Reply #35: He simply won't take the votes away this time

[Tactical Progressive]

First off just to be clear, there is no one more disgusted at greens, still, than I am.

But this time around the situation is completely different. Many Progressives have woken up to how politics really works now even if they haven't accepted their complicity in BushCo's reign. Michael Moore is a high-profile example of a much broader re-orientation. Nader won't get the support he did. Greens won't be able to be as dishonest as they were. They will fail dismally and in so doing will effectively humiliate themselves and in the process educate everyone else and possibly even themselves. Nader will pledge votes by the time it is over, but even that will be moot.

In the end it will show the strength of the Democrats. It will allow them to move more easily rightward in rhetoric. That's a good thing, and it won't cost anywhere near the number and kind of votes that it did in 2000. A hardcore few this time around, and it won't seem so principled either when they do.

My fellow Progressives pretty much destroyed themselves in 2000 by being dishonest and not listening to any of us tell them to do the right thing. If they want to try again by being bitter in November, they will complete the task. They're not quite that dumb, even though you'd never know it to listen to them.