Reply #30: I Don't Have A Problem With People Who Argue Against Nader

[Solidarity]

I've never had a problem with anyone posting something negative about Ralph Nader. A negative comment about or reasoned argument against Ralph Nader's candidacy is hardly slander. I would expect nothing less from anyone who supports John Kerry's campaign. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that at all! But slanders and lies are an entirely different thing. Slander is simply slander no matter what the motivation behind it is.

Your suggestion that the nearly 3 million people who voted for Ralph Nader in 2000 were supporters of Bush is a bit off the mark. While it is true that some of those voters were registered Republicans, a majority were certainly registered Democrats and independents who were not won over by Al Gore. In any case, they were obviously not Bush supporters because all of them voted for George Bush!

If Nader voters were Bush supporters would it be fair to claim that Patrick Buchanan voters were Gore supporters in the last election. If the Supreme Court had not appointed Bush president, I suppose some Republicans could have whined that Buchanan "spoiled" the election because he "took away" votes from Bush in four states that Bush narrowly lost to Gore.

Now what about your assertion that "if you vote for Nader you are a supporter of Bush. And hence, if you support Bush you support his right-wing ideology. This is, of course, only my humble and slanderous opinion."

That opinion is not at all slanderous, perhaps humble and mistaken but certainly not slanderous. It isn't logical.

Bush supporters and right-wingers will be voting for George Bush. Why in the world would they vote for Ralph Nader? Bush is their candidate!

That has never been explained to my satisfaction, or anyones satisfaction for that matter.

Perhaps what you really mean to say is that John Kerry cannot convince all liberals and progressives to support his election and that some may therefor vote for Ralph Nader. They certainly won't vote for Bush. Is that what you mean?

If Ralph Nader, his supporters and Green Party activists are truly the right-wing Bushites they are painted as, why are you and others worried about liberals and progressives voting for Nader? It seems to me you'd be applauding his campaign hoping he'd "take away" lots of votes from Bush.

I'm not playing with words here. I'm really trying to understand the logic behind some of these arguments advanced. In all frankness, they just don't make sense to me!