We're gonna get it wrong AGAIN.
I voted for Ralph Nader in 2000 and I'mproud of it. Given the 2000 Democratic ticket I have no regrets, even knowing how it went down. I needed to hear some things from Al Gore that I never heard. So I voted for the candidate who best represented the values of the Democratic Party, who unfortunately was not the Democratic nominee.
I don't expect to vote for Nader in 2004.
I expect John Kerry to be the Democratic nominee. The powers that be will squash Edwards just like they squashed us.
The more I learn about Kerry the less I like him. I've heard way too many "do you know who I am" stories.
But, in the spirit of minimal high regard, I don't hate him as much as I hate Gore.
Back to Kerry later. Let's talk about Nader.
The establishment of the Democratic Party insists on believing that left-progressive votes belong to THEM and not to the individual VOTERS. Somehow Nader's three million votes in 2000 "belonged" to Gore-Lieberman and Nader "stole" them.
I'm biased because I live in a college town. But I don't give a crap about winning over the middle of the road. Let the middle of the road watch Survivor and decide in the last week which candidate is cuter.
I care about the future. I care about bringing young people into the process and giving them something to believe in.
The real race in my town is not Kerry vs. Bush. Bush will get about 30 percent no matter what the local GOP does and no matter what we do. There's just 30 percent of folks in this town who are Republicans.
The REAL race is Kerry vs. Nader.
It's October. I'm on campus, facing a 19 year old first time voter who tells me John Kerry voted for the war and the Patriot Act and there's no difference between the Democrats and the Republicans.
What do I tell him?
I heard all of those myself in 2000 and since. Sorry, Dems. That won't win anyone over. It'll just piss them off.
You have to come up with positive, affirmative, progressive things a Kerry presidency would accomplish. (Hint: a troop withdrawal date would help...)
And you have to respect and take seriously the right of people to choose another alternative.
Put simply: you have to EARN the vote. And frankly, nominating Kerry instead of Dean made the job harder. Hey, it ain't a coincidence that Nader did this the weekend after Dean dropped out. (Hint to Dennis Kucinich: even Nader knows you're going nowhere)
But what happened happened and we have to work with what we have.
I have to say this: I'm 40 years old and I barely remember Vietnam. Someone who's 20 definitely doesn't care about Vietnam, the Smoot-Hawley tariff, free silver, or 54-40 or fight.
And don't create a "shut up" climate in the Democratic Party where we can't talk about THIS war.
Finally, y'all need some grace in victory.
I was a Bradley person in 2000 and I felt very ignored after the nomination was clinched. The Gore camp's attitude was "we won, fuck you." And we NEVER thought Bradley was gonna win.
We more than "thought" Howard Dean was gonna win: we KNEW. The Dean thing was a lot more important than "my guy lost and your guy won." It was about changing the whole system, and we were beaten by some of the worst aspects of the old system. We still hurt, we need some time to heal.
Then you need to reach out to us. You need to listen to us, you need to let us vent, and you can't shut us out. And don't don't DON'T try to silence us on the war.
We are the future of the Democratic Party. We built something powerful and wonderful. We also proved you don't need fat cats to fund a campaign, and that scared the establishment. We were paid back in full - THIS time. (I loved the way Dick Gephardt took one for the team - one of them had to do the dirty work of ripping us apart.)
The party decided to play it safe, which was counter-productive. We gave up on expanding the electorate in exchange for the ever-shrinking middle of the road.
Maybe the best I'll be able to say is "I'm voting against Bush even though Kerry voted for the war." You'll just have to accept that as the best I can do. Don't ask me to fall in love with the guy.
Voting against. Voting against.
Someday I'll be voting FOR. I thought this was the year.
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