Why Democrats Need to Get Off the Blame Nader Kick
Before the Republicans
Blow Their House Down Again
Drum roll, please. The orchestra is tuning up and soon we’ll be on Memory Lane humming the chorus of that unforgettable golden-oldie “The Ralph Nader Blues” (AKA ”I Promise Never to Vote My Conscience Again.”)
A funny thing happened on the way to Al Gore’s move from the vice-presidential mansion to the White House. He lost. But he didn’t only lose he was “cheated” out of the presidency, according to elite democratic opinion, by NOT his constituency, registered democrats — look at how they reacted to their standard bearer —308,000 voted for Bush, 50% went fishing, and only 24,000 went for Nader, NOT the politicized Supreme Court’s 5-4 decision handing the victory to Bush (“Although we may never know with complete certainty the identity of the winner of this year’s Presidential election, the identity of the loser is perfectly clear. it is the nation’s confidence in the judge as an impartial guardian of the rule of law.” [Dissenting opinion of Justice John Paul Stevens, joined in his dissent by Justices Ginsburg and Breyer], NOT the 181,000 self-described liberals who voted for Bush, only 34,000 of them voted for Nader, NOT the Al Gore campaign committee which vetoed talking points that would have included stagnant wages, the job-killing NAFTA deal, economic catastrophe among famers (100 going bust daily), a health-care system that only worked to profit the industry, and a broken social safety net thanks to the savaging of the welfare system, and a growing uneasiness among most Americans that the ship of state was taking on water. Instead of serious and sensible parsing of the issues, what did our man Gore do? Went on a “working families tour” accompanied by— get your blood pressure meds ready— Robert Rubin, Clinton’s secretary of the Treasury, the genius behind Treasury’s “too big to fail and Jail” bank policy, a revolving door shill whose policy decisions in government, enriched him hundreds of millions of dollars after the revolving door landed him at Citigroup. Is it any wonder that throughout the 2000 pre-election period, more than 60% of voter agreed with the statement “Politics in America is generally pretty disgusting” (Harvard’s “Vanishing Voter Project“)
There’s also the issue of voter disenfranchisement. Prior to the 2000 election, 94,000 voters were summarily removed from the Florida voting rolls for having been convicted of a felony. With the future president’s brother calling the shots in Florida, is it any wonder that the majority of voters targeted were democrats and 50% were minority voters. (“Exile on Mainstream…, The Observer, 10/31/2002) Investigation, completed too late to do much good to either voters or candidate, revealed that 97% had never had a felony conviction and thus had been unlawfully denied their right to vote. No one was ever blamed or punished for this outrage. (“Inquiry into new claims of poll abuses in Florida” Guardian, 2/17/2000). If even 1% of those voters had voted for Gore he would have beaten Bush. Al Gore never spoke out against this injustice or supported voters’ lawsuits to regain the franchise. Proving yet again that democratic voter apathy may not have been misdirected.
Who, then, can frustrated and resentful die-hard democratic voters blame? Not themselves or the system or the silly and senseless campaign their nominee ran, not the big money donors whose support was conditioned on a non-issue campaign, not the party ethos which had shifted from the party of the dispossessed and barely possessed to the party of the rich and privileged. Wait, it’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s Ralph Nader, of course. Let’s blame him. Here’s New York gad-about publisher and sometime Hillary Clinton moneyman Harry Evans “I want to kill Ralph Nader.”
Isn’t this ancient history? Who cares? Gore didn’t make it. We were treated to 8 years of Bush and another 8 of his across the aisle alter ego Obama. So why bring it up now? Key question: Does it really make any difference which one of the duopoly wins, when the clear loser is always the people?
Because there is a crisis —not the one politicians bloviate about and the media scolds tut tut about. This is a real crisis and it’s been happening for decades. The last time more than 60% of eligible voters, registered or not, exercised their franchise in a presidential election was almost a half-century ago in 1968 and that just barely topped the 60% mark at 60.8%. In 2000, the year Nader “spoiled the party” 51.3% of eligible voters went to the polls. One million voters didn’t bother. That total included one-half of registered democratic voters. In 2004, Bush fatigue had set in and 99,000 headed for the hills, In 2008, despite the chance to make history another 99 million eligible voters didn’t make it to the polls, in 2012, disillusioned and discouraged, 111 million stayed away.
Election results in 2000 left no doubt that the majority of voters didn’t want either candidate. 52% either didn’t bother to show up or voted for 3rd party candidates (two third party candidates, besides Nader, got enough votes to swing the election to Gore). And here’s the biggie —among the 48% who voted for the duopoly, an equal number, 24%, voted for each of the candidates. It has even been suggested that of the 24% share each candidate received, one-half of the voters were actually casting a negative vote against the other candidate. (“How Florida Democrats Torpedoed Gore,” Jim Hightower, Salon, 11/27/2000).
Think about it —100 million voters felt abandoned in 2000 and 111 million felt the same way twelve years later. Is this a tale of abandonment, of voters feeling left out, consigned to the bottom of the economic ladder with few hopes that their children will do much better?
Let’s dig a little further and find out what group of Americans feel most discouraged. Middle class and working class Americans making less than $50,000 were 80% of the population in 2000 (according to a report of the Social Security Administration, in 2015 71% of Americans made less than $50,000 and astoundingly 38% made less than $20,000). This is the democrats’ “natural” and historic constituency, Yet, as we will see, this group is increasingly turning away from the “new” democratic party and its powerful, rich, corrupt supporters.
So what is that enormous slice of the American population doing about their feeling of loss? They’re voting with their feet: In 1992, amid the glitzy campaign promises of Bill Clinton, 63% of these middle and working class voters went to the polls, the overwhelming majority voting democratic. By 1996, much of this group saw the handwriting on the wall in the failed promises, the rightward swing of Clinton’s first term and only 52% voted. Convinced by 2000 that the Democratic Party was no longer their party, only 47% voted. A bit of resurgence in 2004 and 2008 with 59% voting and 62% voting in 2012 (although among all eligible voters 2012 saw the lowest voter turnout at 53.6% since 2000).
Adding to this grim picture, in 2000, the final week before the election 48% of voters found the campaigns and the candidates boring. Only 28% felt there was something to see and hear.
There you have it. Not Ralph Nader, but an electorate turned off and tuning out. The evidence is clear and convincing. Only one man is responsible for Gore’s defeat. Al Gore. Forget Florida. Gore only had to win his own state, Tennessee to win the election. But the good people of Tennessee didn’t want him as their president. A sentiment historically key democratic voting constituencies in Florida, seniors and white women, shared.
Today in 2016 as in 2000, democrats are on the horns of a twin dilemma — a crisis of legitimacy and declining numbers (of voters). Maybe they’ll get lucky and find a new candidate to blame. After all, they can’t kick Ralph Nader around forever.
