Reply #20: Nader money

[Michael Costello]

Well, I do not think the Greens are perfect, and I'll take your word that Nader is taking money from wealthy people - but Kerry is taking money from wealthy people and big corporations as well.

It may be true that only Kerry can oust Bush in November, but I think this is short-term thinking. If it goes this way, who can beat the Republican in 2008? 2012? How will the Republicans be beaten in the Congressional elections.

I see my concern as being a member of the working class, not as a Democrat. It seems to me the Democrats have been moving away from the working class for a while, e.g. the majority of Americans (70-80%). 49% of voters don't vote, and many working class people vote Republican. And the Democrat is a millionaire, who takes money from big corporations, and the Democratic leadership does not define labor over business, which alienates them from me.

To me the real question is not how to save the Democratic party but how to save the working class people of the US. I think when DLC DINOs take over the party, at some point you have to consider whether to stay and fight or form another party. It's a crazy battle - you have to fight your own party before fighting another party? Everyone in the same party should be pretty much on the same page. I'm against gun control, but I can live with gun control Democrats, I can not live with DLC Democrats.

I consider big business to be the touch of death in a campaign, so in terms of your tainted metaphor, that's what I consider tainted. I consider Kerry tainted. If I want someone untainted, not only am I not going to find no mass movement, but I will not find anything that could even become a mass movement if I demand aboslute purity. Nader isn't important, making connections with the people who rally around Nader is. The party is what's important, not the person.