Nader Supporters' Secret Shame

The New York Times explains why Nader failed to collect enough signatures to qualify for the California ballot. Ms. Taylor, 39, a kindergarten teacher in California volunteered to collect signatures at shopping centers and street festivals, said "she was cursed, scolded, threatened and called "naïve" and "stupid" by Democrats who blamed her for ruining Al Gore's chances to win the White House in 2000:"

Even paid workers quit after a few days because "they were getting yelled at and they weren't making any money," said Forrest Hill, a Nader campaign coordinator in Northern California.

Volunteers like Ms. Taylor say that to be out and proud for Nader is to invite scorn and vitriol:

Opponents call your candidate — the one you consider not beholden to corporate interests and a champion of American consumers, workers and children — "an idiot," "an egomaniac" and "a spoiler." Your Republican relatives have barred you from weddings and bat mitzvahs since 9/11 because of your antiwar views. Your brother says he only sees you because his children would miss you.

"He says I should not be teaching in the public system," Ms. Taylor said.

Some Nader supporters blame the Democratic Party's organized and well-publicized efforts to squash the Nader campaign for the poisonous atmosphere. Jim Musselman, a Pennsylvania businessman, says the outrage is misdirected:

"It's almost like a liberal type of McCarthyism right now."

Nader voters say it galls them that many of their critics are people who agree with their candidate on the issues, and even voted for him four years ago, but are now willing to sacrifice their idealism for the sake of helping defeat Mr. Bush.

Nader supporters around the country complain of the Democrats' all-out attack on Nader:

"It's an unprecedented assault," said Carl Mayer, a lawyer and an adviser to the Nader campaign in Princeton, N.J. "The bellyaching and whining by the Democrats about how Ralph supposedly cost them the election in 2000 is relentless."

[. . .]

And they are furious that the Democrats are making them scapegoats.

And people wonder why fewer and fewer people vote. Nader is right the Democrats aren't living up to the name of their party.

Comments

[mark patterson]

i have a comment on "nader bashing". i am totally am against violence,period. but i see why people are really pissed off about nader. the fact is nader IS a spoiler. why, because he HAS NO ELECTORAL VOTES, NO MAN BECOMES PRESIDENT WITHOUT A VICTORY OF ELECTORAL VOTES IN THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE.NADER HAS NO PARTY TO GET HIM ELECTORAL VOTES AS WELL,HELLO. NOW, IF NADER WERE NOT ON THE LAST BALLOT ,GORE WOULD HAVE CERTAINLY WON, FOOLISH PEOPLE WHO VOTED NADER VOTED FOR A MAN WHO COULD NEVER HAVE BECOME PRESIDENT,FACT,PERIOD. to me ,to vote or get nader on the ballot is simply evil. the iraq war is now 135 billion,AND COUNTING. our debt is 6 trillion, and counting, and people will vote nader and put dubya back in, economic collapse is certain. republicans in iowa,wis,mich,new hampshire to name a few states are getting spoiler on the ballot. nbc news july 24th interviewed them, they were DOING IT TO HELP DUBYA, I HEARD THEM WITH MY OWN EARS. aug 21 bill o'reilly on his factor show asked nader what he thought of republicans getting him on the ballot, his respondse,HE TOTALLY SKIPPED THE QUESTION. WE ARE AT CRITICAL MASS , MEN ARE DYING IN IRAQ,DUBYA WILL INCREASE SENDING TROOPS TO THE MIDDLE EAST, STUPID CHRISTIANS WORRIED ABOUT ABORTION AND GAY MARRIAGE ARE ON HIS SIDE, DO WE WANT THIS FOR FOUR MORE YEARS,HELL NO!!!! I SEE THE ANGER PEOPLE HAVE FOR NADER SUPPORTERS,SORRY, IN MY EYES THEY ARE EVIL MORONS, NO ELECTORAL VOTES, NO PRESIDENT, WHAT PART OF THIS DO THEY NOT UNDERSTAND

[Andy]

The "news" here is the report not the events.

Democrats have long demonstrated their tolerance for dissent with economic, social and physical reminders. This is a Party-At-War. They have run a scorched earth policy for so long they can no longer tell the difference between friends of a different persuasion and their "enemies".

There are many sources for this war-attitude. Most of the tenor and tactics were forged in the Clinton Wars. There is no America; just a Democrat America and an enemy America.

"With us or against us" no grey, no borderline, no quarter.