Do any of you personally know someone supporting Nader this year?

[bluestateguy]

I have yet to meet a single person where I live who is supporting Ralph Nader. All of the Naderities I know from 2000 are either supporting Kerry or grudgingly leaning in that direction, but they have all ruled Nader out.

Do any of you know someone who is supporting Nader this year? What are their reasons? Are they brainwashed, or just stupid, or do they feel as if they would be protected from the consequences of a second Bush term?

[LynneSin]

1. sus and I know a nader supporter

but he's now voting for Cobb. He can't distinguish any difference between Kerry & Bush and thinks his vote is too important to sell out.

Personally, I think he's just as selfish as those republican voters who worry about tax cuts and nothing else.

[kokomo]

19. many Nader big-wigs from 2000 no longer support him.

Some of Nader's credentialed supporters in 2000 who have pulled their support in 2004.

Howard Zinn, Historian, Author; Medea Benjamin, CodePink; Norman Solomon, Columnist; Jerry Greenfield, Ben & Jerry's Co-founder; Robert McChesney, Professor, University of Illinois; Jim Hightower, Author and Commentator; Barbara Ehrenreich, Political Essayist and Social Critic; Ronnie Dugger, Co-founder of Alliance for Democracy; Steve Cobble, Strategist...Jackson '88, Nader '00, Kucinich '04; Noam Chomsky, Author and MIT Professor; Doris (Granny D) Haddock, Senate Candidate, Reform Activist"

[wolfgirl]

2. Yup...

try as I might, Mom is a true believer in Nader. She thinks both GOP & Dems are corporate shills....

[Must_B_Free]

3. My Dad said he was thinking of voting for Nader

yesterday.

[mairceridwen]

4. yes, I am HAPPY to say

because she's a republican who would otherwise vote for bush

she's also kind of nuts

[robbedvoter]

5. One guy. Most of the other 2000 Nader voters I know are voting Kerry now

I know plenty - since I am in NYC.
Only the looniest of the loonies are clinging to that tool.

[fugue]

6. My sister . . .

But she refuses to register to vote, so it hardly matters.

[tedoll78]

7. Here in Austin..

I know not a single person who wants to vote for Nader (had he been on the ballot). They all want to vote "to give Kerry a mandate," even though he won't win Texas.

[Ladyhawk]

8. Yes...again, someone who thinks there's no difference...

...between * and Kerry.

[NightTrain]

9. I have a buddy who's thinking about it...

...because he disapproves of Kerry's plan to get our troops out of Iraq in four years. Dave wants them out now. I do too, but it sure as hell ain't gonna make me vote for Nader!

By the way, Dave is 50 years old and has never lived away from his parents, which may explain a lot.

[kokomo]

10. the Naderites are alive and well, all bashing Kerry at AlterNet.org/

The Naderites have hijacked the Kerry, Bush forums on AlterNet.org, a "progressive" site where I have been posting. They aren't satisfied having their own Nader thread there. They keep saying Bush = Kerry and calling us Democrats, "Republicrats" implying we are stupid to support Kerry. I am not always happy with the DNC/DLC, the scripted convention, the fake debates coming up, and I agreed more with Kucinich, Dean, and Clark, but Kerry still is 1000 times better in every category than Bush. Unlike the Naderites, Kucinich will vote for Kerry and that is good enough for me.

I have come over to DU to gain some optimism back as the Naderites are all doom and gloom. In fact, I have wondered, since they bash Kerry much more than Bush, if they might not be Freepers in sheep's clothing. I really feel Naderites are working for Bush as they seem to be folks who love misery, and surely 4 more years of Bush will give them plenty of pity to wallow in.

[bluestateguy]

13. It may be that some of those folks are ex-DUers

At this time a year ago there were plenty of people here who promised that under no circumstances would they vote for anybody other than Dean, Sharpton or Kucinich as the nominee (some of the Naderities liked Clark, some did not). Over the last 6 months some of these folks have come to their senses, others were banned by the administrators and some left. We have pretty well liquidated the Naderities from this board, and rightfully so. Anybody that would support a union-busting fraud like Nader, thus enabling a continuation of the Bush Administration, is not a real progressive.

[kokomo]

18. yeah, they also blast DU and FR for preventing free speech.

but they seem to think heckling Democratic party members on a progressive forum is okay. I was called all kinds of names for calling Nader "Saint Ralph". Nader even puts Jesus Christ to shame to hear some of them talk. Nader has always been a self promoter as far as I am concerned, who has profited from his litigation stands. I have tired of his megalomania, and his phony personna promoting himself as a "poor" person when he has made millions being a consumer "crusader".

I was on the floor of the Republican National Convention in Chicago working for Barry Goldwater before I switched to the Democratic party when the racist Dixiecrats went over en masse to the Republicans after LBJ's civil rights programs became law. BTW, a young Hillary Clinton worked the same Republican Convention. I always said the Republicans, the party of Eisenhower and Lincoln, left me, I didn't leave the party. But the Republicans have learned to circle their wagons and WIN elections, while the left tears each other to shreds.

I worked for Eugene McCarthy in 1968 and Bill Bradley in 2000, but when it comes to final election, I back the party nominee.

[GeorgeBushytail]

24. Nader 2004 Slogan: Be smug, not smart!

[dietdpfan]

11. I don't know anyone who is.

I know way too many people who are voting for * and it pisses me off.

[tridim]

12. Patti Smith

Ralph Nader and the RNC.

[short bus president]

14. dolo amber

has wet dreams about nader getting it on with wes clark, and then voting for their biologically-impossible offspring!

:P

[VegasWolf]

15. No. But I know about 10 people who did last time and won't again

[Taverner]

16. Yes, Father-in-law is

And in a swing state no less (Oregon).

Wifey, sister in law, brother in law and mother in law are all pleading with him to vote Kerry...but he won't listen. He's a retired College Prof.

[drumwolf]

17. I've only met one person who's voting for Nader

and that was a random stranger in my neighborhood, not a friend or acquaintance of mine. He was adamant that Kerry was every bit as bad as Bush on foreign policy. He did concede that Kerry would be better on domestic social issues, and he's gay, so he would personally benefit, so I do give him some grudging respect for choosing not to vote purely based on self-interest.

Here in SF, which is normally extremely uber-left and where Gavin Newsom was considered the "conservative" candidate in the mayoral race last year, I see K/E buttons and bumper stickers everywhere I look, and none for Nader (or Cobb, for that matter). Nothing like last election where the Nader propaganda ("Gush/Bore", "George and Al make me wanna RALPH") was all over the place.

[eridani]

20. Yes. Still working on them.

Mostly, the 3rd party types caucusing for Kucinich in WA state left our organization back in February/March. Still run into them, and am working hard to turn them.

[bigwillq]

21. No

But in 2000 I was still in college and there were a lot of Nader supporters back then.

But I really don't know of any personally this year.

[Chovexani]

22. I don't know of any

Of course anyone that knows me KNOWS not to bring that bullshit up in my presence 'cause I'm just not hearing it.

[RoyGBiv]

23. I knew one ....

But I somehow helped him pull his head out.

[GRLMGC]

25. yeah actually

My friend said her mom is voting for Nader as a protest. At least we're in CA. It's still stupid