and movements,
Nader and the Green Party think that they can start at the top, which is
just intellectual snobbery; like trying to build a pyramid from the top
down. If Nader and the Green Party want to become viable, then they
should do the groundwork first to establish themselves: get appointed to
local boards and commissions, get elected to city councils and other
local offices, such as school boards and highway districts, then start
running for state offices. Prove that the Green Party is credible.

As for me, while I might once have considered voting for a local Green
Party candidate, Nader's idiotic campaign has cured me of that for a
long time.

Duncan Palmatier

Law Office of Duncan Palmatier
530 South Asbury, Suite 5
Moscow, Idaho 83843
Tel: (208) 892-2962
Fax: (208) 892-3853
Email: dpalm@earthlink.net