Ralph Nader is rapidly entering the national political consciousness as a force to be reckoned with during the 2000 Presidential campaign. Having announced his candidacy early this spring, Nader had been receiving, at best, spotty coverage from the national media. However, after barnstorming all over the country, receiving the nomination of the Green Party, and consistently polling over five percent nationwide, his campaign has become a serious topic for discussion this election season.

The main question that is being bandied around is whether Nader is a spoiler who is ultimately going to tip the election to George W. Bush by taking progressive votes away from Al Gore. Gore is taking this seriously and has just hired an aide to help him deal with Nader

Beyond all the real, practical reasons listed above, I'm just tired of

being "feared" time and again into voting for the lesser evil.

I view giving in to this fear and compromising my ideals as a

tacit endorsement of our current sick system. In short, I refuse

to be a victim because it would mean endorsing the illusions

of power put forth by the two major parties, and giving them

legitimacy, which they don't deserve.

Bush and Gore are like siamese twins connected at the wallet. They are the pawns of the military industrial complex, the Fortune 500, the prison industry, the WTO, the World Bank, and all the rest of the usual suspects. There is not a thimble's worth of difference between them. The U$A needs a renewal a lot bigger than what Nader could give, but he's a start. Nader in November!!

I really enjoyed reading it.

You're article is great. Clinton is also the record drug war spender. The republifucks hate him because he usurped their issues. BUT - everytime I see someone make your argument - to vote for Nader - they always cite the evils of the Demoshits (rightfully, and accurately so) and say what a breath of fresh air Nader would be and list him as our great hope. Nader may be a fantastic candidate - especially compared with the Reps and the Dems. but c'mon - are we in denial here? Voting for Nader is largely symbolic. This isn't a parlimentary system where if you get 10% of the vote - you get 10% representation in Congress, you get NOTHING. This is an all or nothing rigged bullshit game. Nader will never get the critical national media time Gore and Bush wil have access to. It's just not a level playing field. Wishful thinking aside, there's no way Nader is going to get elected as the next president. A 5 year old can see that the Green party isn't getting into the Whitehouse anytime soon. Sorry. I wish it weren't so. Bush on the other hand is already ahead in the polls. Sure Gore is a sell out political hack like the rest of them, but getting Bush elected by voting for Nader is a real threat. At least Gore is pro-choice. I can't say much else on his behalf as he's a corporate puppet like the rest. I'm very sorry to say this but, outside of our activist ghettos, most of America is looking at Bush or Gore, not Nader or Buchanan (the right wing "spoiler")

It is this horrific situation that leads us to take direct action, and fuck shit up as best we can, to send the message that we want a real democracy and not this dog and pony show. America supposedly already had a revolution over - no taxation w/out representation. It's definetly time for another one - if we want representation.

In solidarity

Warcry

E-mail: warcry@chickmail.com