Only Serious Progressives Should Read This

You know me. i'm a staunch Republican. Although i'd never vote for Nader, i can still listen to the man and put myself in the place of someone who opposes Bush, hypothetically speaking. And when i do, i can't see how any principled progressive can say that the man does not make a hell of a lot of sense.

What do we do as red-blooded Americans who want clean politics and progressive, responsive policies . . . ? We sit around engaging in the 'least worst?' [He imitates a voter, holding his nose.] 'I'll go vote for Gore.' Or do we get out there, like Thomas Jefferson counseled, try to change the paradigm, enrich the dialogue, get more candidates, local, state, national.

Democrats gotta be wishing they had Gore right about now. Kerry makes Gore look like Clinton, and everybody knows it. Including Nader, who offers this strategic criticism and advice:

I'm going to say [to Kerry], look, you're not doing that well in the last month. Here's a chickenhawk . . . making you explain your first Purple Heart, and why you did this and that. You've had Dick Clarke . . . and . . . Michael Moore and . . . Bob Woodward putting Bush on the defensive, and you're getting blurred.

The problem is these consultants who have got their hooks into the Kerry campaign. I mean, $27 million for a Madison Avenue image builder? He's not his own person. If there's one thing the mass of voters can see through, that's someone who is not his own person, someone who has more antenna than brains. They really see through that.

And you peaceniks out there? You know where Kerry stands on the war in Iraq. How can you support him? Your man is Nader, he will end it now.

You can take the greatest country in the world into a war quagmire, based on fabrications, deceptions, and lies.... The one thing you don't want to do when you're fighting terrorism is to produce more of it, and he's doing exactly that. He's now turned Iraq into a magnet for stateless terrorists, and we're stuck, because now collective ego is involved.

[People say:] 'We're not going to cut and run. We got to support the troops.' To which I say, I want to to protect the troops, to get them out of there. [emphasis added]

You disgruntled Democrats, instead of talking about how you can dump Kerry gracefully and replace him with another Democrat, why not take this opportunity to really overthrow the tyranny of the two party system? Don't let the old boy network of Democratic party operatives in their smoke filled rooms dictate who you can or can't vote for.

Stop voting defensively, stand up for your principles and for what you really believe. You hate the war? You hate corporate power? You wanna see the environment protected? Gotta have those abortions on demand? Do you really think Kerry shares your principles? A former military man who’s admitted to shooting civilians in wartime? An elitist snob who's been sucking off the tit of corporations by way of marriage all his adult life? A hunter who owns guns and SUVs is gonna care about the environment? Can you really trust a churchgoing catholic to defend your precious abortion rights?

You progressives. Why would you vote for the status quo? Another Yale rich boy president who, instead of having cronies in Big Oil dictating the shots will simply take his direction from his Big Ketchup in-laws. Don't play that game anymore.

[Democrats] say, 'support us, we have to beat George Bush.' I'm sorry. We played that game for 20 years. We're not playing it.

But isn't a vote for Nader a vote for Bush, you say? Maybe. But not if Kerry's going down anyway. Did you ever ask yourself “why isn't Kerry leading in the polls by 20 points, with all the bad news lately?” Because he sucks, that's why. And people are going to stay home rather than vote for him.

In October there will probably be a last minute surge in support for Nader when people realize Kerry’s going to lose, and Nader will get blamed for blowing the election again. In reality, a surge in Nader votes will be a protest of people who realized that Kerry was going down anyway and they felt free to vote their conscience.

So why not follow your conscience right now and tell everyone that you're voting for the guy who agrees with you the most? Suggest to your friends that they do the same. Build momentum for Nader now, don't wait until it's too late. If Nader starts polling high early in the summer, one of two things might happen. Either his support will snowball and he might win, or Kerry will realize that he needs to move closer to Nader's ideology to have a chance. Either way, you progressives come out ahead!

Seriously.  ; )