For all US progressives thinking of voting for someone other than Kerry

[troublemaker]

This Berube piece is good to spread around. He asks the killer question for Nader supporters. How can you argue Bush and Kerry are the same when almost the entire population of the world is literally crying to be rescued from Bush? Even if America somehow "deserves" another four years of Bush, what about the rest of the world? Because of the tone I wouldn't send this directly to any remaining Nader supporters, but the ideas and arguments in the piece are useful.

For all US progressives thinking of voting for someone other than Kerry

Maybe you’re fond of speaking of the “corporate duopoly” of American politics– and I admit that the phrase does roll nicely off the tongue. Or maybe you like to imagine that there’s a groundswell of hundreds of millions of people around the globe who believe that Kerry and Bush are just two different brands of detergent, even though actual polls show wide margins of support for Kerry in other nations. Or maybe you just think it’s smart, cool, and alternative to dismiss both guys as “millionaires” or “Skull and Bones men,” because you know better than to buy into “the system.”

But your political stance really means one of two things. Either:

(a) you are unaware of the extent to which the Bush crowd consists of kleptomaniac Contra-funding retreads, neo-segregationists associated with Confederate outlets like Southern Partisan magazine and the Council of Conservative Citizens, and Christian fundamentalist jihadists who believe themselves to be the instruments of God; or

(b) you are sublimely indifferent to the fact that the Bush crowd consists of kleptomaniac Contra-funding retreads, neo-segregationists associated with Confederate outlets like Southern Partisan magazine and the Council of Conservative Citizens, and Christian fundamentalist jihadists who believe themselves to be the instruments of God.

<more>

http://www.michaelberube.com/EE/index.php/weblog/for_all_us_progressives_thinking_of_voting_for_someone_other_than_kerry/

[aquart]

1. Progressives? Throwing the nation to fascists is progressive?

With hope of what? Progressing to civil war and bloody death so that a great new nation can stand on the ashes of this one and those of you who survive can feel a pleasant sense of satisfaction?

Progressive, my ass. You wanna vote for Nader? Vote for him, if the blood on your hands doesn't mess up the ballot too much.

[NoMoreMrNiceGuy]

2. Nader is ten times the man Kerry is but I will vote for John.

Bush makes Kerry look great. But no man in America has done more for the people of the US and democracy than Ralph Nader. He is citizen No. 1

[Warren DeMontague]

4. Bullshit, every single thing he's ever done is being negated by his

asinine refusal to stop fucking up the race. His lifetime of accomplishments, all the cred and integrity he has, is being negated- yes, negated- by the fact that he's accepting donations from Bush supporters. The same corporate bigwigs and fascists that he rails against. Hell, he's letting some of them run his campaign. Which tells me that his ego has got the best of him. If he wants to maintain his reputation, he needs to drop out of the race, NOW.

Otherwise, Fuck him.

[blondeatlast]

8. The same people who can't wait to DESTROY everything

Nader's accomplished.

I thought I was the only one who saw this; I'm glad there are others.

[DaveinMD]

5. Nader

is an ego maniac who doesn't practice what he preaches. He fought unionization at Public Citizen. He is responsible for Bush being President in the first place.

[Sick_of_Rethuggery]

9. This might have been (arguable, considering the man Kerry really is)

But now, after his constant claim that there is not much difference between them, I am beginning to doubt his very sanity -- any sane person would have felt bitter remorse, if they had been a cause of even a fraction of what has happened in these last four years.

I find his blithe dismissal of his own culpability in precipitating this serious struggle for the very soul of our country absolutely appalling -- if he has any real concern for the protection and extension of his own legacy, he has to acknowledge his own role in unleashing this scourge on us, gratefully acknowledge that he is a minor league player and that Kerry is the man of the hour, throw his support enthusiastically behind Kerry and work from within to restore us back to at least the status we enjoyed in 2000.

Anything less is simply an indication deep, dangerous delusion -- unfortunately the country pays for his vain-glory, not him...

[The Magistrate]

3. Mr. Berube Has Put It in A Nut-Shell, Sir

"Politics is not the art of the possible. It consists in choosing between the disasterous and the unpalatable."

"LET'S GO GET THOSE BUSH BASTARDS!"

[John_H]

6. Hey,I like it when people think too hard as much as the next guy but

My guess is we don't have to worry that much. Most nader voters this time around will be tenured faculty at your favorite college of liberal arts who live in a fantasy world of Zinn mostly, and pissed off people who probably wouldn't bother to vote at all except to protest their big time and inborn agnst.

There are only two reasons why anyone would dangle Nader's chad: 1) They're flat out idiots (which Berube takes a few hundred words to say) or 2) they're cynical idiots, which is to say that they think that after four more years of the Chimp, everyone up and down the track-suburban lane will feel powerful longings for a Nader presidency.

[UrbScotty]

7. Thursday evening Kick

:kick: