2016 Postmortem
In reply to the discussion: The Democratic platform committee is only allowing 1 labor group-why isn't labor part of the base? [View all]Ken Burch
(50,254 posts)It's bad that the 2000 result happened, yes.
But it's not as simple as saying Nader shouldn't have run. The party needs to address its responsibility for causing the Nader candidacy by basing its approach in the Nineties on demonizing and silencing progressives(except for a tiny handful who were allowed to speak because they were politely half-liberal on issues that didn't threaten anyone's profits or privilege)and giving many of them the impression that there was never going to be any reason for them to believe they'd have a say in what the party stood for. Bill Clinton created the despair that led to Naderism.
The left wasn't to blame for the losses in the Eighties and didn't deserve to have the party freeze it out and abandon almost everything the left cared about.
And the path forward involves reaching out to everyone on the progressive side of the spectrum. What worked in the Nineties will never be needed again, and the party needs to officially move past what was done then.
That is why we should welcome in those who were made unwelcome. What happened in 2000 would never have happened if the party hadn't made those people unwelcome in the first place.