Let's drop the Nader thing. The Dems ran a poor campaign. Let's hear what we can do better, but rehashing Nader serves no good purpose.
On Thu, Nov 04, 2004 at 12:16:24PM -0500, Louis Proyect wrote: > Counterpunch, November 4, 2004 > The Self-Fulfilling Prophesy of Lesser Evilism > A Right-Wing Republic? > > By SHARON SMITH > > George Bush barely defeated John Kerry in the Electoral College, but he > won the popular vote by a sizeable margin of 4 million across the > country. Republicans increased their majority in Congress, while voters > in 11 states voted to ban gay marriage. And California's referendum > against "three strikes" sentencing laws also went down to defeat. > > Republicans--and social conservatives--swept the 2004 election, despite > the extreme polarization of the nation's population. > > No one can blame Ralph Nader this time around. Nader's half-million or > so votes had no influence on the outcome of this election. The Democrats > made sure of that, devoting months of effort to keep Nader's name off > ballots in populous states across the country. > > Who is to blame, then? Unfortunately, the first conclusions coming from > the Anybody But Bush left appear to have quickly shifted blame to the > U.S. population itself. > > For example, Justin Podur's article, "The Morning After," posted on > ZNet, argues: > > "[I]t is time to admit something. The greatest divide in the world today > is not between the U.S. elite and its people, or the U.S. elite and the > people of the world. It is between the U.S. people and the rest of the > world. The first time around, George W. Bush was not elected. When the > United States planted cluster bombs all over Afghanistan, disrupted the > aid effort there, killed thousands of people and occupied the country, > it could be interpreted as the actions of a rogue group who had stolen > the elections and used terrorism as a pretext to wage war. When the > United States invaded Iraq, killing 100,000 at the latest count, it > could be argued that no one had really asked the American people about > it, and that the American people had been lied to. When the United > States kidnapped Haiti's president and installed a paramilitary > dictatorship, it could be argued that these were the actions of an > unelected group with contempt for democracy." > > With this election, all of those actions have been retroactively > justified by the majority of the American people. > > Many people will be influenced by these arguments because Bush's margin > of victory was so much larger than anyone predicted. New York Times > columnist Nicholas Kristoff, for example, argued on Nov. 3, "Democrats > peddle issues, and Republicans sell values. Consider the four G's: God, > guns, gays and grizzlies." > > full: http://www.counterpunch.org/ > > -- > > The Marxism list: www.marxmail.org -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu
