joy garnett on 29 Oct 2000 19:40:37 -0000


[Date Prev] [Date Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Date Index] [Thread Index]

Re: <nettime> Nader is important: get rid of him!



Ivan Zassoursky wrote:

>      [also To: campaign@votenader.org, CC: naderletters@moveon.org]
>
> <snip>
>
>
>
> Vote for Nader. It will make you feel better.
>
> ivan zassoursky
> __________________________________

great, just what we need: a bunch of righteous idealists running around *feeling
better*. After Bush gets elected and sets about the devastation of the
environment in Alaska, the right of women to choose, and a host of other things
we all hold to be dear, (not to mention a host of policy we don't even
understand or think about). I'm sure those feeling better might start to feel
pretty bad... Don't be fooled by Nader: he isn't so different from these other
guys running. He'll do anything to get ahead in some way, just like them,
including undermining Gore and his campaign. Afterall, he *is* a politician.
Nader's appeal to progressive-minded,  well-educated, disenfranchized liberals
is manipulative and misleading; it will make a difference, one very big
difference, if Bush gets in. This is so obvious and the appeal to 60s nostalgia
so pathetic and wrong-headed  you'd think any toddler could point it out at a
distance. (And I used to really look up to Susan Sarandon); what we need is
pragmatism, not dreamy 60s revival idealism that will remain just that. One
thing that would help in this fight would be to face up to what a simplistic,
right-leaning, puritanical culture this really is; the dream of Nader is
exciting, it's radical, but it's a dream. I don't buy that voting for him is an
expediant measure --not for an instant. As for *fear*: people are afraid of Gore
because he is intelligent, and an aristocrat (god-forbid) and therefore not one
of them. He represents a classic ego-threat to the American Puritanical
Everyman...

Keep the Republicans OUT.
Just do it.
This is a crucial election.
Don't throw it away. Don't vote Nader.
Consolidate: vote Gore for all it's worth. Vote against Bush.

j. garnett
flaming liberal pragmatist

#  distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission
#  <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism,
#  collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets
#  more info: majordomo@bbs.thing.net and "info nettime-l" in the msg body
#  archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nettime@bbs.thing.net