CSPIN WJ: Ralph Nader...

[KharmaTrain]

The Ralphapolooza World Tour '08 stops at Facist Friday...

Discuss...

[Royal Oak Rog]

1. Ralphs on Cspan

thanks for the heads up. Only confident and may I say intelligent dems know that Ralph won't lose this election for Obama. He will only force the issues that wouldn't be discussed otherwise. Why are you so called democrats so anti-democratic, shouldn't we welcome more parties running in the race? I know we're only democratic when it suits our purposes....Go Ralph, Go Obama!!!

[KharmaTrain]

2. A Caller Already Accused Him Of The Current Messes

I don't care if Ralph wants to run. I would like to know whose funding him. If its a bona-fide independent bid, he's a very welcome voice in the election. But if he's being used as a ringer...like he was in '04, funded by GOOPers, then it should be exposed.

At one time I admired Ralph and still find a lot of what he says has great merit, but he was a far better consumer advocate than a presidential candidate.

Welcome to DU...

[Royal Oak Rog]

4. I know I'm funding him

sorry to hear you don't believe in democracy anymore, go ahead now continue your rant. I won't vote for Ralph but I support him, along freedom of speech and good ideas, have a good day.

[KharmaTrain]

6. And How Did I Do This?

I support Nader's right to speak...as as I stated, I agree with many things he has had good ideas, but he'd make a terrible president. My concern is thta it was shown that Ralph's '04 campaign was fronted by Repugnican operatives and Ralph gladly took the money to get on ballots. His effect on the election was minimal, as I expect it to be this time...but Ralph's never come clean.

[ProfessorGAC]

20. Reading For Comprehension Is A Skill

Look into it. Kharmatrain said nothing of the sort.
The Professor

[iamjoy]

5. The Reality Of Plurality Voting

The hard reality of plurality voting is that any candidate(s) beyond the two can only serve as a spoiler to the final results, thwarting the true will of the people.

In 2000, too many people believed that Gore would easily defeat Bush and weren't at all worried about Nader's effect on the race. That was a big mistake and our country has paid too high a price for the miscalculation.

I do believe other candidates could add to the debate, but not Nader. It is hard to see Nader as anything other than an egotistical blowhard - he shows up every four years bitching about the state of our nation as part of a presidential candidacy, but does nothing in the interim to change or improve things.

I don't approve of dirty tricks to stop Nader from getting on the ballot, but dirty tricks are putting him on the ballot and I can't say I like that either.

[Royal Oak Rog]

8. Ralph will take as many

if not more Ron Paul votes than he ever will Obama votes. We need guys with ideas like Ralph to bring good ideas to the table, by the way I'm not hearing many critical calls of Nader on the show. And whoever said Ralph is a fascist needs to look up the word.

[KharmaTrain]

14. The Fascist Reference Was To The Friday Morning C-SPAN Show

Usually hosted by Brian Lamb. Regulars around here used that name as Lamb always brought on wingnuts. It had nothing to do with Nader.

[KharmaTrain]

11. Parliamentary Systems Are Bigger Spoilers

Imagine a system where you have a dozen parties...like an Israel...where coaltions have to be built and the small parties can get a lot of power as they can make or break a coalition. I don't think we'd like that kind of system here.

The sad problem with third parties in this country is few have been around long enough or developed enough of an infrastructure to endure and become viable on a national level. Most third-party bids are centered around a person or issue...run on the national level with little local party building being done...they can't afford it, and once the election is over, so is the zeal and money.

I don't discount Ralph's right to be run..and hope he comes clean about who is financing him...but should the system roll over just because he's in? No. If he polls 5 or 10% nationally, he should be included in a debate or two...but Ralph's .038% of the vote shouldn't be considered more important than any other third party candidate...and if he was serious about making lasting change, he would work toward party building during the years between the elections...rather than hitting the lecture circuit.

Cheers...

[iamjoy]

25. It's Why I Don't Trust Ralph

You hit the nail on the head here:

if he was serious about making lasting change, he would work toward party building during the years between the elections...

