Ralph Nader - "Stay Silent and Stay Powerless Against Trump's Tyranny"

[Cirsium]

236. Way over rated

That is way over rated. The talking points my neighbor repeats are shared by millions and millions of people, and much of that is spread by peer-to-peer word of mouth. That is the immense power of right wing media. In comparison, Nader has almost no effect on the national political discussion. I just don't ever hear anyone repeating Nader talking points. It is impossible to avoid the talking points from Trump and right wing media. There are 1,000 people ranting and raving against Nader for every one person praising him.

But let's say for the sake of argument that Nader had the kind of coverage Trump gets - 24/7, 365, for a decade. Are we to believe that would hurt the Democratic party? I think it would greatly help the Democratic party, just as organized Labor did, just as the Abolition movement helped the Republican party in the 1850's and 60's. I am certain of that.

The same arguments that we hear today went on back then. "Those radical Abolitionists are hurting the party! We need to be practical and realistic."

Only by making a set of improbable assumptions can Nader be blamed for anything.

We have to assume that most of the Nader voters would not have stayed home, would not have voted for some other third party candidate, or would not have voted for Bush.

Then, we have to accept this "it came down to Florida" line and assume that is where the election was won or lost, like a last minute field goal in a football game. It could well have "come down to" Wisconsin, or Oregon, or New Mexico, or New Hampshire, or Minnesota, or Iowa all of which had very close races.

By the way, it is a pretty weak Democratic campaign that struggles to win Oregon, New Mexico, and Minnesota and can't win the candidate's home state.

Then we have all of the voter suppression actions in Florida by the Republicans, and assume that was not a very major factor.

We have to ignore the influence Fox News had on the situation.

We have to ignore the Brooks Brothers riot.

We have to ignore the absurd Supreme Court decision.

We have to assume that Gore actually did lose Florida.

A lot went into Gore's loss. None of it had anything to do with Nader.