Nader Wanted Gore To Lose

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hereinstead.com:
Ralph Nader Wanted The Democrats To Lose in 2000

Ralph Nader as Mad Bomber: the Kamikaze Candidate: Ralph Nader wanted Gore to lose. In the year 2000, Ralph Nader claimed that he was running to win 5 percent of the vote and build the Green Party by getting it federal funding. But this was a deception, a lie. Nader's chief campaign goal was actually to punish the Democrats by taking enough votes in some swing states like Florida to defeat Al Gore. In effect, Nader tried to "Kill Bill and Al."

Now, in 2004, Nader has nothing to do with the Green Party and is running as an independent claiming to be the anti-war and anti-Bush candidate. But this too is a deception, a lie. Nader's chief goal this time is to punish the Democrats by taking enough votes in some swing states to "Kill Kerry."

Below are some documents providing evidence for this.


RALPH NADER, SUICIDE BOMBER: MAY 2004, JUST OUT! -- My Village Voice article explaining that Nader intended to take enough votes in swing states like Florida to defeat Gore. And he is trying to do so again in 2004.

This includes the letter to The Voice from Tarek Milleron, Nader's most trusted campaign aide, and my response.


Ralph Nader as Mad Bomber: March 2004: The long essay version of what I was told and learned before and after the 2000 election. My Village Voice article was in part based on this.


Jonathan Chait:: Chait was the first journalist to say at length that Ralph Nader ran his campaign as he did in order to defeat Gore and punish the Democrats.

As Chait puts it: "Helping elect George W. Bush was not an unintended consequence but the primary goal of his [Nader's] presidential campaign."


Marianne Means: "Goodby Ralph": On February 4, 2001, syndicated columnist Marianne Means wrote: "Nader is desperately trying to rewrite history to clean up his own role, claiming he did not intend to defeat Gore. The claim ignores the crucial fact that in the three days before the election he concentrated his campaign on Florida, where he knew Gore needed every single liberal vote he could scrape up.... It is usually sad to see a fading public figure whose crusades have stalled struggle painfully uphill. But Nader deserves no sympathy from Democrats. By equating Gore and Bush, he lied to his progressive followers about the stunning shift toward conservative policies that would take place under a Bush presidency."


Ronnie Dugger: Says "NO" to Nader: Ronnie Dugger was a prominent Nader supporter who, in 2002, urged Nader not to run. Dugger courageously wrote:

"His [Nader's]method in 2000 was to hold forth the progressive vision and beat the Democrat, which unavoidably meant electing Bush. He is not given to saying, 'Let's elect Bush so the Democrats will return to the people, but that turned out to be the real-world meaning of his 2000 candidacy, and it would again in 2004.... We should not be for Nader knowing that it will help elect Bush. In the emergency that has materialized as if in a nightmare, we may not do that. We no longer have the right."


Bill Domhoff on what Nader could have done: My long piece "The Kamikaze Candidate" was written as a letter to G. William Domhoff because he had circulated a draft of his new book about leftist politics. This link is to the draft he sent around that also serves as the opening chapter of his new book. It tells the what-could-have-been "history" of Nader's choice to enter the Democratic primaries instead of mounting a futile third party campaign.

This passage and a couple of other excerpts from his book have been published by In These Times at www.inthesetimes.com.


Tim Robbins on Nader with comments by HGL: Tim Robbins' being uninvited by the Baseball Hall of Fame and his subsequent very good responses have gotten some well deserved praise and attention.

At the same time, it is worth remembering Robbins' still unapologetic support for Ralph Nader's lunatic campaign strategy in election 2000 and since, and it's consequences. Below is an email I sent to a friend about this.


Nader's Sorry Legacy: Joe Conason in Salon.com in June 2002 on Nader as the friend of Bush-Cheney Republicans.


Ralph Nader Wanted to Throw The Election: This page has been on hereinstead.com since September 20, 2001. Everything that I have learned since strengthens what is said here.

hereinstead.com