Indeed he would - he would work on issues like voting reform

[Echo In Light]

3. That's "Fascist" actually. And Ralph isn't one n/t

[ThomWV]

7. C-span is the ONLY reliable source of information about Government activity

If we didn't have C-Span we would know next to nothing about what goes on in this country. You sure don't get it from newspapers, nobody on earth reads the Federal Register daily, radio and television news is worthless. Cable is worse. So to imply that Cspan is somehow a spin organization, or that friday's news is slanted toward a Government/Industry (Fascist) ideology seems somehow inappropriate. Having said that though, when Brian was running the Washington Journal program on friday mornings I would have had to agree with you. Gretta isn't a lot better, sometimes we hit it lucky and get Pedro though.

[Royal Oak Rog]

10. Try DemocracyNow.org

best source of "truthiness" anywhere.

[ThomWV]

17. And severly limited

No website can match 3 television and 1 radio channel plus all 4 continiously live fed online. And then there is this too, every single word and image you see on DemocracyNow is edited to the extent it was slected for your viewing pleasure by someone with an opnion about what they wanted you to see. That is true for a couple of the regular programs from C-Span but on the more important part of their broadcasting - the day to day operation of Government - Cspan points the camera and walks away. That is a mighty difference.

[Royal Oak Rog]

21. that's a good point

but when they show coverage of 10 wing bats in a room and give it equal coverage to an event that has say hundreds of thousands attend I'm not so sure about how straight and down the middle that coverage is, anti war protests come to mind.

That being said, I agree that C-span is an excellent resource, but with Internet it's not the only resource out there. Plus I could make the argument that the idea that you must give equal time to the looniest of the loons out there really doesn't give a fair representation of where the country is at.

[Echo In Light]

13. Even CSPAN's coverage of righties/righty preferences far outweighs the lib spectrum

[opihimoimoi]

9. He is a GOOPER PAWN...a pawn I tell ya.....bought by the Pubs

[KharmaTrain]

12. Do We Know Where His Money Is Coming From?

Hey there Opi!!

I'm curious as well as to how he plans to fund getting on 50 ballots. He said he turned down the Green party's nomination since they are only on 21. His line was something like "they have their way, we have our". Now who are "we"?

Hope all is well in the land of sunshine...i have a driveway to shovel...again!

:hi:

[Echo In Light]

15. And the Name Brand candidates aren't wholly owned subsidiaries of the defense industry?

[Royal Oak Rog]

16. Hey that sounds fascist nt.

[ThomWV]

18. No they are not! You forget the Pharmaceutical Industry, the Oil Industry, the Banking Industry, .....

And the list goes on and on. What a crying shame. If it were just one industry we could probably beat them.

[Royal Oak Rog]

19. But, but I thought Ralph Nader was the cause of all our problems

Seriously, we're gonna win this thing in November. But squelching speech and ideas is not the way to go.

[EFerrari]

22. Clinton, McCain, Dodd and Obama and in that order. n/t

[opihimoimoi]

23. Sorry about the snow....sending number 6 shovel with automatic transmission and hydrolic lifts

cold snap last night...got down to 69....

Nader is there attempting to spoil it as he did in 2000.....

seems that is his mission once more.....

result....name is shit

[KharmaTrain]

24. He's Become A "Stassen"

The perennial candidate who attempts to find a niche with the disenchanted. I saw Nader in 2000 like I saw Perot in '92...many of my fellow progressives weren't that solid on Gore (shudder...yes there was a time he wasn't "progressive enough"...remember Bill Bradley??) and the GOOP was "energized" by 8 years of their own hyper-venom. This year we are looking at a different dynamic.

Just like how the Clinton has gone from being the candiate of change in '92 to the establishment now...Nader has transcended the spectrum in his own way...now more a media creation.

For those who are disgruntled, he's the safety valve and who knows, he may pull the Paulbots and surge to 3%. He'll be a distraction, but not a factor.

We're expecting a heat wave this weekend...45. :bounce: